Artist Linda Wurm Bryant is a woman of many talents. Primarily known as an illustrator and graphic designer, Bryant is also a talented painter and photographer, and, most recently, she has created a line of denim jackets with quilted images of a gingerbread cottage on the back.
Bryant, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, relocated to the Vineyard just four years ago, after enjoying a successful career in graphic design in Arlington. Since then she has found the time to pursue many creative outlets. She has shown her paintings and illustrations at the Galaxy Gallery and the Featherstone Center for the Arts, and won a blue ribbon for a painting of an East Chop road at the All-Island Art Show this past summer.
On-Island, Bryant created a logo for the Oak Bluffs Association, and a poster for Tivoli Day. In designing her own logo and business name, the multitalented artist took a unique approach: The colorful image features a whimsical dragon clutching an artist’s fountain pen. As she explains on her website, “The LindWurm dragon appears in German and Scandinavian mythology, plus its image is found in heraldry, the arms of Bavarian towns, in artwork, sculpture, and fountains.”
Among other things, Bryant has illustrated two children’s books by part-time Vineyarder Susan Woodburn that both have a local theme. One is a work of fiction featuring poet and folk artist Nancy Luce, best known as the Chicken Lady of West Tisbury. The other is titled “Martha’s Vineyard: An Alphabetical Tour for All Ages.” A charming A-Z alphabet book, it includes short descriptions of each illustrated subject, offering a range of Island landmarks, from the iconic, like Alley’s General Store, to some more hidden treasures, such as Vanessa, the Sea Serpent sculpture that sits out in the middle of Farm Pond in Oak Bluffs.
As interesting, if very different, are Bryant’s black-and-white photographs. As a student in the 1970s, she traveled around Providence, capturing moody images that often evoke an earlier era. In one an old-fashioned handcart sits amid a cloud of steam in front of the former train station. In another, a man in a business suit and a bowler hat, reading a newspaper, sits alone on the wooden benches in the same train station. Bryant favors the atmospheric. A misty, soft-toned shot of the oft-photographed fishing shack in Menemsha features a black-speckled white dog wading in the water in the foreground — the red of his leash echoed in the red of a buoy in the grayish background.
Despite her apparent talent in any media, illustration is really Bryant’s bailiwick. Along with commercial projects, the artist also offers colorful house portrait commissions. Her primary focus so far has been on Victorian cottages, both within the O.B. Campgrounds and around the Copeland District. So far she has completed more than 40 commissioned drawings. “I’ve always loved architecture,” says Bryant. “The homes around Oak Bluffs are so sweet and colorful and appealing.”
Examples of the artist’s house portraits can be found at Craftworks in Oak Bluffs, along with giclée prints of her paintings, cards, and datebooks, and the hand-decorated denim jackets. Bryant’s work is in the Featherstone Holiday Gift Show, where she is offering a number of different items for sale.
The Oak Bluffs–based artist spent 45 years visiting the Vineyard before deciding to make this her permanent home. Along with the Island’s more obvious charms, Bryant has found another plus to her new life here. “Before moving here I was so busy working and raising my kids that I didn’t really get involved in the arts community,” she says. “Now I’ve found so many like-minded people, and make friends with artists of all types. There really is a wealth of creativity here.”
