folkartwork

JAMES always wanted to be an art teacher. For various reasons, including addiction, his mental health, and living without internet in the Michigan woods, he never became an art teacher. So, he taught himself how to make art.

In 2021, James Ash passed away at the age of seventy-one. His daughter, Anna, had the task of cleaning out his cabin and deciding what to do with the two dozen large, colorful, surreal, and enigmatic paintings. 

“The death of an absent parent, and an addict parent, hits like a wind. You don’t fall over immediately – you just stand there, taking it. 

You knew it was coming. Eventually, it’s too cold or too strong or too full of sand for you to stand, but at first, it’s just wind, pushing you around and drying you out because it’s hard to miss what was never there.”

— excerpt from Anna Ash’s unpublished book “My Father’s Paintings”

It probably would have been pretty easy for Anna to throw them into the dumpster. No one else really wanted them. As she explains in her unpublished telling of her relationship with her father and his paintings, they had an up-and-down relationship throughout his life — as is all too common in families who experience addiction and mental health struggles. But there was something intimate about these paintings, something special that needed to be saved and shared with as many people as possible.

James Ash’s work was exhibited in the first ever FolkArtwork show, “Faces In The Crowd” in November 2024.

Learn more: The Artwork of James Ash, As Told By His Daughter Singer/Songwriter Anna Ash