MY STORY
Hi there! I'm so happy you've decided to visit my slice of the internet, and I'd like to introduce myself to you. I'm Bryana: a poet and painter who grew up in Türkiye; has since lived in Texas, Arkansas, and England; and now resides in Eastern Pennsylvania with my husband and a rotating array of short-lived basil plants.

In my spare time, I enjoy volunteering at my local Boys & Girls Club, exploring the Atlantic coast, and zealously avoiding driving. I listen to Enya with gusto, and if that makes me basic, I don't even mind. Follow me on Instagram (@_bryana_joy) and Facebook (at BryanaJoyStudio) for progress shots, messy hair photos, tiny poems, and glorious finished paintings. Follow me on Twitter (@_bryana_joy) for feminist theory, poor attempts at humor, and long threads unpacking unhelpful sacred and secular teachings about sex.

I knew I wanted to be an artist from almost the earliest point I can remember. As a child, I spent many happy hours drawing horses and flowers and placid nuclear families on sheets and sheets of copy paper. In highschool, I invented my own handwriting font and filled a stack of homemade journals with watercolor sketches and lettering practice. In college, I launched a little Etsy shop where I infrequently sold hand-painted bookmarks with calligraphy quotes from my favorite authors. And from 2018-2022, I sent out around 7,000 illustrated snail mail letters to 30+ countries as part of a project called the Letters From The Sea Tower.

In 2022, I began working with gouache and acryla gouache, and took up painting soulscapes and seascapes to tell this planet's shining stories.

SEASCAPES
I paint seascapes because the ocean is a ceaseless well of wonder to me. I've adored it since childhood, when I lived on the coast of the Black Sea and was first captivated by Ted Nasmith's illustrations for The Silmarillion. In its eddy and crash I find enough variety and verve to tell most of the stories burning on my tongue. Today most of my seascapes are inspired by my own frequent trips out to the Atlantic Coast, and each one is accompanied by a stamped artist statement telling the story of the painting and documenting the specifications of the print.

SOULSCAPES
I use the word "soulscapes" to describe an ongoing series of paintings that grapple with the questions closest to me in depictions of simple but vibrant stylized characters. I have a lot to explore in these paintings. For example: Grief, and how routinely it's being stifled in what is sometimes called the House of the Lord. For example: new ways of being and perceiving women in a world where sexual depersonalization seems to lie in wait for us around every corner. I am painting about our complex journeys to rediscover shared humanity. I am trying to paint for anyone trekking through a bitter world that has no room for them. I am painting about the Candle of Hopes. I have a whole library of soulscapes planned, and I hope you'll check back soon to see the new paintings that are coming.