Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/h.ashcraftfineart/
Website: https://www.haileyashcraft.com/
Biography
Hailey Ashcraft-Fimiani is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores the intersections of psychology, identity, and human experience. She holds a BFA in Photography from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, an MFA in Film, Video, and Performance from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and an MA in Counseling Psychology from The Wright Institute in Berkeley.
Drawing from her diverse background in mental health, hospitality, and the arts, Hailey creates work that examines themes of displacement, trauma, and connection through photography, film, and performance. Her practice is rooted in empathy and the exploration of how art can serve as both a mirror and a means of healing.
In addition to her studio practice, Hailey teaches photography and psychology at San Joaquin Delta College and directs Odyssey Art Collective and Gallery in San Francisco’s Union Square — a space dedicated to showcasing contemporary art and fostering creative community.
Artist Statement
As a multimedia artist, curator, and educator, my work reflects on what remains when home and community are torn apart. Through painting, photography, and video, I translate stories of displacement and survival into visual forms that hold space for dialogue, understanding, and healing. Grounded in my background in art and psychology, my creative practice is an act of deep listening and layered observation — a way of witnessing both the visible scars of crisis and the quiet strength that binds us together. At its heart, my work is about love: the enduring bonds we carry, even when the ground shifts beneath us. It is about hope — the fragile but persistent belief that we can rebuild, reconnect, and find belonging, again and again.
Work Statement
Choreography of Exile is a painting from my series, Grand Kyiv Ballet, that investigates what happens when the places and communities we call home are ripped away — by war, natural disaster, or political upheaval. I work across painting, photography, and video to document and interpret the psychic and physical landscapes of displacement: what it means to lose a home, to rebuild identity far from where it began, and to find resilience in unfamiliar ground.
My background in both art and psychology grounds my practice in deep listening and layered observation. As an educator at a local college, where I teach photography and psychology, I remain dedicated to creating space for dialogue about how conflict, crisis, and migration shape the human mind and spirit.
Currently, I am curating an exhibition in San Francisco that brings together esteemed artists responding to these urgent themes of uprooting and survival. A central part of this project is my series about the Grand Kyiv Ballet, whose story embodies the tragedy and perseverance that define our times. When the war in Ukraine erupted, the dancers — on tour far from home — found themselves exiled overnight, unable to return to Kyiv. They resettled in Washington State, transforming a place of refuge into a new stage for their craft. They now tour to sustain their art form and support Ukraine, carrying with them a living testament to the endurance of culture and community in the face of unimaginable loss.
Through this work, I hope to illuminate not only the devastation of home turned to rubble, but the power of human beings to gather their fragments and dance again — to stand en pointe in the ashes and remind us that art is a shelter we can carry anywhere.
Choreography of Exile
acrylic on canvas
24 X 48
2025
$2,995