Ashton Attzs: Artist & activist
Ashton Attzs © @ciaranframe_
INTRODUCTION
Ashton Attzs is a 22 year old queer, black, London based-artist. Their paintings and illustrations are a vehicle to empower the everyday person. From the dreamy blues, to the cotton-candy pinks popping against their charmingly distinctive, racially and gender-diverse animated characters. Their work is bold, joyful and unapologetic both in style and message.
To date, Attzs has been commissioned by the likes of Instagram, Tate, Tottenham Hotspur FC and Universal Music to name but a few.
In 2018, Attzs won the coveted Evening Standard Art Prize: for their painting of transgender swimmers, “Don’t Stay In Ya Lane”.
You’ve created a really unique and recognisable brand within your artistic style, which we love. How did you find that style?
I found my style around three years ago, back in 2017, and it was somewhat accidental, in the sense that, I didn’t really have an image of what I wanted to do, it was more that I’d been making work a few years before at school that was very different.
It addressed a lot of socio-political themes, but the aesthetics of it were definitely a little bit more...I suppose more dark, or a little bit more representative or realistic. So, it didn’t evoke the same amount of joy. And I really just found my style by simplifying everything that I'd once learnt from art school, simplifying the elements I was looking at, so body proportions, focusing more on colour and shape and just really bringing everything back to basics.
And yeah! It just happened, I was just sitting in my flat doodling and I kind of came up with the character which is now recognisable through all of the people that I paint today. I designed that little iconic character and from there I just started developing the world that I have today.
How did you know that style was ‘the one’?
I think I just knew it was the one from the initial reception that it had. People liked it, a lot of people said it made them happy and feel joyful which is what I was hoping it would do. And very quickly my life kind of escalated from doing exhibitions to gaining commissions with lots of brands, so I guess everything just happened quite naturally.
What does collaboration mean to you?
Collaboration is definitely a really valuable process. I think that it’s something that I’d actually love to do more of! I had my first official big collaboration back at the beginning of the year for the BRITS. I worked with Universal Music to produce visual material for the BRIT Awards. So, that involved invitations for the guests, artwork for the afterparty photos and the prints that were gifted to Universal’s nominees. It was a very exciting process, but something that I'd never really done much of before. You have to consider someone else's way of creating and it forces you to think outside the box.
© Ashton Attzs ‘Turn Heads and Turntables’ for Universal Music UK
As an illustrator, painter, bassist and spoken word artist...do you think young creatives need to be skilled across a spectrum of disciplines to be successful?
I think everyone’s different. It’s like that saying: “Jack of all trades, master of none!” The point being you can be good at lots of things or you could be brilliant at one thing, so I think it depends what you value. I’m someone who’s always really appreciated being quite diverse in my skillset, or being able to express myself in different disciplines. So that’s something that i’ve always cherished and liked to embrace, but I think everyone’s different!
I don’t think there’s a particular way that people should be. Some young creatives may just be particularly competent in one area, which is extremely valuable in industry. But I would say that it’s good to keep an open mind to change because I think the society that we live in is very fast-moving and there’s just so many different avenues for people to go down, it’s often good to keep yourself open and to I guess keep yourself stimulated and learning new things, so that’s something that i’d always make sure that I’m doing.
There are prominent political themes throughout your work, do you think it's important for creatives to voice their opinions when it comes to these topics? Have you ever felt uncomfortable voicing your opinion?
I would say that, as creatives we’ve got a platform essentially to make beautiful work and make work that attracts people, so why not have that work say something at the same time. Aesthetics are valuable and how something looks can really impact how someone understands your message, but the concept or the issues that you’re trying to tackle, or whatever it is you’re trying to say, should be something that is held just as important as the aesthetics themselves.
“Aesthetics are valuable and how something looks can really impact how someone understands your message, but the concept or the issues that you’re trying to tackle, or whatever it is you’re trying to say, should be something that is held just as important as the aesthetics themselves.”
I've always been very headstrong about my motives and my objectives. When it comes to working with clients or brands at the end of the day if they don’t align with my values and my own beliefs then it’s something I’m just going to have to let go, because no matter how good the pay is or how good the exposure is, if there’s a conflict in what I believe in, then it’s not important.
My work and my values and the people that I try to represent - LGBTQ+ people, black people, people of colour, disabled people, all the underrepresented, uncelebrated people that I make work about...they come first more than anything, so no i’ve never felt uncomfortable.
© Ashton Attzs for Brown Belt Band
In 2018 you won The Evening Standard Art Prize for ‘Don’t Stay In Ya Lane’, which is an incredible achievement and one we’re sure you’ll remember forever. Could you tell us a bit more about that project?
That was a national competition, in The Evening Standard newspaper, which is a free newspaper given out in London. I saw the advertisement and I just thought “why not! Let’s give it a go!”. It was an open call to submit work for the competition and the winner would receive £10,000, but the theme of the competition was ‘Progress’ so whatever you submitted, in whatever format, it just had to represent progress and you could interpret that how you liked.
So I just sent off the work, and there was a longlist, then a shortlist and then all the people who were shortlisted were invited to attend the ceremony where the winner would be announced at the National Gallery...and that person happened to be me! Which was an unbelievable moment and one of the proudest things i've ever done in my life, I’m very very proud to this day.
The painting I did was called ‘Don’t Stay In Ya Lane’ and it was a painting that celebrates everyone in life and acknowledges the journey we all have to take, to get to a place where we are happy and we feel complete. But it acknowledges that struggle and that determination and commitment to the process to get there.
So progress for me, was something that I wanted everyone who saw the painting to relate to, but it particularly spoke to what I called ‘The Everyday Swimmers’. People that are always striving, but maybe they’re not quite getting to where they want to be, particularly in a political context. So that was my way of celebrating trans people and particularly trans-masculine people for whom swimming as an activity can feel quite unachievable. Swimming can evoke a lot of dysphoria or discomfort in your body or your gender, so creating a piece of artwork that was so unapologetically trans and queer and showed all these people not staying in their lane, stretching out and being who they want to be, was something very very special and important.
© Ashton Attzs ‘Don’t Stay In Ya Lane’
Do you think awards and ‘Ones To Watch’ lists help to motivate the creative community? What advice would you give someone who perhaps isn’t gaining any recognition through these formats?
I think this is a really good question and as someone who is on Instagram, I see a lot of people with different amounts of followers and opportunities that they’ve had so far and the things is, as we know, it’s not always about talent or how good you are, it’s who you know, not what you know.
For me, that hasn’t been the case. In my family, nobody’s an artist, we’re just working class people, I didn’t know anyone going into the art world. I started making my work and just from posting it on Instagram I was invited to be a part of an exhibition and from there it just grew.
I study at a university called CSM which is a very recognisable and celebrated institution, but I can safely say that it hasn’t given me any opportunities. You can’t depend on people, places or awards to bring you success. I think it’s more about creating your own space where you can be recognised. That might sound impossible but if you keep up the momentum, regardless of engagement - it will come, I truly do believe that.
“People will always have their opinions, but it’s an opinion, not fact. Someone may dislike what you’re doing but there will be a tonne more people who love what you’re doing.”
What would you say to someone who is worried about sharing their work for fear of judgement or failure?
I think whenever you put something out, whatever that is - music, art, anything, there will always be people who don’t like your work. But you can’t let them determine what you’re going to do next. People will always have their opinions, but it’s an opinion, not fact. Someone may dislike what you’re doing but there will be a tonne more people who love what you’re doing.
Judgement can be a good thing, and you may be able to learn from criticism and actually take it on board, but don’t take it to heart and don’t internalise it either. I think when it comes to failure you are going to have ups and downs, we all have them. One thing I like to tell myself is “Life is a long time. Sometimes it’s sunshine and rainbows but sometimes it’s not. Just keep your head in the game.”
Recommended listening:
Creative Champs by Kei Maye
Follow Ashton
Instagram: @attzs_
Ashton’s band: @brownbeltband
If you’d like to reach out to Ashton, drop them a DM on Instagram: @attzs_
