Meet Gay Ayers

Gay Ayers lives in Farmington, CT, enjoying her cozy house and the setting of gardens, and a garden pool with resident frogs. Her three children, their spouses and grandchildren all live not too far away in the New England area.

My work is about color and composition and my background as a professional calligrapher for 25 years has helped train my eye. By using the principles of design, I look through the camera's viewfinder as if it were a framed piece. This has been evolving through the years and travel has played a major part of my life: Travel to exotic, as well as the more usual places one might visit, and yet developing the ability to see things that others miss. By seeing the artful side of things or places, this has added greater dimension to my work.

Part of what motivates and inspires me is how others react emotionally to my work. What causes me to want to take the picture in the first place has usually begun by my own emotional response to what I am looking at. Sometimes the moments are so fleeting and I must be very quick to catch the reality before me. I often feel like the camera has become a part of my body, because I dare not leave it behind. I am sure to miss something if I do.

Who can say what will catch my attention? I might see obvious beauty, or sometimes there is something very subtle that I am able to capture, or possibly it may be patterns and textures, and even my humor will show through in the photographs. At times the scene could even reveal a certain mood or rhythm. I look for deep saturation of color when possible.

From 1997 - 1999, I exhibited a one-of-a-kind artist's book, Journey to the Mid-East, combining photography, calligraphy, watercolors and image transfers, with each of the 100 pages framed and shown in various places in the greater Hartford area. In the summer 2000, I exhibited my work, Journeys Near and Far, Through an Artful Eye, at the E.T.C. Gallery, Hartford, the Golden Lamb Buttery, Brooklyn, CT, and also at Circe's Feast, West Hartford.

In March 2001 a new exhibit, Colors, Patterns and Textures of the World opened at Living Traditions Gallery in Avon. This same exhibit went on to Allmerica, Glastonbury, before going to Chaiwalla in Salisbury, CT, August 2001. The exhibit continues to grow and change, according to the places I have been. In January 2002, I had a successful exhibit, "The Creative Eye" at the Town and County Club in Hartford. I invite you to the places I have been, requiring no passport, luggage, hassles or switching time zones.

I would enjoy hearing from you! You can email me or drop me a note the ol' fashioned way.

Mailing address:
18 Elizabeth Road
Farmington, CT 06032
USA

Tel: (860) 677-1768
Fax: (860) 674-0808