Ashtin McNicoll

Hometown: Sun, Louisiana

Age: 27

Artistry: Painting and illustration

Online: iammadetopaint.com, @iammadetopaint and @lightscamera_ashtin on Instagram

Nothing really is wide awake at 3 a.m. except survivor’s guilt. But on a sleepless night just days after returning from a mission trip to Kenya where her cousin died of a blood clot, Ashtin McNicoll could think of nothing to do but start painting everything in her camera roll. Close to graduating, and close to walking down the aisle, she’d almost given up art. She remembers one LSU instructor unkindly comparing her work to a storybook for kindergarteners.

But exploring her folksy ink-on-paint aesthetic helped her grieve that great loss, and now it’s giving Baton Rouge a facelift with the artist’s colorful, unpretentious renderings of the city’s cultural hotspots and hangouts.

“You can tie all kinds of emotional connections to these buildings surrounding us,” McNicoll says. “And the images become more valuable over time, because we continue to build memories in these places.”

Instilling a pride of place in the Capital City has often been a challenge for Baton Rouge culture creators, and yet McNicolls’ illustrated paintings take significant strides in that same marathon. Whether it’s her take on the Spanish Town Parade or the Red Stick Farmer’s Market or kitschy collages of popular pizza joints and coffee shops, the message is strong: daily life, and the places we spend it in, is desperately important.

A natural documentarian, McNicoll always took the historian role in any club as a kid, and she made money in high school taking portraits. Now married and a mother of two boys, she’s working on a Garden District piece in honor of the long walks she takes with her dog and a shimmery painting of the Golden Band from Tigerland.

“I really have 20 tabs open in my head at all times, things I want to get to work on. I have so much inspiration around me, but life’s to-do list varies,” McNicoll says. “And there’s so much that goes into the business side of selling art, too.”

The artist suggests first attending a workshop—she herself hosts classes through The Hope Shop—for those interested in exploring their creativity.

“There’s no way to do it wrong, but at a workshop, they’ll geek out as much as you do,” she says. “You’ll get answers to all the questions you were too afraid to ask, and they’ll make you comfortable enough to go home and keep creating yourself.”

 

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Made to Paint✨ (@iammadetopaint) • Instagram photos and videos

Marketed under the name I Am Made to Paint, McNicolls’ deeply spiritual original works and prints are available at Brass downtown and Local Supply in Mid City. But most of her business is custom work through commissioned portraits of pets and loved ones, present or passed.

“I’m familiar with that grief,” McNicoll says. “And that’s what makes my job so special, knowing that God trusts me to take care of the special things for His people.”