About

I’m Ashley Long and I’m a creative.

And, by that I don’t mean I’m good at making pretty things off the cuff-sometimes, I’m not so great at that. What I mean when I say I’m a creative is that I believe our purpose here on this pretty blue ball is to create-from our desires, our imagination, our hearts and our souls.

What we live and experience is of our own creation and to me that is pretty awesome!

So, I must create and right now, I must tell stories.

Ash Joie Lee is a nick name and my pen name. I took a leap and jumped right into the creative fires full time back in 2005.
I quit my day job and made the decision to be a full time artist and writer.
While raising a family was my main job, I have worked as a fitness instructor, Art Gallery Manager, then launched my own art and decor business, which led me to realize that I wanted to be the one creating the art and decor.
Art, decor and writing has always been my passion. I’m also a collector of information. I love learning new things and have always been interested in the holistic self-actualization field.
Along my spiritual seeking path, I found myself drawn to a lot of esoteric studies and worked my way through clinical depression without medication by learning to go within, study my dreams, watch the signs around me and learn to listen to my intuition. I learned to stop taking myself so seriously and to take the time to play, to do what I love doing and to allow myself to be who I am.

Two years ago, my daughter came home with a bright neon pink flyer about a free creative writing workshop at the nearby Library. I joined her and we studied with McKenna Donovan, who in my opinion is an amazing instructor.

That re-opened my love of writing and after the two-week course was over, I pulled out a few chapters I had started fifteen years prior with characters that had been begging me to tell their story.

Since then I have been writing, studying the art and craft of writing and am part of a fabulous local writers group for women.

I write daily and I can NOT not write.

I hope this site can be a tool for creatives, a chance for me to meet and get to know other creatives and for exploring tools and resources that can aid all of us in our creative endeavors. The artist/writer life is fascinating, always surprising and full of mysterious twists and turns!

I live in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina, am happily married and share my studio with three assistants- two corgi/papilion mix rescue dogs and a crazy gray and white tabby cat.

You can contact me at: ash@ashjoielee.com

Happy Creating!