LORD OF THE RINGS

By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
ils and brushes, large canvases, jazz music and bold colors -- these are the tools of Dr. Alfred Bright's trade.
More than 40 years ago, Bright came within a hair of a totally different life -- one that would have replaced his paints with tonic, his brushes with razors and his canvases with towels.
Bright was headed for barber school.
"I was proud of that," the soft-spoken Bright says, sitting in the shadow of one of his paintings that hangs above a booth at Station Square Restaurant.
His career path changed after a few influential men urged him to go to college and explore his other gifts. Those words of encouragement have gone a long way in shaping the life that Bright, an abstract artist, educator and historian, leads today.
Help for exhibit: Bright, 61, was instrumental in the exhibit "Sitting for Sall & eacute;e: A Retrospective of Portraits by Charles Louis Sall & eacute;e, Jr.," which is on display through Jan. 4 at Artist Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland.
Sall & eacute;e, now 90, was the first black graduate of Cleveland Institute of Art. He is recognized not only for his portraiture but also as the designer of places such as the ballroom in Renaissance Cleveland Hotel and the Cleveland Municipal Stadium clubhouse.
Bright interviewed Sall & eacute;e for an essay he wrote about Karamu House artists in the catalog for "Yet Still We Rise: African American Art in Cleveland 1920-1970." That exhibit was displayed five years ago at Cleveland State University, the Butler Institute and Riffe Gallery in Columbus. The men became friends.
Bright loaned some of Sall & eacute;e's works from his personal collection for the retrospective and located others.
"He's one of the country's finest colorists and definitely one of America's greatest draftsmen. He really can draw. His printmaking is considered to be one of the finest in American history," Bright said of Sall & eacute;e.
His work: Bright has earned his own praise recently. He received a Juror's Award last month in the 65th Area Artists Annual Exhibition at Butler Institute of American Art.
"His work resonates with a lyric energy that engages the imagination," says juror Ernestine Brown, a Youngstown native and co-owner of Malcolm Brown Gallery in Shaker Heights. "His use of color, shape and form create a dialogue with the viewer."
The award was for a piece Bright calls "Transformations," which he had painted in 1999 at Liberty High School, while students played jazz music. Bright is well known for such live events.
Bright's love of music dates back to his childhood. His mother played piano in church. His father had played guitar until he became a family man because guitars were associated with clubs, not church-going people, Bright said.
Background: Bright was a member of a doo-wop group at South High School, where he was also in art classes, National Honor Society and Junior Achievement. In August 1959, after he graduated, he attended a national JA conference in Indiana and won two awards, for singing and impromptu speaking.
At the awards dinner, students were invited to speak about their plans. Many of them were enrolled in the nation's best colleges.
Bright told them he was on the waiting list for a barber school in Cleveland. The crowd howled. Ed Mosler Jr., president of Mosler Safe Co. and JA president, told Bright he should be a comedian.
"I swear, no one had talked to me about going to college," Bright said.
Bright believed college would cost thousands of dollars, which his working-class parents didn't have. Moreover, "I had this preconceived notion that you had to be a genius to go to college," he added.
Mosler and banquet guest S. Bayard Colgate of the Colgate-Palmolive Co. offered to help Bright with expenses if he enrolled at a university.
Bright received a federal grant to attend Youngstown State, and the businessmen sent him stipends for his books.
Bright eventually studied with YSU art department chairman John Naberezny, who had been his seventh-grade art teacher. He earned a degree in art education, graduated in 1964 and, with Mosler's help, pursued a master's degree in painting at Kent State University. Bright and Mosler remained friends for 20 years, until Mosler died.
Bright was the first black faculty member at YSU, where he has taught for 36 years, he said. He was founding director of YSU's Black Studies department from 1970 to 1987. He's received two distinguished professor awards, in 1982 and 1996.
Paintings: And he has painted up a storm.
Bright's works are in the permanent collections of hospitals, banks, country clubs and art galleries. Other works have been exhibited throughout the state as well as in Guadalajara, Mexico; Naples, Fla.; Roanoke, Va.; Dallas; Amherst, Mass.; and Palo Alto, Calif.His reputation as a performance artist grew. In 1980, Bright painted while drummer Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers performed at Youngstown Playhouse.
Blakey's backing musicians included an 18-year-old trumpeter, Wynton Marsalis; Kevin Eubanks, who is now music director of NBC's "The Tonight Show" starring Jay Leno; and his brother Robin Eubanks, trumpeter and trombonist.
Bright, who also plays jazz flute, sees a connection between improvisational jazz and abstract painting: Nothing is done the same way twice, because the art is produced in the spirit of the moment.
How music helps: "You paint from your pathos. At least I do ... the music drives you to certain levels of release," he said.
He also compares the process to falling in love. "You simply become aware of it. And when you become aware of it, it's like it's been part of you forever."
These days, Bright is making contacts with San Francisco-area gallery owners about future exhibits. He's a panel member for selection of artworks that will hang in Youngstown's second federal courthouse, which is under construction at Wick Avenue and Commerce Street.
Bright misses the gallery he had in downtown Youngstown for 20 years until about five years ago, as government leaders began to talk about razing old buildings.
"We were literally evicted," Bright said of downtown artists. He's still hopeful that the arts will be "a vital force" in downtown redevelopment.
"People love art. They need it. Wherever it's supported, you see development," he said.
Partnerships are part of the process. Bright pointed to the Students Motivated by the Arts program that began at YSU and involved Youngstown city schools students.
SMARTS is relocating to Adler Art Academy above Edward W. Powers Auditorium. He'd like to be thought of as a conduit for other collaborative efforts.
"I see myself as a resource. I have a passion. I want to give back," Bright said.
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Bright misses the gallery he had in downtown Youngstown for 20 years until about five years ago, as government leaders began to talk about razing old buildings.
"We were literally evicted," Bright said of downtown artists. He's still hopeful that the arts will be "a vital force" in downtown redevelopment.
"People love art. They need it. Wherever it's supported, you see development," he said.
Partnerships are part of the process. Bright pointed to the Students Motivated by the Arts program that began at YSU and involved Youngstown city
shaulis@vindy.com