Ashley Caitlyn Torres was born in Dallas, TX in 1995. In 2008, she moved to Allen, TX, the place she refers to as her hometown. Throughout high school, she took AP Art and did some theatre here and there in her local area. However, her aspirations were set on pursuing a medical career. In 2013, she graduated from Allen High School and became part of the Rice University Class of 2017.

 

On January 2016, her life changed drastically and the curtains were opened to show the hidden truth about what she had been going through throughout college. She faced the end of an abusive relationship, finally spoke up about her rape freshman year, tried to take her own life, and left Rice University and came back home for the spring semester of her junior year. In March 2016, she was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder with Anxious Distress. In her fight to gain justice from the abuse she faced and recover, she steered back to her passion of art. During the abusive relationship, she somehow never seemed able to paint it. Come April 2016, she woke up from a dream and was inspired. She sat there for endless hours and finished a painting she had neglected for a year. Her passion grew and she couldn’t stop painting.

 

She used and uses art as a type of therapy. It helped her get through rough times and find her strength. She believes in breaking the mental stigma and inspiring people to always follow their heart. Starting in January 2016 and until September 2017, she worked at Painting With a Twist - Plano as an artist, where she gained many more skills through experience. She is a big fan of texture and as a poor college student, uses any materials she can get a hold of, from acrylic paint all the way to paper in her pieces.

 

In August 2017, she graduated from UNT as a Psychology and Theatre major. She has done many art shows, commission work, had her own solo art show this past August, and has her own mural in Deep Ellum on Main St. She plans to grow her art portfolio and hopes to expand her art and do more shows and gain a lot more experience. This is still just the beginning of her art career.

​

​

​

​