Etching, aquatint, lithograph.Born 1957, Rochester, New York. Lived in Kyoto, Japan since 1980. Connecticut College;
Middlesex Polytechnic, London; studied with master printmaker Kathy Carracio.
Permanent Collections: British Museum, the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Portland Art Institute, University of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Newark Public Library, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, US State Department in Washington, American Embassy in Tokyo, University Hospitals, Cleveland, John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and several corporate collections.
Brayer’s early prints in Japan were controlled and detailed observations of her surroundings, mainly black and white etchings and aquatints. The study of woodblock printing, however, led her to experiment with gradations of colour. In 1985 Brayer started taking washi, Japanese paper, and collaging it on top of her watercolours, incorporating washi as an integral part of her design. The first prints of this kind went through about twenty proofings, with different combinations of papers and inks. Her latest prints have a spontaneous sense of fluidity and freedom, achieved by pouring hot acid onto a printing plate. The resultant works are flowing combinations of aquatint, chine colle and hand-colouring on hand-made, indigo-dyed paper.
