Beautiful on the surface. Unsettled underneath.

"Panic" by Artwork by AMS: Composite of a sculptural panel with 10,000+ hand-placed multicolored glass rhinestones in a gold frame. Includes macro texture, front-facing, and side-profile views showing 3D depth and shimmer. 'Artwork by AMS' logo.

The practice.

Glass rhinestone fine art that is part painting, part mosaic, and part sculpture. From large-scale original panels to hand-embellished limited editions, the brilliance of the material is a deliberate entry point. The intention is to create work that dazzles and unsettles in equal measure.

The shine pulls you in first. The meaning follows.

"Lust" by Artwork by AMS: A 12x12 square sculptural panel featuring hand-placed fuchsia glass rhinestones in a gold floating frame. The dense, reflective surface creates deep texture and movement across a monochromatic field.
"Oxidation" by Artwork by AMS: 12x12 sculptural panel with hand-placed glass rhinestones in a gold frame. Bronze-gold stones "bleed" diagonally into a field of shimmering peridot and teal, evoking organic erosion and dense texture.
"Gluttony" by Artwork by AMS: 12x12 sculptural panel with hand-placed amber glass rhinestones in a gold frame. A monochromatic field of dense, reflective texture that creates a sense of saturation and shimmering excess.
Artist Ashley Strayhorn of Artwork by AMS. Ashley wears a black sweater and glasses, sitting on a bright yellow couch. Behind her, a large square sculptural panel of multicolored glass rhinestones is displayed in a gold frame on a gray wall.

The artist.

AMS is a St. Louis-based artist working in rhinestones, building fields of color that read like glass mosaics. Surfaces are deliberate and painstaking, with each stone placed by hand on every original work to create dense, irregular patterns. The shine pulls you in first. The meaning comes after.

The work studies pressure, emptiness, decay, and the quiet damage people carry. Beauty becomes a lure. Spectacle becomes a signal. Titles like Devoid, Pressure, Containment, Oxidation, and Flawless shift the pieces from decoration into critique, exposing what the surface is trying to hold together.

Rhinestones are chosen for their clarity and their finality. Once set, they stay. The medium forces commitment. It mirrors the culture the work is dissecting: polished, demanding, obsessed with perfection, and brittle underneath.

Holding a PhD, AMS brings a research-driven eye to the studio, treating the canvas as a site of inquiry into the contradictions of modern life. The work insists on being both dazzling and bleak, indulgent and sharp. To live with these pieces is to live with the tensions of our time, where culture glitters on the surface while quietly collapsing underneath.

Get in touch.

Whether you have a question, an idea, or just want to say hello, feel free to reach out. You can also email me directly at: ams@artworkbyams.com.