Miss Bryant

To be updated. Adding photos and more information soon.

Normally, here lately, my resume strikes many questions and commentaries of sorts: ‘What were you doing as a child?’, ‘What made you strike interests in these things at such a young age?’, ‘Did you have a childhood?’, or ‘You have done a lot for someone your age, I was expecting you to be much older’, and so forth. Resumes rarely reflect the people we are. Resumes are some of the things we’ve done. But not all of these jobs and/or activities are listed on a resume because I single handily select what jobs would look better on the resume for the job in which I am applying. We all do it.

I am a military brat, raised and taught empathy by my father, and I’ve seen and lived in a lot of different places (both nationally and internationally) since I was a kid before becoming an adult. I went to a range of different schools. I grew up with my immediate family (biological parents and siblings), but my other family members raised me too (different ethnic backgrounds). I grew up in a multicultural household. Because of this, it made me the person who I am today, as most people I meet would think of me as quite idiosyncratic, I’d happily agree because my life is what makes me who I am.

Empathy is not something that was forced down my throat like religion in most societies. Instead, it was something I was taught the importance of—caring for others and not just myself, “The point is to make people hate and fear each other and look out not only for themselves, and don’t do anything for anyone else” (Noam Chomsky). This is important because empathy is important through vast cultures. Whether it has to do with one’s sexual orientation, religious beliefs, race, nationality, sex, etc. Empathy is the humanitarian connection—the human experience. Empathy transcends from one culture to another. Because of this, I learned how to embed empathy and not teach it. Instead, embedding empathy into my lessons is a much greater attribute.

I entered the world where the Internet (1993) was born (no, I wasn’t born in ’93). I was building computers and taking computers apart. Building my own Internet connections through cable when dial-up was the only option, with the help of my brothers. I started to teach myself Engineering (.PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, etc.), pushing myself to be a better artist by venturing from Fine Arts into Graphic Design and Illustration. Because of this, it landed me a job before I became a teenager at Music World Entertainment, one of the best moments of my life because of the endless possibilities and opportunities that I became a freelance artist and started working for myself. I was taking college courses because I was done with High School by the time I was in the 11^th grade. My morning classes were English, Advanced Math Classes, Honors courses, and the other half college courses. During my senior year in high school, my English teacher nominated me to teach during the summer in NYC (Thank you so much, Mr. Golden, for seeing so much potential in me) I led the HS newspaper, did the page layout, wrote articles, conducting interviews with Professors at Harvard (the day I decided I wanted to be a Professor), etc. All I ever wanted to do, as a kid, was to be an Artist and a Professor. My parents always wanted me to strive better than them. My father is an Artist and did chemistry, biology, etc. and my Mother is a Teacher. But I wanted to do what was best for me. Here I am today, living the dream. Yes, I went outside and played. No, my parents did not push me to do anything. My parents did not even realize my interest in most things because I was extremely introverted—I still am. I was just someone who loved as a child and still do: comics, video games, womanism/feminism, manga, graphic novels, math, coding, and reading. You could never find me in school sitting on the bench without reading a book, advocating something, or trying to bring about some changes within the community through self-projects or being a part and leading certain organizations (leading presentations, advocate/speaker for teenaged women, etc).

During my undergrad, I studied a bit at F.I.D.M, and realized going to Art school is no different than a four-year university. If you want to get better at any art skills attend a workshop. It is not worth the college debt that your scholarships do not pay for. I finished my undergrad at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, now, UA—Little Rock. I had three different Art emphases: Graphic Design, Photography, and Printmaking, which essentially dropped to Graphic Design and Photography. My other major was English/Literature while I also studied Creative Writing and took Rhetoric classes because I knew I would go into Engineering. Through Engineering I just wanted a Certificate because getting a degree in something that fizzles out by the time you graduate is utterly a waste of time. My Art classes made it hard to be in college as a triple major. I took a half of year off working in the field of Graphic & Web Design, Photography, Teaching, and TESOL. I enrolled back into UA—Little Rock for my Masters of Education Program. Now, I am pursuing my Ph.D.

I fell in love with Photography at a very young age; I was three years old. Photography, like Literature, is an excogitating evoking critical thinking work of visual words. Photography has taught me to remain equanimous in majority circumstances—thanks to the practice of Buddhism and its compelling relationship with Photography.