Ashley Bryan is an American artist, writer, anthologist, storyteller, and a noted scholar of African and African American folklore. He’s an author and illustrator of over 50 children’s books. He makes magical puppets and sea glass windows from found objects inspired by his African heritage.
Background
Ethnicity:
Ashley Bryan's parents were descendants of West African slaves from Antigua.
Ashley Bryan was born on July 13, 1923, in New York City, New York, United States. He was the second of six children who were later joined by three cousins in his family’s crowded Bronx apartment. Ashley began drawing and painting as a small boy. A printer by trade, his father was able to supply Ashley with left-over special papers for Ashley’s endless flow of artwork and drawings. Five-year-old Ashley Bryan’s first book received exuberant praise from his kindergarten teacher and parents, all of whom marveled at his success as “author, illustrator, publisher and distributor” of his very own alphabet book.
Education
When Ashley Bryan applied for scholarships to art schools at 16, his portfolios were among the most impressive ever submitted. But he was rejected on the basis of race. Ashley was eventually accepted to the tuition-free Cooper Union in New York City on the basis of his exam portfolio. In 1940, he began studying sculpture, calligraphy, design, book illustration and painting.
At age nineteen he was drafted into the segregated US army. After World War II, in 1946 Ashley completed his Cooper Union degree. Then he went on to study philosophy at Columbia University, earn a Fulbright scholarship to study art at Aix-Marseille University in Aix-en-Provence, France, and later returning for two years to study at the University of Freiburg in Germany.
Career
Ashley Bryan began teaching art in 1953 in the Bronx. In 1957, Ashley headed to the University of Freiburg on a Fulbright grant. Upon returning from Germany, Ashley took a studio in the Bronx, near his family. He taught at nine or ten different institutions, including the Dalton School, Philadelphia College of Art, Queens College, and a residency at Dartmouth College in 1967. Ashley always sought ways to integrate art and poetry into curricula. In 1962 Jean Karl, an editor at Atheneum Books, visited Ashley’s studio and then sent him a contract to illustrate a collection of poems by Rabindranath Tagore: Moon, for What Do You Wait? which became the start of a nearly four-decade-long relationship.
In 1974, Ashley Bryan joined the faculty of Dartmouth College’s newly established art department. He eventually became head of “Visual Studies,” and he taught all levels of undergraduate courses in drawing, painting, and design. Ashley retired from Dartmouth in 1988. He became a year-round resident of the Cranberry Isles. In his infinite quest to create art from things cast off, he recovered treasures washed up by the sea, on his daily walks. Ashley crafted more and more fantastic hand-held puppets from bones, shells, driftwood, fishing net, sea glass-held together with papier-mâché.
During these years, Ashley dedicated himself to publishing numerous illustrated books in which he attempted to bring to life African tales, proverbs and especially spirituals - the songs of the African-American slaves whose only form of free expression was through these enduring popular songs that are rarely given appropriate attribution. Working tirelessly with his editor at Atheneum, Jean Karl, Ashley published ten books with Atheneum during this period, and he illustrated another eight books with other publishers. His notable books are Beautiful Blackbird, Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum, Let it Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals, Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life's Song, Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life, Sing to the Sun, Dancing Granny and other.
In 2013 Ashley Bryan Center was founded with the mission to preserve celebrate, and share broadly artist Ashley Bryan’s work and his joy of discovery, invention, learning, and community. The Ashley Bryan Center promotes opportunities for people to come together in the creation and appreciation of visual art, literature, music, and the oral and written traditions of poetry. In the summer of 2014, the Ashley Bryan Center was launched with a retrospective exhibition of Ashley Bryan’s life and work, displayed at the Islesford Museum on Little Cranberry Island, owned by the National Parks Service. A Visit With Ashley Bryan included a timeline of Ashley’s life with examples of his work in various media from various periods. It also featured, puppets, sea glass windows, paintings, drawings and displays of book illustrations using three different media (block print, tempera paint, and collage).
In 2018, Bryan collaborated with composer Aaron Robinson on an African-American Requiem titled "A Tender Bridge"; a 90-minute, 13 movement work that celebrates Bryan's life and career based on his writings. Bryan's recent book is Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey from World War II to Peace (2019). This book is a memoir about serving in the segregated army during World War II, and how love and the pursuit of art sustained him. It is both a lesson in history and a testament to hope.
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Quotations:
"There are so many ways in which we learn about life and the self. Each day opens paths to this exploration. For many of us, books play a major role in that adventure"
"If you put art into the world, you will get beauty in return."
"You must practice daily with whatever you want to grow in or grow with."
"I make flowers of all my mistakes."
"Every morning is a whole new day of discovery."
"At every moment I strive for connection. If you are in the moment, you are stretching out to reach that which you recognize in others. That’s my secret."
"I never gave up. Many were more gifted than I but they gave up. They dropped out. What they faced out there in the world - they gave up."