Ashley Childs ’04

From the Darkroom to the Light 

Landmark College gave Ashley Childs ’04 the freedom to be herself.

By Chris Lenois

It was several years ago now, but Ashley Childs ’04 still gushes over first seeing what the College’s darkroom had become since she was a student.

“It was so dreamy! I wish I had all that fancy stuff,” says Ashley. During that same visit, her former photography professor, Tom Kosiba, also showed her some of the work she did as a student, including self-portraits and images from her trip to Antarctica. “I dove into Landmark College’s darkroom like nobody’s business,” Ashley recalls, adding that Kosiba (now retired) is among several faculty members and fellow students with whom she continues to share a bond.

Ashley’s artistic endeavors have been many since earning her associate degree at Landmark College, but it’s not surprising that one as technical as photography was one of her first passions. She describes herself as the type of child who would take apart the TV remote control to see how it worked. “It’s a discovery process when you break something apart; whether it’s yourself or something tangible.”

That curiosity was nourished by a high school art teacher who Ashley says had a knack for nurturing the creativity of students who learned differently. “He knew we were creative and he let us do our thing without putting a fence around us,” she says.

After high school, Ashley waited three years before thinking about college. When she found out about Landmark College, she recognized it as a place that could help her learn how to learn. “People with learning differences, we need a lot of space, we need a lot of time, and we need a lot of colored highlighters,” Ashley says.

Her newfound understanding of how she learned and her degree from Landmark College opened the door for her to pursue her bachelor’s degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she expanded her historical and conceptual knowledge of art, and explored additional “kinesthetic tangible art forms,” including bronze casting, light metal casting, woodworking, interior architecture,
pottery, and jewelry-making.

Ashley says her eye for detail made jewelry-making the best choice for her professional direction. But after 14 years, she recently closed her jewelery-making business, saying simply that it no longer made her happy. “Being an artist is becoming more about business and branding. I just wanted to make beautiful shapes and beautiful forms,” she explains.

Based in Los Angeles, Ashley is happy earning income as a freelance web designer and exploring the art of blacksmithing. The mix of physical exertion and technical precision required to use the tools appeals to her artistic sensibility. She is involved with a blacksmithing group that works with veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder, which has helped kindle an interest in psychology.

If she decides to pursue studies in that field, it will, of course, be on her terms. “I’m never going to do it the way everybody else is doing it,” Ashley says. “Landmark helped me say, ‘Good, you don’t need to do it like everybody else, and here are some tools that will catapult you in the right direction.’”