INTERVIEW WITH ZOE BRAY
Zoe Bray
Where are you from? How did you arrive in Nevada?
I am French Basque on my mother’s side and English on my father’s. I came to Nevada in 2011
to take on a job as professor at the University of Nevada Reno, working on art and
anthropology at the Center for Basque Studies. It felt very powerful to move here,
remembering that my great grandfather had also lived here a little over a hundred years earlier,
to work as a sheepherder near Ely. After four years at UNR, I left Nevada to take on another
university position along with my spouse (who is German and a political scientist) in Jerusalem.
We stayed there nearly four years, and then decided we wanted to return to Nevada. We love
this state so much that we chose to make Reno our permanent home, together with our two
small children.
What is it that attracts you to this region?
It’s the wide open spaces, the wilderness, the public lands. You have that too in parts of Europe,
but not as much as here. It is very special, and worth protecting. I love the fact that you can
wander off, and be alone with nature. I think it’s very important that our kids grow up close to
nature. And I love Nevadans – they are warm and enthusiastic people. In Europe, we tend to be
quite reserved, and I really appreciate the spontaneous generosity and kindness of people here.
What was your childhood like, and what were your interests as a young girl?
My childhood was one big adventure. This is thanks to the inquisitive spirits of my parents. My
mother is a painter and my father was a newspaper correspondent, which meant that every
three years or so we moved country. My brother was born in England, I was born in France, and
my sister was born in Italy, and then we moved to Belgium, from there again to France, then to
Spain, and then to England. As kids, we adapted to each place, learnt the language, read the
local literature, discovered the local arts and made local friends. It all came very naturally and I
still feel at home in all these places.
At the same time, thanks to my grandparents, we have a home in the French Basque Country.
The house is from 1639 – here in the West, that seems almost pre-historic! It is located in a
small village called Izura. The Basque Country is where my main roots have always been. That is
where we went for our school holidays. And that is where I go ‘home’.
At the same time, today, Nevada also means home to me. But as far as my roots go, and my
childhood memories, it’s the Basque Country. Growing up there was great. It was total
freedom. We cycled around, went for walks, hiking in the Pyrenees, camping, climbing trees,
picking fruit, swimming in the rivers, laid in the grass reading... I guess having these memories
growing up close to nature helps me also feel at home in Nevada with its wilderness.
What was the first image you remember drawing/painting as a child? Do you have a jpeg?
I distinctly remember trying to paint a portrait of my father when I was four. I recall trying to
get the roundness of his face. I look at this painting today with fondness and it makes me
chuckle. It is so important that children are encouraged to express themselves artistically. And
that they are urged to be courageous when they create art. Art is, after all, not a beauty
contest. It is also not about replicating something. It is about expression, interpretation, about
finding yourself in what you create. Looking at my first painting and remembering the struggles
I had in creating it, I wish I had had someone who could have given me tips and encouraged me
to embrace my endeavor. This is what I try to do in my work with children in schools in Nevada,
in collaboration with some of the many wonderful organizations here – the Nevada Arts
Council, Capital City Arts Initiative, Arts for All Nevada, Sierra Arts, Saint Mary’s … I encourage
kids to express themselves through art-making, to have fun in the process and that this can
allow them and the world to discover their talent and beauty.
Zoe Bray teaching children about art and their connection to our planet
I was very lucky in that my parents always took us to visit local museums and monuments, and
so formal art and a sense of aesthetics was always present in my life. But running around free in
nature, getting muddy and messy, is also an important part of personal emancipation and
artistic creation. I want to show kids today that they can find and create beauty wherever they
are. You can make art with very little, and simple things. And there is no such thing as
perfection; the best creations come from trial and error.
One of Zoe’s earliest paintings, Portrait of My Father, Zoe Bray 1978
What was your favorite book growing up?
I had a series of favorite books, and many were written by Judy Blume. Her books talked to me
as a pre-teen, about real emotions, puberty, our body changing, relations to other people, and
to the environment we inhabit. Her characters are youths who confront their feelings of
confusion and begin to find solutions to their problems. Reading her books, I felt reassured I
was not alone having all these complex emotions and felt understood; that was empowering.
What was your favorite thing to do or eat as a child?
I wasn’t born on a bicycle but I may well have been – as a child I was always on a bike, and I still
am – I can’t live without one! It is my main mode of transport because it’s great exercise, you
get to feel your surroundings, and because it’s clean, pollution-free.
To eat.. I’ve always loved everything. But eating a piece of wholegrain bread, especially dunked
in olive oil, always makes me happy.
Do you have a photo we can show of you as a child?
Zoe Bray 4 years old
Where did you train as an artist/anthropologist?
I always knew I wanted to be a painter, but I wasn’t convinced about formally studying art. I
decided instead to get a degree in Social Anthropology from Edinburgh University (Scotland). I
guess I chose Social Anthropology because of my growing up in all these different countries. I
felt I needed the intellectual tools to analyze culture, politics, social relations… these things that
guide human perception and behavior. Identity - how people make sense of their surroundings
and define who they are - fascinated me, and still does.
I made art in private, finding guidance from looking at art in books and going alone to galleries.
But when I went to Florence (Italy) to write my PhD thesis in Social and Political Sciences, I
discovered a painter’s atelier in the attic of a 19th century de-consecrated church and I found
this place so beautiful, it woke up in me the decision to go for it. The painter, an American expat
in Florence, Charles Cecil, had a group of students who studied drawing, sculpting and
painting directly from life. We had models posing for us six hours every day!
The fees of Cecil’s studio were forbidding to me, but I was able to get in working as a cleaner
and modelling. At the same time I was working as a researcher for a project looking at minority
language communities in Europe, based at the European University Institute (where I had got
my PhD). So for a couple of years I kind of had a double life – an anthropologist by day and a
painter by night. I later studied full time at the Florence Academy of Art, which also focuses
wholly on drawing, sculpting and painting from life.
While fine art and social anthropology seem quite apart from each other, to me they have
always been related and complimentary – both are about working with life, immersing yourself
in it and making sense of it. Both are disciplines that feed my artwork today.
Which artists inspire you?
My formal art training is based on traditional fine art techniques, and there, the main
references are the so-called great masters – Michelangelo, Da Vinci etc. These are still great
sources of inspiration, for their technical prowess, their beautiful renderings, and their close
attention to nature. I think about them a lot when I work, how attentive they were to their
subject.
There are also many contemporary painters that inspire me. Paula Rego draws with a great
sense of narrative and she is bold in her ability to tell stories through simple and dramatic
images of people. This is something I think about a lot in my own work. While I focus on
portraying people simply sitting or standing posing for me, I do think about how their presence,
looking at me, says something about them and about where they are in the world.
Can you discuss what it is like growing up inside the Basque community or at least your
connection to this culture? Your mother, has she been a great influence in your life?
Our house is in the center of the village, which has only about 250 inhabitants. When many of
our neighbors were farmers, their sheep and cows walked past our house every day. I loved the
sounds and the smell. My grandparents lived in another village a short cycle ride away.
But while my grandmother spoke Basque, she did not teach it to my mother (a very common
thing amongst her generation – the language was dismissed as backward) and she did not want
to speak to us in this language. Instead, we spoke to each other in French. I would observe her
chat with the other villagers in Basque, and I told myself as a child that one day, I would learn it.
And that’s what I did, when I was 20. I took a year out of university to spend it in the Basque
Country. Learning Basque then was considered political, and so many people suspected that I
was a sympathizer of Basque separatism. I remember some kids my age looking at me
strangely, but then they also went on to learn Basque. Nowadays, thank goodness, the political
situation is no longer conflictual and it’s considered normal to want to speak Basque.
My mother took us to local cultural events, so I grew up knowing about the local art and
sociopolitical scenes. I remember being impressed by the way she could communicate
harmoniously with people of different social and economic backgrounds. The way she worked
as an artist was also very inspiring – now she works mainly in her studio, but growing up, I
would sometimes accompany her on her expeditions – she painted the local landscapes and
centuries-old houses on huge canvases, which she would drag up the hill into a field, together
with all her brushes and her handmade paints. She would set up her easel or work on all fours
on the ground alongside the cows and sheep who would often sniff up close. This no-frills direct
action and natural-cultural sensitivity of my mother has definitely been a great influence in my
life.
What are the ideas and concepts you are investigating through your portraiture and art
practice.
I am interested in what makes a person – one’s inner character as much as one’s social
relations with family, friends, cultural background and profession. Through portraiture I explore
what it means to get to know another individual and to ‘fairly’ represent them in a larger
context. At the back of my mind is always the politics of representation, the power of the
person doing the representing but also the agency of the subject and the involvement of the
society we live in. I believe that creating a portrait can enhance the affirmation of a person and
provoke important conversations about identity and the world in which we interact.
You have two amazing children, how are you balancing your art practice with your family
responsibilities?
Having kids is a lot of fun – it gives you energy – as well as leave you exhausted! Kids make you
live life to the full! I understand many female artists feel they need to make a choice, either
have kids or make art, that it is impossible to do both. This is the case I think if you feel you
have to do it all yourself. I am lucky to have a partner who carries out an equal if not bigger
share of the child-caring and rearing. Having a family gives me a necessary equilibrium, and it
nourishes me as an artist. You learn a lot about yourself. Having children also helps I think to
not take yourself too seriously, and to keep yourself ethically in check.
Do you have any advice for other female artists trying to achieve both of these things? (art
practice and children)
See having children as being a part of your art. Children are amazingly artistic, perceptive and
intuitive. They’re also very funny, have a great sense of humor and so can be great sources of
inspiration, if you open your heart and mind to it.
I understand you have just returned to live in Reno after some years in Jerusalem, can you talk
a little about how that experience was, (up and down sides), and how it has affected your world
view and your art production?
We lived just under four years in Jerusalem – end of 2014 to early 2018. It was a fascinating
time. Through my artwork I was able to make contact with very diverse sections of the local
population, across the various religious, ethnic and political divides. I could be mingling with
ultra orthodox Jewish artists one moment, drawing the portraits of Palestinian villagers another
moment, and working with Bedouin children on art projects yet another moment. This time
was also very intense and exhausting as I directly witnessed a lot of the violence and suffering
that some sections of society endure.
All this has gone into my art. I painted the portraits of a diversity of Jerusalem inhabitants, each
with very different personal biographies and experiences, and conflicting worldviews. But in all
these portraits, it is the humanity of each individual that prevails and that I could draw out.
That was very inspiring. One time I also had the opportunity to teach a portraiture workshop to
Israeli Jewish and Palestinian teenagers. We all took turns posing and drawing each other,
taking in each other’s presence. Such an experience and many others working with children
attest at how art can make a difference in people’s lives and build bridges across divides that
seem insurmountable. It’s a source of enjoyment, liberation and meditation, no matter which
background you are from, and can be an effective and constructive form of communication.
During my time in Jerusalem, I found that art could facilitate deep human contact that might
otherwise not have been possible.
Can you give us some insight into the ethnographic tableaux/dioramas you were making over
there from recycled materials.
Scene 4 Basque Country Diorama
It is distressing for me to see how mistreated nature can be by human beings. In Jersualem, I
started thinking about how I could produce art that could raise awareness of the beauty of
nature and advocate against senseless consumerism and trashing our environment. I ended up
focusing this artwork using old cardboard boxes because they provide a familiar framework
within which to produce my kind of art – a paintable surface, a tableau. And drawing in them
made me think of the dioramas one can see in old-fashioned museums, oftentimes used to
depict scenes of wilderness or human history. As an anthropologist I also find dioramas
fascinating as a product of a certain colonialist time – a notion with which my dioramas play.
My dioramas depict the local landscape and the different people living in it that I met.
Now that I am back in Reno, I am returning to making such dioramas from thrown-away
cardboard. Right now I am doing an artist residency with Capital City Arts Initiative, giving art
classes to middle school children in Silver Springs, making art using trash. I hope to inspire my
pupils to develop their own relation to nature through this. Twice a week I drive East along the
I80 and onto USA Parkway, over the sagebrush hills on the 439 into the Carson watershed, and
there I get to see how the natural landscape is being fast transformed by the development of
the industrial zone. My new dioramas depict this changing Nevadan landscape. I care about the
natural wonders of Nevada and I want to help make sure that they will still be there for the
children of our children, and on and on. I hope that my teaching and my dioramas can stimulate
positive reflection on this.
What exhibitions are you involved in at the moment or recently?
Since I returned to Reno in 2018, I launched myself back into a project I had started when I first
arrived in Nevada, painting the portraits of locals of Basque descent. It started as a personal
project, given I am now a Basque American myself, and that my great-grandfather had also
been here in the early 20th century as a sheepherder. Beyond myself, however, I felt I wanted to
inquire the stories of others and document and preserve them in the context of an artistic
archive of Basque Americans, consisting of portraits.
So far, I have produced over twenty portraits. These were first exhibited in Reno’s Metro
Gallery. They are currently touring as a collection in the Basque Country in France and Spain.
They were on show at the Basque Museum in Bayonne, France, in the fall of 2019. Then, thanks
to a local association promoting contemporary art, they went to Elizondo, on the Spanish side,
and right now they are back on the French side, exhibited at the town hall of Saint Jean Pied de
Port. They will continue to tour in 2020 and return to Nevada in the fall to be shown at the
Carson City Courthouse, thanks to Capital City Arts Initiative.
Can you tell us about what you are currently working on, or where you are teaching?
I continue to produce the portraits of Basque Americans and to make artwork with children,
bringing creativity into their lives, and inviting them to relate to nature, critically reflect on their
environment, and encourage them to make a positive difference in this world. Apart from that,
I will continue painting individuals of different backgrounds and ages. I love the opportunity
that portraiture gives me to spend time with individual people, getting to know them. I also
very much enjoy working on commissions, and painting for instance the portraits of children or
grandchildren and, generally, beloved relatives for families around the world, including here in
Nevada.
Where can we find you and your work? Insta, website, private lessons etc
I have a website- www.zoebray.com and a blog where I post most of my news:
I also give private drawing and painting lessons in my studio at home. Please contact me via
email or phone: zoebrayart@gmail.com; (+1) 775 4095344.
Is there any advice you would like to add to finish up with?
I just want to add that it’s important to take risks. You don’t have to follow a mainstream or a
trend to be successful. Follow your heart and the world is your oyster! And lastly, beauty is
everywhere – if you pause and take a refreshed look around you, wherever you are, you will
find it.