Why You Don’t Want Instant Success
Ashley Longshore is a pop artist, entrepreneur and trailblazer in the art world. Refusing to give up 50% of her profits to galleries, Longshore built her career by forging personal relationships and grew her collector base with the help of social media. After years of heartache and hustle, it finally paid off. Ashley now boasts a loyal following on social media and has a devoted list of collectors including Wall Street’s elite and celebrities like Blake Lively, Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz. Her work ranges from $5,000 to $50,000 and sells within minutes of being shared on Instagram.
With an original style that mixes humor and beauty with her razor sharp assertions on pop culture, Longshore has been compared to Andy Warhol by Town & Country magazine, and designer brands like Veuve Clicquot and Clé de Peau have sought her out for creative partnerships. This is Longshore’s Mentoring Moment from our podcast, in her words condensed and edited:
Through very hard work, constantly pumping myself up and being kind to myself, I’ve reached so many of my goals. What is the next part of my journey?
I want to inspire others and show people this American dream. You can be an artist, business woman, venture capitalist or an incredible calligrapher. If you work hard enough, anything is possible. Through the connectivity of social media, meeting people and networking—that’s when this web of wonderment occurs.
That’s really where the magic is—in not always knowing exactly what your destiny might be, but by having that positive outlook on life, on business. By surrounding yourself with good and positive people, anything can happen. That’s exciting. It wouldn’t be fun if you knew everything that was going to happen.
Before I start my day, in my studio with my team, we always talk about infinite possibilities of the day. We all love Gucci so much right now. What if somebody from Alessandro Michele’s world, the creative director of Gucci, reached out to us? What if we got a global collaboration today? What if Beyoncé walked through the door? What if we sell all the artwork in here? Anything can happen. Having that positivity and embracing the unknown is really important in business.
I’m an artist who’s breaking the traditional artist system in that I’m not working with galleries because I don’t believe in giving up 50% to the galleries. Plus I want to know my business. I want to know my clientele. But breaking a tradition is filled with risks. Is it the easy way? No. It’s the harder way, but it’s the better way in the long run. It’s been hard, but now I’m at a place where I’m more comfortable.
Now when I have an outrageous idea, I have the capital to create it. If I want to go to Europe for a month and paint to be inspired, I can do that. That was my whole dream to begin with. It wasn’t to have a Rolls-Royce or the biggest house on the block. It was to be able to have the financial means to follow any creative instinct that I have, and that’s happening.