Lead Dancer In Purple

Augusta Asberry 

(1931-2007) Augusta M. Asberry’s love of art was evident when as a student at Sacred Heart Grammar School in Lake Charles, LA; she would draw pictures during class instead of completing her assignments. Her earliest influences began in the thirties with first grade readers, children’s books, paper dolls, and magazine illustrations. In high school, the source of influence shifted to her high school teachers and all of the books she could get her hands on; and in college she fell under the spell of artists Paul Klee, Monet and Miró.

Augusta began college at San Francisco Junior College in 1949. In the early fifties she attended nursing school, and subsequently worked as a nurse for 38 years. In the sixties, Augusta returned to college at Peralta College in Oakland, CA, where she took classes in fashion design, fashion illustration and basic design. She began her professional career as a landscape painter in 1971. In 1992, she created her first African Dancers. “What I like about creating art is that I get to do what no one else can do. I alone get to interpret my ideas, visions and dreams and then present them on paper. To me this is the ultimate rush.”

Augusta M. Asberry’s work appears in numerous collections throughout the United States.