Peyton Bray’s love affair with art is still in the honeymoon phase. After high school, the 23-year-old went to ECU and was on track to study public health or environmental science, but felt something was missing. After taking three years off from school to work and explore large cities like Atlanta, Chicago, and New York, Brey found he felt most excited in art galleries such as the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Being able to go to Soho and the Garment District [in New York] kinda hooked me as far as fashion,” he says.
Bray began dabbling in sewing and clothing design and decided to go to A-B Tech for an Associate in Fine Arts in Visual Arts to explore his new passion.
“I have always felt the need to express myself in different ways,” he says. “I wanted to learn about the art tradition and thought it would be a launching point so I could make clothing to express myself.”
Bray found to his surprise he thrived in many mediums including screen printing, metal sculpture, and design. He took home first place in A-B Tech’s student art show this spring, along with fellow student Macy Andres for their jointly created print entitled “Prisoner”, which he says is a statement about mental health and “how imprisoned and lost you can feel” when grappling with addiction.
Reflecting on his two years at A-B Tech, Bray says he was impressed by the arts program and how much he learned from his professors and fellow students. “I was surprised how many talented artists we have here,” he says. “There is a lot of impressive work being done.”
Bray has been accepted to Savannah College of Art and Design and will go on to study fashion design in the fall. He says he hopes to create clothing for both genders, and to promote androgynous clothing that incorporates both masculine and feminine qualities. Whether creating a song, an article of clothing, or a print, for Bray art is about expressing a compelling inner vision. “There’s freedom in that,” he says.