Mother Earth: Ashley Bryan Reads His Work
The late Ashley Bryan, celebrated children's author and artist, is honored in this colorfully layered textile mask sculpture. He was well-known in the artist community of Eastern Maine. Merrill would often visit Bryan whenever she and a group of other Maine women took the mail boat from Northeast Harbor to spin wool yarn at homes on Little Cranberry Island, just off Mount Desert Island. Mr. Bryan made his home there, which, even while he was living, was also an artist studio and museum of Bryan's unique and colorful African-influenced imaginative work. His joyful, loving spirit is missed deeply by all who knew him – and all who loved his books.
Mother Earth's face is woven of natural brown island wool, with a central zone and cheeks of natural white island wool dyed with madder roots. The face is outlined with a two-ply mix of black and white handspun island wool, and wet-felted onto a black merino wool wet-felted headpiece that forms the foundation for the headdress. The base of the headdress is wet-felted black merino wool. Onto his has been needle-felted a second layer, composed of wet-felted merino wool dyed with madder (red-orange) and weld leaves (yellow), bordering a black wet-felted merino center. The carpet on which Mr. Bryan sits is a felted white merino shape in the shyrdak style, outlined with pale madder-dyed two-ply handspun island wool. Behind him is an arch of madder-dyed wet-felted merino outlined in a crisp black merino needle-felted border. The arch is enhanced by rhythmically-spaced tiny shell beads.
Mr. Bryan's figure is felted of merino wool. The face and hands are dyed with walnut hulls, the sweater is white wool, and the trousers are of black merino. Bryan is reading I am Loved, a picture book of poems written by the late beloved Black poet Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Mr. Bryan.
