Melody Ashley

Melody Ashley, Arkansas native, lives part time on the beautiful central Oregon coast. She volunteers at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport and makes custom water fountains. The rest of her time, when not traveling, she lives in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico.

Although Melody has a bachelors degree in Geography and a Masters in Ocean Studies, the arts seem to call her. May it be landscape or home design, metal or tile art, Melody has a knack for it.

In 1991, after graduate school, Melody started a landscape company in Fayetteville, Arkansas and this spurred her interest in garden art. Then from late 1998 through 2002, Melody designed metal garden art and furniture and had it made in Fayetteville, Arkansas and Guadalajara and San Felipe, Mexico. These deigns were displayed in show rooms in Dallas, Minneapolis, Seattle, Denver, Santa Fe, Taos and Atlanta. After too much time stuck in a warehouse shipping, she decided to scale back and make her art herself.

In San Felipe, Melody is much more active creatively. She builds homes out of old tires, landscapes their yards and makes lots of metal and tile art. All of her homes and gardens have been on the local AARP tour of homes. One of her homes was featured in Mexico Living in 2007 and one in Picture Yourself Here in 2003. She also creates fun metal and tile designs. Melody greatly appreciates all the wonderful friends and customers who have encouraged and supported her in her art.

In December, 2010 and the early months of 2011, Melody donated much of her time to Desert Mothers, teaching students how to cut garden and wall art out of metal with a plasma cutter. The money generated went to support single hispanic mothers in San Felipe. She also donated one large metal piece, for a raffle, to the local Lions Club, which raised over $2000.00 at the 2011 San Felipe Blues and Arts Festival.

In May of 2011, Melody also donated a custom water fountain for a raffle to Habitat for Humanity in Florence, Oregon, and a wall piece for display to Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

Melody, a strong advocate for recycling, built an imaginative tire home in San Felipe where she lives and teaches metal and mosaic tile art classes. In Mexico, her tire-built home is called Casa de Llantas.

She uses old discarded water pressure tanks and water heaters to make her custom lighted water fountains and scrap materials she finds at the dump to make what she calls junk art. She also purchases flat sheets of mild steel, tubing and pipe for many other projects.