Bringing Art to Life: Troy Native Ashleigh Baker carves her creative path – The Troy Messenger

Troy native Ashleigh Baker’s love for art has turned into a career that she’s now exploring in multiple ways. 

Baker grew up in Troy and graduated from Pike Liberal Arts School before attending the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Early in her life, she fell in love with art and knew that’s what she wanted to pursue as a career.

“Since childhood I’ve really been into art,” she said. “I started taking it more seriously, and considering that it could be something I could do as a career, probably around 13 or 14 (years old). Savannah College of Art and Design was a big realization for me. Finding out that place existed was big, I knew from that age that’s where I wanted to go and that I wanted to pursue art.”

Troy’s Ashleigh Baker had her original art displayed in the Johnson Center for the Arts’ recent Saints and Sinners exhibition. (Josh Boutwell)

Baker first pursued 3-D animation in college before switching her degree to illustration. After graduating in 2023, Baker returned home to Troy and began teaching at Pike Liberal Arts School briefly before jumping back into the art world. Now, she’s a graphic designer at Sticky Frog in Troy. 

At Sticky Frog, Baker designs graphics for everything from T-Shirts to posters and pins but she’s also designed T-Shirts on her own, as well.

“I love it, I absolutely love it,” Baker said of seeing one of her designs on a shirt. “I always say there is nothing else I could see myself doing. Going through the entire process from ideation to seeing the physical, complete product is an insane feeling. It’s a feeling like no other.”

Baker recently also had her art displayed in the Saints and Sinners exhibition at the Johnson Center for the Arts in Troy. It was her first time ever displaying her art in an exhibit. 

“I had never really seen myself as going into the realm of presenting my work in an exhibition,” she said with a smile. “Being able to share that space with other artists in the community and just seeing how many amazing artists there are in this little town was absolutely wonderful.” 

Baker described challenging herself as one of her favorite parts of art. 

“My style is very graphic with lots of line art and I love to play around with colors,” she said. “I don’t like to do a lot of super blended shading, I like to mix colors just with drawing lines. So, I really like pushing boundaries and trying to test and see what I can do and if I can succeed and if not, keep trying until I do.” 

Baker said that she’s looking forward to expressing her art in physical forms more in the future.

“I love to explore new things and I’m thinking about other physical ways to put my art out there,” she said. “All of the work I do is pretty much digital but now I’m looking to do some engraving type of art on objects like mirrors.

“I’ve had a big interest in thrifting and I like the idea of taking thrifted mirrors and other objects and giving it new life.”

Baker said that she’s also excited about her career at Sticky Frog continuing to blossom.

“With Sticky Frog, graphic design is not something that I’m formally trained in,” she said. “Graphic design and illustration are two completely different fields and it’s been fun to learn more about that side of the creative world and mixing it in with what I already know.”

Baker’s art can be found online at, https://www.instagram.com/artbyashleighh.