Meet artist-athlete Abigail West. Abigail hails from Athens, Georgia, where the lush mountains and forests of rhododendrons infuse both her trail running adventures and her artwork. Abigail has collaborated with and designed pieces for several companies, including UltrAspire, Terignota, and the Trail Running Film Festival. She also designed a collaboration between Janji and Aravaipa Running that just debuted, and you can also check out her other work.
Abigail West running at the 2025 Canyons 100k. Photo: Kristen Nelson
In 2024, Abigail joined Tara Dower during her historic fastest-known-time run on the Appalachian Trail and designed a print with Tara to raise money for Hurricane Helene recovery efforts. When not making art, Abigail loves long days out on the trails and is currently prepping for her biggest adventure yet: becoming a mom. Here is Abigail West in her own words:
Who is Abigail West?
I call myself an artist-athlete, because both are really important in how I live my life, though I do put “artist” first in that configuration on purpose! I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember, whereas athletics came a little later, and art is a little more reliable in the sense that even when I’m injured, I can focus on my artwork.
I got into running after being a highly competitive rower in high school. I only got into that sport because I needed a physical education credit and found out I could be a good coxswain — the tiny person in charge. I fell in love with competitive sports, like finding a missing puzzle piece, and found out I made a pretty decent rower, too. We won the national championships my senior year, but I didn’t want to pursue college sports. I wanted to travel in college. I also liked running, and it’s a great way (perhaps even the best way) to see new places. I started running more here in Athens when I came here for college, and later found trail running through the local community, and haven’t looked back.
My husband, Michael Ross, is also an artist and runner, and he’s a big part of how I got into trail running and ultrarunning. I love getting out in the woods with him and our dog, Cider. I’m doing less of that right now, though, as I’m currently 37.5 weeks pregnant with our first child! I’m also a passionate representative of the U.S. Southeast. I love it here.
What is the connection for you between trail running and making art?
I love the balance between running and the kind of art I’m making now. A ton of my inspiration and imagery comes from what I see when I’m out running, especially from long adventures. Those long days outside open your heart up, and I try to capture that feeling as much as the landscapes we fall in love with. It’s also a nice balance from a day-to-day perspective: training part of the day and then being in the studio for the rest of the day.
Abigail West showing some of her brand collaborations. Photo courtesy of Abigail West.
What is your “why” for each of them?
Why I make art might be the more straightforward of the two. I’ve been doing it my whole life. I see things a certain way and feel a need to capture and express them. The medium is just a format. I haven’t always been a printmaker. In fact, before this, I was building metal furniture out of reclaimed materials. One of life’s biggest challenges, in my experience, is that you can’t do everything, so narrowing down to one medium allows you to go deeper and be more articulate in how you express your ideas. Printmaking is what gives me that right now, and I know I’m on the right path because I never run out of ideas, just time.
For running, when people ask me why I am so into it, I often explain that it’s a lifestyle. I love the training and how I structure my life around it. My husband, Michael, is a runner and artist, too. He understands and supports my drive to train, and while working out the logistics of life isn’t always easy, we are both motivated to be active and competitive in our own ways. And that’s the other part. I’m really competitive, and having athletics as a long-term pursuit gives me a great outlet for that part of myself.
What drew you to printmaking? Any other media you fancy?
I do a lot of art festivals, and talk to a lot of people at them, and often get asked how I got into printmaking. My answer is usually: good high school art teachers! I have so much respect and appreciation for art teachers; they are so important for fostering not just the next generation of artists, but also art appreciation in the general public. It’s good for everyone!
I reconnected with printmaking in college here at the University of Georgia, more as an approach to making than as the medium itself. It’s actually a lot like running. It’s very rooted in process, and there are many repetitive elements. I’m currently focused on relief printmaking, partially because it’s been the easiest form to set up a home studio around. I also love how printmaking is a democratic medium. I can make original artworks that are affordable to more people because I’m making originals in multiples. It means I have to reach a wider audience/have a higher volume of sales, but it’s super special to me how many people I can connect with through my work, especially given that we are connecting over our shared love of these landscapes.
I try to draw and paint watercolors when traveling. I used to do a lot more of that, so I’m always aspiring to be more diligent about it! We’re all works in progress.
Abigail West with one of her prints. Photo courtesy of Abigail West.
You seem drawn to landscapes and botanical prints. Are there any particular places that are your favorite?
I consider myself lucky to live on the edge of Southern Appalachia, and these mountains feel like the definition of home to me. I get to do most of my big training in the mountains of North Georgia and Western North Carolina, and I keep making prints of these scenes, with no plans of stopping! My favorite wildflower is probably the flame azalea, and I’m sad that my last reduction print of one is sold out — time to do another one!
I also love that I can capture the inspiration I feel in other places I travel to, which has led to fun race and brand collaborations. While I can’t fully soak up the details of the landscape while I’m in the midst of running a race, I like to go back out the following day, if I have time. Then I can walk (hobble) around, make a few sketches, and take reference photos. I can then combine that with the remembered feeling of traversing many miles on foot.
Art, like running, ebbs and flows. How do you stay motivated?
Just keep moving. It’s the same in both. Like in an ultra, when you want to stop or quit, you just have to keep going forward, and know it’ll eventually get better. In art, if I feel a lull in creative ideas, I’ll go through old notes or photos and remember an idea I had, and just get started on it, ideally without overthinking things.
I have this series of state flower prints, in part for this very reason. If I’m not sure what to work on next, I can do another state. It may not be the most fun of all the things I work on to go through all the steps of setting up a new state — I print these over old maps, so there’s a lot of formatting that goes into planning them — but it’s rewarding, and then I can reach new people!
Abigail West setting a new women’s supported fastest known time on the Georgia Loop in 2025. Photo: Pete Schreiner
If you could give any advice to your younger self, what would it be?
You know, I really wouldn’t change much about the path that I’ve taken to get where I am now — a path I feel I’m very much still actively on, by the way. I do not feel as if I have arrived at any particular destination, but rather that I have opened one door after another that has led me to what I am doing now. And I sure do feel like I’m still knocking on doors.
So keep knocking on lots of doors. If I played out a simulation of my life, I imagine different doors might have opened, and I would’ve gone through those and done something else that was also really exciting. But I wouldn’t change where I am now. I’m pretty excited for whatever is coming next.
Do you have any prints, art projects, or life goals that you are excited about?
This is the most exciting part! I’m about to have a baby! It feels like the biggest creative endeavor of our lives.
I also have a big creative collab project between Janji and Aravaipa Running launching right now. We first started talking about this project in 2024, almost two years ago! Apparel has a really long lead time. I made this artwork in direct collaboration with Janji, and its composition is intentionally structured to serve as a pattern for apparel. That was a fun, creative challenge I’d never worked with before. The colors of the apparel are pulled from a vintage geological map of Arizona that I found in the United States Geological Survey digital archives.
For so much of my work, I’m doing it all alone in my studio, so seeing this come to life through a creative collaboration is incredibly exciting to me! I was originally going to be at the full in-person launch at the Black Canyon Ultras, but that happens to fall almost exactly on my due date. I’m excited to witness it from afar while I work on my next big creative project here at home. Folks can view and purchase the apparel online from Janji, and the original block print (which is a limited run of just 80 prints) directly from my website.
Most of my brain cells are dedicated to the baby right now, as you can imagine, but I’m excited about the year we have mapped out ahead. I will be doing a couple of spring art festivals here in the Southeast, and then this summer, Michael will be teaching art in Italy, so we’ll be in Europe for two months with the baby. Hopefully, I’ll be getting back into training by then. I’ve been really fortunate to keep running a fair bit throughout this pregnancy, without too many major issues. I have this feeling in my bones that, as long as I’m smart in how I recover postpartum, I can come back stronger than ever before. That’s really exciting to me.
Abigail West and partner Michael Ross out on a run. Photo courtesy of Abigail West.
Who are your inspirations in art and running?
In running, right now, I’m tremendously inspired by women who are stronger than ever after having kids. To be transparent, I have no idea how it’s going to look balancing our art careers with my competitive running and having a child, but I do know that my life is pretty unconventional already, and I’m really excited to build something that works for us, because that’s how we’ve done everything up until this point. I take a lot of inspiration from other ultrarunning women who are crushing it with kids, and I love that there are too many to even name them all!
In art, I’m often inspired by other “working artists.” I travel around on the art festival circuit a fair bit, and I love meeting other artists who’ve also built something from scratch that works for them. It’s a pretty small pool of people who all have a high risk tolerance, as shows can go really well and also sometimes be really disappointing, and we just have to keep moving forward and trying. I also think the best — and most wholesome — use of Facebook as a platform is some of the artist groups I’m in, where I can see what other printmakers are doing and learn from them.
Abigail West working at an art show. Photo courtesy of Abigail West.
If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Rhododendrons might not be considered trees. I recognize this. But I’m also a bit of a bend-the-rules type, and the rhododendrons are one feature that makes our Southern mountains iconic and beloved. I can’t get through a whole interview without waxing on, at least a little bit, about how underrated and amazing our trails and mountains are here. You should come run them, and tell me a rhododendron tunnel isn’t one of the most enchanting things! Some of the first art I remember making about this landscape was inspired by a blanket of fallen rhododendron blooms on a trail in the Great Smoky Mountains — the most magical place on earth.
Abigail West on the Georgia Loop. Photo: Pete Schreiner
Call for Comments
- Have you encountered some of Abigail West’s art in the trail running world?
- Are there landscapes that inspire you to make art?
