Unwritten Stories
Artist Evelyn Bryant continues
her quest for "that new . image"
VICTORIA BELYEU DIAZ
Special to The Jewish News
f images of dreams, or
freeze-frames from the subconscious
could be somehow captured and
transferred on to an artist's canvas,
they might look a lot like the work
of Detroit surrealist Evelyn Gurvitch
Bryant, which will go on display today
in the David Whitney Building Arts
Extended Gallery.
Bryant, who, in addition to
painting, is an art teacher at Finney
High School, would probably put you
in mind of your favorite aunt. Gray-
ing, plumpish, quick-to-smile, she's a
comfortable, "take off your shoes and
have some more cookies and another
cup of tea before you have to go
home" type of person. It's easy to
imagine her knitting sweaters,
working happily with needlepoint, or
maybe painting pretty flowers on
china teacups.
It's not so easy to visualize the
friendly, outgoing Bryant standing
at an easel and creating the mys-
terious, bizarre, sometimes night-
marish images she does, indeed,
create.
She herself, though, can't im-
agine doing anything else.
"Because I teach, I'm free to
paint (how and what) I want," she
says, conducting a recent, informal
tour of the collection in her apart-
ment (actually, very informal; the
guide is barefoot, the "audience" is
eating pound cake).
"It's the only thing that I don't
do for money. Otherwise, I'd be
painting pretty flowers and land-
scapes, because that's what most
people want." Bryant does relatively
few commissioned works, she says,
finding them "confining." An excep-
tion is the large tapestry which
hangs in the lobby of the Jewish
Federation Apartments. in West
Bloomfield.
"I like to just sit down to work
14
Friday, September 19, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS