"The wild creative"
National Geographic Explorer. Artist. Designer. Writer. Speaker.
What Is Asher Jay?
Common Name: Asher Jay
Scientific Name: Asherus Jayus
Description: Mammalian and well groomed like its close relatives, the Great Apes. The Asher has golden brown curly hair that it wears in a short, asymmetrical cut. Tall, tan, and attired in trendy ensembles, this untamable creature of athletic stature has signature dark circles around its eyes, proof that this being is nocturnal by choice and diurnal by coffee. The sleep deprivation can be attributed to its workaholic nature. Time is definitely relative to the Asher, and even though it sports a prominent watch at all times, it has yet to use the apparatus for its intended purpose, which suggests that the Asher uses the watch solely for peacocking. Its long fingers occasionally sport manicures but mostly they are covered in paint splatters, a symptom of its career choice.
“STATUS: ENDANGERED, ESPECIALLY SINCE IT’S UNWILLING TO PROCREATE AND ADD TO POPULATION GROWTH.”
Habitat Range: Global citizen, amateur nest builder on field expeditions, often found worming its way through the Big Apple city and Big Sky country. Its primary residence was in Manhattan, New York City, for 18 years, but the Jay changed up its preferences in 2019, pre-covid, and elected to embrace the challenge of an off grid rural Montana existence, where despite the diminutive scale of the town, it has successfully honed in on areas with good coffee shops and dark speak-easy watering holes. The Jay, despite leaving the grid, continues to dress in bold patterns, bright colors and unexpected asymmetrical cuts, which makes it a critically endangered, eccentric embodiment of diversity in the ranch lands. The Jay can be extremely engaged in the local community and makes friends quickly, however it prefers to hole up on most days at its desk or at its studio, because its introverted nature predisposes it to quality alone time and professional productivity.
Key characteristics: Deep brown eyes, tan skin tone, loud voice with a mutt accent, excessive enthusiasm for life, enjoys walking her rambunctious Aussiedor - Onyx, consumes cake for breakfast, prefers solitude over company, gets excited by the prospect of being lost in unfamiliar towns amid unrecognizable faces, loves humming “Under the Sea” while diving, is gregarious, humorous, loving, kind, quirky and certainly seems to be possessed by the wild.
What Does Asher Do?
Asher Jay is an international adventurer and public figure whose compelling paintings, sculptures, installations, animations, ad campaigns, and films all have a single purpose: to incite global action on behalf of wildlife conservation.
Asher's travels to the frontline have made her witness and story-teller, combating illegal wildlife trafficking, promoting habitat sanctuaries and illuminating humanitarian emergencies. Her core message, again and again: biodiversity loss during the Anthropocene – the Age of Man.
“Art has a unique power to transcend differences and connect with people on a visceral level – and compel action.”
Jay just opened two permanent exhibits at National Geographic Encounter in New York's Times Square -- a large scale wall-mounted installation entitled Piece of the Planet, and an immersive, soundscaped installation called "Message in a Bottle." Much of her best-known work spotlights the illegal ivory trade. In 2013, grassroots group March for Elephants asked her to visualize the blood ivory story on a huge, animated digital billboard also in main hub of the Big Apple, Times Square. Viewed by 1.5 million people, the internationally crowd-funded initiative aimed to provoke public pressure for revising laws that permit ivory to be imported, traded and sold. Asher also participated in the Faberge Big Egg Hunt in New York, where her oval ornament helped raise money for anti-poaching efforts in Amboseli.
A nomadic globe trotter who fell in love with New York while studying at Parson’s New School of Design, Asher Jay is determined to motivate you to understand you have real power in determining nature’s fate, and your – our – wild future.
“Conservation can no longer afford to be marginalized,” she asserts. “Today, we need everyone.”
How did Jay get started?
Not every person gets to make an impassioned declaration to a salaried position on Seventh Avenue and find his or her calling on the Serengeti but that is precisely how Jay began her journey. While she understands that most people take pride in never quitting, she believes it takes knowing when to quit to find one's self and purpose. So her path and process began at "I quit," which has since taken this city bird to the bush wild time and again. To tell compelling stories instead of sew sartorial couture.
"Do not underestimate the power of a timely 'No.'"
CLIENTS & COMMISSIONS /
National Geographic Emerging Explorer, UN Women Design Star
Prada, Adidas, Airbnb, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Partners, National Audubon Society, Soapply, WWF, Biotherm, Wild Aid, American Museum of Natural History, US-Embassy Kenya, Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, African Wildlife Foundation, Save Our Elephants, Thinking Animals Inc., Frankfurt Zoological, Society Amazon Aid, Elephant Voices, Elephant Family, Wyoming Untrapped, International Anti-poaching Foundation, Rhinos Without Borders, Africa Geographic, Pangea Seed, Elephants DC, Burn The Ivory, Sea Shepherd Society, See Turtles, March For Elephants, Hands Off Our Elephants, Great Whales Conservancy, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Mission Blue, TEDx, Canon, Climate Change 4 Real.