Ashley Bryan might be the most welcoming person I’ve ever met. He is generous with his time in a way most of us could only dream of being. (Or would never dream of being!) When unexpected company calls, Ashley takes it in stride as part of his day, saying he gets energy from his visitors. Maybe this is why, at age 89, he seems to have more energy than most people half his age. He gets a lot of visitors. Between the fellow authors, artists, school children, teachers, lifelong friends and family, it’s a challenge to catch Ashley on his own. If that was your plan, you might as well give up, but don’t let it bother you. It just means when you visit Ashley you are likely to get the additional benefit of meeting someone new.
Ashley has received several prestigious awards over the years, including the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award 2012, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal 2009, and two career literary awards from the American Library Association. He does not mention these awards when you visit. Instead he talks about his artwork. Whatever project he is currently working on is the one he is most excited about. In the summer he is often seen painting outside, capturing images from local flower gardens in their riotous peak of color. In the winter he works on a future book project drawing from a variety of artistic techniques including block prints, collage, and gouache.
Ask an Islesford resident to name the technique they most associate with Ashley Bryan, and they would likely answer, “his work with sea glass.” On the western side of Ashley’s house hang panels, made of sea glass and papier mache, that transform the modest bedroom windows into something that rivals the 13th century stained glass of La Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Glowing bits of color heighten the detail of the 2 dimensional images that depict Biblical stories.
In the late 1950s, with a growing collection of sea glass from the islands, Ashley looked for a way to combine the colorful pieces into a larger composition. The varied thicknesses of glass prohibited connecting them with traditional stained glass techniques using copper foil and lead, so he decided to try papier mache. He soaked newspaper strips in water, mashing and mixing them until they became a pulp, and then added flour and water to make a paste. (Later he used wall paper paste with cellulose.) With simple drawings to guide him, Ashley laid out pieces of glass within a 12″ by 14″ frame to create his first panel. The papier mache provided the flexibility he needed to accommodate different thickness of glass. It also allowed him to avoid having to cut the glass. If he needed a round shape, all he had to do was leave a round opening in the glass, surrounded by the mache. When one side was dry, he turned the piece over and matched the papier mache detailing on the other side. When the whole piece was dry, Ashley painted the mache black to resemble the leaded outlines of traditional stained glass windows.
Like the cathedral windows, Ashley’s panels tell stories from the life of Christ. The Last Supper, Jesus and the Children, and Christ washing the feet of his disciples are a few of them. Unlike the medieval windows, Ashley does not etch or paint his glass to provide details. Instead he relies on how light plays with the variations in thickness and color of sea glass to give texture to his work. He installed his first 6 or 7 panels in his Bronx studio to block out the distracting view of traffic. In the 1970’s, on Christmas Eve, a fire broke out in the discount store below Ashley’s studio. His studio was not damaged, but the water used to put out the fire destroyed some of the papier mache panels. He did not imagine making new panels to replace them, but friends came and picked up the pieces of glass and urged him to continue the work he had started.
Ashley does not sell his panels. However, about 30 years ago, Rosamund Lord asked if he might consider donating some to the Islesford Congregational Church. It has always been his plan to do that, but everyone’s life and schedules were complicated, and the time to do so never coincided until this year. A conversation at the Fourth of July picnic expanded into Ashley offering to give a nine panel set of sea glass windows to the church. The four corners and the center would be panels from the life of Christ, depicting the stories of the Nativity, Palm Sunday, the Transfiguration, the Child in the Temple, and the Storm at Sea. The remaining four panels would be floral designs. Henry Isaacs offered an oil painting, “The Five Islands” to raise money with raffle tickets to support the instillation of the windows. In the end, 480 raffle tickets were sold and a total of $5283 was raised to put toward the cost of a museum conservator who would find the best way to install the panels. The installation planners are waiting for an estimate.
Ashley feels compelled to keep creating the panels. “I always have one going,” he told me. They are a continuous body of work that integrate with each other. Ashley says he is mystified as to how it happened; that a trained artist could work in the spirit of folk art to create something so simple that is brought to life in such a surprising way when light shines through. He says he will still sit and look at the windows at the end of the day, watching how the fading sunlight changes the colors of the glass in the panels, adding to the stories they tell.
The image of Ashley sitting quietly, watching the sunlight move through colorful artwork that feeds his soul, is inspirational to me both artistically and spiritually. It’s a comfort to think that some of his work will be preserved in the beautiful island church. A place that welcomes visitors, yet also provides the opportunity for quiet solitary contemplation.
November 12, 2012