Carly Ashdown

Carly was born with Cerebral Palsy and grew up in the 1980s, during an era when able-bodied and disabled people were mostly segregated. For a large part of her upbringing, she felt as if society wasn’t designed for people like her. After leaving University with a 2:1, Carly entered into TV Post-Production at a time when the term ‘reasonable adjustment’ didn’t exist. Despite this, she still managed to carve out a successful career within the TV industry, working for organisations such as the BBC and Channel 4.

However, in 2010, without any technical skills, she quit her job and devoted herself to becoming a full-time visual artist. It was considered a strange choice, but so far, it has been a successful one, as Carly’s paintings sell all around the world.

She has always been very interested in understanding the human condition - in all its myriad of expressions. Driven by this desire to understand, she also spent several years training in psychoanalytic therapy at the Tavistock. Not to become a therapist, simply to keep learning.

Her ongoing enquiry into life maintains her curiosity, yet she now sees the value in recognising the obstacles she’s faced to help improve the lives of other disabled people.