Home   ·    Art & Artists   ·    Events & Services   ·    Contributors & Acknowledgements Introduction Bryan Carey met artist-psychologist John Thomas Payne at a Ruth Faison Shaw exhibit at the Morehead Planetarium (UNC-Chapel Hill) during May of 1985. Mr. Payne was the successor-interpreter of Ruth Faison Shaw, the North Carolina artist-educator who introduced Shaw Finger-Paint to the world in 1931. Mr. Payne was an expositor of Shaw and her work as well as a member of the Ruth Faison Shaw Memorial Committee, which facilitated the exhibit. Apprenticeship and Practice In March of 1986, Carey accepted an invitation to apprentice with Mr. Payne in the Shaw medium, technique and tradition and did so until 1993. During these seven years, Mr. Payne shared his artistic expertise as well as his synthesis of Miss Shaw’s tradition and psychological philosophy that he developed from 1959 until his death in 2000. While working together, Mr. Payne and Carey exhibited and co-taught workshops and classes in order to promote this medium to the art world. Carey’s final project consisted of a 40-hour interview-style oral history account of Mr. Payne’s life and work, which he conducted from January 15–June 4, 1994. Upon concluding this project, Mr. Payne suggested that Carey spend an additional seven years (1994–2000), both practicing Patanjali’s yoga and developing his personal artistic vision while continuing to study Ruth Faison Shaw–the person, her vocabulary and the Shavian Technique™. Currently, Carey directs the Shaw School and Studio, which he founded in 2001. Artist Mission Congruent with the Shaw-Payne legacy, Carey continues to offer opportunities in artistic self–expression to people of all ages and abilities. He endeavors to advance the practice of Shaw’s method, the Shavian Technique™, by promoting finger-painting as an artistic medium through demonstrations in schools and other public venues for adults and children and by reviving its use as an instrument of healing. Carey strives to balance his artistic vision and historical understanding of the “broadly known, yet narrowly understood” art form in order to restore the artistic, educative and therapeutic merits of Shaw’s legacy. Bryan Carey has been described as “the leading practitioner and teacher of the finger-painting techniques pioneered by [Ruth Faison] Shaw.” He believes that “artistic self-expression is our birthright, not exclusive to a narrow segment of society.” Through painting and teaching, Carey continues to practice the rich techniques established by Miss Shaw while realizing her dream of keeping the door of imagination open throughout one’s lifetime. New Work Landscapes Holiday Pictures Portraits Landscapes Florals Still Life Figures Animals Fish Portraits Abstracts For purchase information contact Bryan Carey at bryancarey@fingerpainting.org All images are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the Shaw School and Studio Home   ·    Art & Artists   ·    Events & Services   ·    Contributors & Acknowledgements THE SHAW SCHOOL & STUDIO  ·  305 EAST CHAPEL HILL STREET SUITE 208  ·  DURHAM, NC 27701 PHONE: 919-475-1355  ·  EMAIL: bryancarey@fingerpainting.org