Ashlyn Pope holds a BFA in Ceramics and Printmaking from Kennesaw State University. She recently graduated with her MFA in Ceramics from Pennsylvania State University. Ashlyn is inspired to serve in her community as a champion for diversity by serving on the board for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts as a Student Director at Large. Ashlyn mainly works with ceramics and textiles to create work rooted in personal experiences as a survivor of abuse living in a female Black body. The American system is one of constriction, for her body and for those who look like her. Through her eyes, spaces are both restricting and binding, yet they also contain hope, strength, and power. Ashlyn uses her work to address how bound or boundless we are.