Ashli Harper graduated from Durant High School in 2006. She earned a degree in Criminal Justice, then worked at a juvenile detention center for several years. Then she felt like she wanted to try something different, so she became a flight attendant as a step to a new career as a commercial pilot, Her employer at the time offered a program in which Harper could continue to work while being trained as a pilot. And she did work her way to becoming a commercial pilot. but, “I was furloughed during the pandemic,” she said. “So, being a person who was used to being out and about, doing things in isolation kind of got to me. Then, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I was trying to figure out how I could manage all the emotions I was experiencing…. It seemed like nothing was going right. “I spent a couple of days wallowing, but then I told myself, ‘Alright—cancer is not an automatic death sentence. We can fight this.”
Harper drew pencil sketches as a teenager, which calmed her mind. So, she returned to art. “I got my first acrylic paint set,” she said. “It just kind of blossomed from there. I enjoyed it, and it quieted my mind. Then I started trying different mediums. I just kept building and building, and that is how I got here. It was a way to find some sort of peace. Art was the best way I could express my emotions in a fulfilling way. It became my outlet. I love seeing a blank canvas, then seeing what it turns into. It never ends up the way I want it to, but still I really enjoy the process. It makes me slow down, gather up whatever is inside, then get it out. It gives me a way to connect with others without having to speak. I would hope they could get a glimpse of what I am feeling or thinking by viewing my art.”
Her work, “The Fight” is a product of what she was feeling at that time. “It is odd, because once I finished that painting, I couldn’t even stand to look at it for so long,” Harper said.
In 2023, Harper began to take painting seriously. That October, she looked into upcoming art shows, and came across the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts. She had just a few days to apply to be recognized as an emerging artist before the application site closed. “I applied on a whim thinking, ‘Well, at least I have the experience of knowing what the application looks like.’ I did not think I would be chosen, because they choose, maybe 10 out of the hundreds that apply to be emerging artists. And they selected me.” At the March 2024 festival, people bought all of the pieces Harper took to the show. “I was so overwhelmed with happiness,” she said. “So, when the applications went out for the 2025 regular show, not the emerging artists portion, I said, ‘I’m going to try it again—to be amongst the other artists that have been doing this for a long time, just to see how it works out.’ I don’t know why, but The Fight was my application. That is the one they picked as the featured image. To go from something I couldn’t even look at, to seeing it everywhere and being proud—how can you go from being an emerging artist to being the featured artist in a year’s time? It was amazing again.” When Harper went to the Festival, she saw The Fight on the artist transportation vans, on tee-shirts, on a large banner, and on a huge banner on the Riverwalk — they were all over the place. Several of her fans approached her to tell stories of their battles with cancer. “To hear how much the image impacted them was the most rewarding part for me,” Harper said. “Because sometimes you feel like your art is not quite good enough. Then, when I talked to the other artists there I asked them, ‘Do you ever feel like the art is complete, or good enough?’ The overwhelming majority said, ‘Absolutely not.’ So, I can keep going, even if I don’t feel like it is good enough….This year what people got out of the art—how they interpreted it—most of them were spot on. So, most of them can see, or feel, what I have felt.”
Harper isn’t clear in what direction her art will lead her, but she wants to take it as far as it goes. She has been experimenting with other mediums, but thinks acrylics will be her ongoing paint of choice. She has gotten offers to display in some galleries, and has been looking into that option. “I would like to try galleries, museums—I would love to take that avenue,” she said. Currently, she has sold all of her paintings. Harper is in recovery from her illness. As a pilot, she flies Airbus A330s around the U.S. “When I come home I am most often painting,” she said. “It helps me decompress.”