What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Ash Almonte’s journey to becoming a professional artist
• The importance of pursuing your passion and the challenges along the way 
• Almonte’s creative process and the inspiration behind her many series of paintings

“I love life and I am constantly finding my inspiration in living it,” writes multimedia Austin-based artist Ash Almonte on her website. “Inspired” is an excellent way to describe Almonte’s stunning work. She works in series, starting with an expressive intention and using vibrant colors, mixed media, and hidden detail to create stunning and moving pieces that work together like chapters in a book. 

Growing up in a small town in west Texas that valued athletics over art, Almonte always felt called to be an artist even though she had never met one in real life. A high school art teacher recognized and supported Almonte’s talent, dedication, and hard work and entered her into a state-wide art competition. This was a pivotal moment for Almonte, who explains that “sharing the heart behind [her] art” with judges solidified her passion and drive to be an artist. 

She was studying art in college and keeping a day job at a bank as a security blanket when she suffered a spontaneous lung complication that sent her to the hospital. Almonte underwent emergency surgery and realized during her recovery period that life is fragile, and the security she thought she had in her day job was just an illusion. 

“I laid in the hospital and thought about a lot of things,” Almonte explains, but she didn’t think once about her job at the bank – “I thought about how I wanted to make art.” This sobering experience prompted her to take a leap of faith and pursue art professionally, full-time. Ultimately she realizes this was probably best for everyone, laughing, “Can you imagine having an artist wait on you at the bank? How painful.” 

The hardest part of her transition to full-time artistry was handling the business aspect of things, which Almonte explains is outside of her comfort zone. She warns artists that there are a lot of “little growing pains” during the professional transition and encourages them to find a mentor who can help them navigate the process, saying that finding her own mentor was “one of the best things that happened to me.” 

“I challenge myself to be innovative,” Almonte says when prompted to describe her artwork. She explains that she is always trying to improve and elevate her artistry, working to push the boundaries of the medium while creating something beautiful and meaningful. 

Almonte’s work can be found in galleries across the country and on her website. Listen to the full episode to hear more about what inspires Almonte’s work, her creative process, and the tips on how to combine your passion with your profession. 

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share with a fellow entrepreneurial friend!

Masters and Founders is a founding_media podcast created in collaboration with foundingAustin.

Host: Dan Dillard

Guest: Ash Almonte

Find Ash’s artwork on Instagram!

Transcript:

hello everyone today on masters and founders were gonna dig into life and art of ash el Monte actually local artists here in Austin and she is deep Texas roots Asha has a great note on her website about her mission as an artist and I think he would ring true to some of you listeners of all the show ash says it is my mission to create works of art that are real raw and filled with passion and love inspiring others one painting at a time I know that’s been worse we are all seeking our passions and ash is a beautiful way of expressing hers she’s had a fascinating journey Lester

hi and welcome to a masters in founders podcast brought to you by found in Austin before you started I want to thank our sponsors we will start with Waterloo sparking water kind bar tiny coffee house coffee still Austin whiskey company and of course Russell collection fine art gallery that we’re doing this St very very ungrateful stroller sponsors today we have a special guest actual amount to use a local artist would talk about art up are the masters and founders of purpose is to inspire others and so we’re still trying to have you here and talk about art thank you thank you for having me so as we were talking a few minutes ago the whole purpose is really to understand has the people have paid for themselves and how the folder on passion and kind of not going the traditional nine to five job and you know following what I call the safe route was thought to be the safe route in really just saying no I’m gonna follow my passion increase my income and see my family the from what is coming out of my heart and so what I want to get to let’s talk about what you do now what kind of are either so I do mixed media paintings I do have a subject matter so the representational I have one behind me here I work with lots of peacocks looks as you know we years but I create mixed media paintings and my work is represented through galleries when did you get started when was the first idea that you picked the wrong the first time you printable paint brush or whatever form of business use

I mean I can think back to when I was a little girl I grew up in West Texas in a very small town graduated with thirty I went I grew up in Abilene and I would you know avalanche so I I went to an elementary school outside of family name in Holly Holly taxes very small so for me for me as a child artists were in books you would read stories about artists I didn’t know any artists I didn’t know any museums I didn’t know any galleries so for me to see an artist it was like seeing a rock star you know so as a little kid that C. got planted I can remember other kids wanted to be firefighters and policemen and I wanted to be an artist it was just just dream world you know so I can remember being a little girl that that’s what I wanted to do and so what what was the first time that you’re took steps toward this is one thing the dream I was going to be a fireman and then the light will things change as a kid but then there’s one point we like I’m gonna start practicing in high school I had an art teacher who really took me under her wing we’re we became best friends and she saw something in me and I think that would be just the dedication and hard work and she really I guess help me believe that that could be a reality you could go to college for art and you could become a professional in the industry is starting to come more reality in high school in our in our began competing in art shows like I was an act I was very athletic but my heart was in art it was very strange because in West Texas you’re like it’s all athletic you know so I had this kind of like with a the spores us off on basketball but I also had this like I don’t is a geeky but a lot of the athletes thought it was kind of geeky my my love for art he is so that side started outgrowing the athletic side of me if that makes sense so high school would be when I really maybe I can do this the pressure started yeah yeah I think I think this is what I meant to do at that point what will your first steps like what were you so you started drawing and doing different things mean painting over the first things started to Twitter’s I gosh I’ve always been a painter lots of paintings I was really still challenging myself in the medium just making a lot of work mostly painting drawing I think drawing isn’t a skill that really helps you as an artist even if you’re a painter so I started drawing a lot in in high school there was an art competition that she got me into called base the state wide competition and what it does is it allows students to talk about their work this was huge ed to grow as an artist you go to the art show and you have to sit with the judge you have to explain to them the piece that you may you have to give them a statically what are some things that worked really well in that piece balance color whatever

but I think the part that really really helped me as an artist you also had to explain why you created this piece what did it mean to you what were you trying to express so I started learning the heart behind my are in sharing that with people just in those little high school art competitions I think as an artist is really hard to talk about your work and that kind of put me on to start like understanding people want to hear about this I like I’m may create a peacock for rejuvenation and start a new year and a new life but maybe the viewer doesn’t know why I created peacock and maybe for them there is a new year or a new life for something to happen to them that inspires them or touches them in so going to that competition it just planted this little seed that maybe the work is deeper than the surface and people want to hear about that and so it helped me to kind of began to speak a little bit if that makes sense to be through your yeah and explain why I may have created this and do you know before you start a project what you’re creating you have aren’t idea already headed is just gone hello I am I do have an idea in my head I kind of break it up in a sense of our work in series so the Syrians is like a book and each piece is like a chapter so I know I’m gonna make a series of chandelier paintings and I know I want the chandeliers to express love and light in inspiration and I know in my head I want some one to have a blue town and I know that I want one that’s emerald green and I know that I want one that has a lot to read so I kind of see a whole body of work and then I break it down to each piece and I want to go to that piece I have the intention of having some deep breads and maybe there’s a certain quote that really touched me and I want to put that in the background of it but then I kind of play off of it and like the painting form itself at the end a little bit of attention that I have as I began right what kind of people that make sense yeah that makes complete sense going back to high school in the the things we talked about a second ago starting now at what point did you decide I am we’ll make money off of this versus just because there’s there’s there’s a transition right is the passion of art as a hobby verses actually becoming an artist as he’d artists and you support family in that kind of thing does that that remember the time

yes I remember that day I was working at RT hi I’m trying to think graduated college yet no I had not gone to college for art yet I just graduated high school couple years out when I was working at a bank as a teller and I was doing or on the site an and I had what they call a spontaneous pneumothorax which is just for your long cool coincidently collapses you get a little tear in it well so I went no I was in college for art in working and because I was at college and I went to the nurse for chest pain and I had had she sent me to the ER and I went to the ER and they called my husband in send you may want to get down here we believe your wife has a blood clot in her long and we’re going to take on the surgery I ended up having a tear in my long and I was in the hospital for four days and I had a chance to put in and the long will heal itself I was twenty two well I wasn’t dying but in my head I was dying like my whole life flight right I never really had anything happen to me and it was so sudden and it was so I’m familiar I hadn’t heard of any long issues so I lean hostile not thought about a lot of things and I never once thought about my job at the bank I never once thought about buying make up or hair product or going to dinner I thought about how we need to be outside being cooped up in the hospital want to be outside and I wanted to make art and I realized how fragile life is it just became very real I’m I’m yeah I can it was very real to me and that it’s a reality yeah and I decided no more so my husband super supportive I saw the bank thank you in the story took a ride less so often it is those life changing events that make you really re think me we have the option everyone out there has an option to do what ever they want to do

we’ve heard this from where we were really small so if you can be whatever you set your mind to move things always sat yeah but in the same time it’s there’s also going to college and do this and there’s all the society saying something right and if a little safer path working for a nine to five job but it’s moments like that where you realize how short life is and how fragile it is where you get to reflect on sale I better do what I want to do so it sounds like it was in the in the ultimate moment for you in a game changer for the rest of your life yeah and to think like security security if you we are its soul it’s not real it’s not real you just can’t control it right you know I will share was shared before this podcast with the audience in eighteen years of wealth management this is the reason I started the magazine counting Austin’s the reason I started this podcast is because making years I’ve seen thousands of people our clients to come through the office they’re saving for college and for the kids college in there you know pushing his to make decisions and then in the inning up with ninety percent of kids don’t use that degree but then that the falsehood continues because you get that one nine to five job and you think you’ve got didn’t complain job you get a house you more debts also for ten years down the road that job gets yanked out because so the corporation to make a quarterly number and so then you realize that all that time security was faults yeah right where I appreciate masters and founders of artists and if people actually take this from the very get go is yes you eat Roman noodles for five years and you face this this deal in the face you face it directly as okay yachts Unisphere there because you know who knows how how this will turn out but you face it and there’s no false sense of security you can make it happen within through downturns in the economy incorporation of making their corridos whatever doesn’t matter because you’re you’re doing your own thing so I value that so much and that’s the story that I want to show through the stores like yours

yeah in for me I remember in my head thinking okay aspen forty hours a week at this job that’s like a lot of my life I basically only enjoys Saturday and Sunday how lame is that you know what I mean like I don’t know how long I’m gonna live I’m dealing with the very for the reality that my life is fragile in I’m gonna only enjoy Saturday and Sunday like what am I doing you know this call the other day that his mom because all the time and just loved one was if you’re not spending the time building your dream spins your billing this for someone else so that when you say you within forty hours just like that’s for somebody else somebody else that banking is doing their thing that was surgery yeah and so we can either be building our own following operational mark do nothing or doing personals it is we are doing but is it for so it’s really cool and and I mean think about can you imagine have an artist wait on you at the bank how painful I mean I mean well the site you know it just was I wasn’t it just was on I was called to do so even when you do go down this path obviously there’s challenges right this was like on the side of the list of charges is the attitude all that long can you talk about some of the things that you went through you’re learning you know as you’re learning to become a professional artist and napa all yeah and we’ll I was in my twenties I and so I was very naive I had this idea that if I painted the paintings I could set them outside and somebody would buy them I don’t know there’s this whole like relational aspects of having to speak with people and learn I guess proper business if you will or how to build relationships I thought walking the paintings and the money will come because I did my part so no of course there were the financial sacrifices you know that I think almost all entrepreneurs go through us it’s a game of I have to sell this painting and if I don’t I don’t pay my rent I mean

but I think the the struggle was pulling myself out of my comfort zone as an artist wanting to not really wanting to the network and I say not wanting to I don’t think it’s in my nature I’m more of an introvert and so I had to go as an uncomfortable what what as it is in network or speak with people or tell people about my work I think for a lot of people maybe that doesn’t sound like a big deal but for artist it’s really challenging it is really challenging and and it’s almost like a muscle that if you don’t exercise it you won’t build and you won’t use I mean I can remember walking into places and be just terrified and my husband would talk to everybody in the room and have a great time and for me it was like oh my god this is so exhausting and it was a big challenge I had to overcome just building relationships and speaking about my work and putting myself out there any putting your work out there allowing people to give feedback and criticism and not taken that so harshly and adapting in making my work better based on what I was being given feedback winds and you know what’s a little growing pains because at first you want to get your feelings hurt right when you make something you put it out there and doesn’t it not that doesn’t get well received but there’s criticism use one running and hiding the whole I think I mean it’s easier what’s instead to go okay you know I can see what they’re saying maybe that campus was instructions that well or maybe you know I should have done this a little better maybe you know I mean yeah I think just putting myself out there was very hard at first

multiple things come across with with with a drink Susan is it sometimes and I find that happens a lot as you have this this this image in your hat that this is going to happen but then there is a ton of bricks to make that wall and it is just learning this process is not not unlike what you describe the process of creating art which is billion chapters and then when shepherds on making it happen I will talk about this piece of art that you’ve got here we need to talk about tell us what we’re looking at yes so this is a peacock and it is created with acrylic paint mixed media it has diamond us it also has some drawings in the background so when I’m known for is the drawings in the background people like that you can have an image of clothes but whenever you look in the background you can find different things like yours in a figure and she has a wings angel wings and appears a chandelier something that’s really cool about this piece is the fig pieces of paint you see they’re actually dried up pieces from my palate so it’s I think that I’ve used for other paintings if that makes sense I’m Killin often I glued on and that’s another thing as an artist I like to challenge myself to be a guest and invaded the few well but challenge myself with mediums to not only create something that is beautiful but how did it challenge the medium and what traditional an instance of using it as an artist like how can I push myself and you know just to fill up little pieces of dried paint and then try to create something with it it’s complicated but it’s a I I really want to push myself to be more innovative and and and the contemporary art industry if that makes sense yes it does not so beautiful please I really admire the details are going to want you to share forms for sure it’s gorgeous question regarding family so you had you you’re married and and now to kids yes almost all the names I have Emma who is two and Henry who is one the paint brushes yet yes yes yes and you can pay over the house I’m sure

yes yes and it’s really hard for them to understand they can paint well Emma mostly camping on her campus but not mine yeah attention so it’s off limits yeah but they’re great for something to contribute sure yes yes is there anything else you’d like to share about how to get in contact with you and where your art is and so some support what is for your I disclaim are here at the rest of collection I’m represented by the Russell collection in miss Lisa wrestle herself represents me so you can also find my work in California in Los Angeles at artspace warehouse and safety harbor Florida sit Intel galleries and safety harbor Florida in a couple others primarily here Russell collection that takes me to one more question yes you went from following your passion we got that part of the story within the skin someone to represent you what was that like wow what was that like that was block divine intervention I brought my pieces N. as artists do not well prepared in Lisa Russell well I’ll take a step back I was emailing galleries I was wanting to get in the galleries but I didn’t know how in I had even Lisa had scene one of my emails and said she wanted to see my work and so I brought it in and find intervention a gentleman happened to be here looking at our and he wanted to purchase one as I was unloading it well I now and I thought he works here and he thought I work here and so I went and found Lisa in we shook hands we sold a painting and she represented me that day

awesome so I’ll tell you this she has mentored me tremendously and I think if any artist is fortunate enough to have a mentor in business it’s one of the best things that can ever happen to them I’m Lisa has done that for me and I’m so thankful in a and yeah that would be my advice to artists is get a business mentor I love it love it and with that we’ll we’ll wrap this up I certainly thank you for your time ash and we’ve given the website will be hopefully more people come look at your stuff is it’s beautiful stuff thank you keep it up thank you for thank you S. restrain your process and art with all of us the masters in Vandersteen includes me damn Dillard producer Mariah gossip and audio engineer Jake Wallace thank you to the entire crew it found in Austin for your support are you a member of our Facebook group check it out the link is in the show notes as always if you like the show maybe Sir this week with a friend or coworker you can also leave us a review on I tunes to help other folks find the show we will be back next week thanks for listening