Mountainfilm: Natl. Geo. Emerging Explorer, Asher Jay

19 May Mountainfilm: Natl. Geo. Emerging Explorer, Asher Jay

“Creative conservationist” and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Asher Jay at Mountainfilm 2015: Gallery Walk, East Gallery, Ah Haa, and panel discussion at the Telluride Library, Saturday, 12:45 – 2 p.m.

Scroll down to bottom of story to find a podcast with Asher, whose work, conservation, is her life.

Full Mountainfilm schedule here.

Asher Jay

Dating sites would get pink slips if more women evaluated a potential suitor against one major criteria Asher Jay uses: “Is this guy worth six elephants?”

Is this guy, any guy, worth the time and attention he takes away from her passion, which happens to be saving the wild?

Asher Jay is a guest of Telluride Mountainfilm, where the work of this “creative conservationist” and National Geographic Emerging Explorer will be on display in the East Gallery at Ah Haa during Gallery Walk. Asher is also scheduled to speak at the Telluride Library on Saturday, May 23, 12:45 – 2 p.m.

Burning All Record Of

“Wild is an extension of us, it is a part of our past, present, and it should jolly well be a part of our future. Loss of wilderness areas and wildlife is the most important humanitarian concern of the 21st century. Our health is tied into wild health. Wild is present, it unfolds in a continuous stream of “now,” which anchors me to the breath at hand. Wild is full of magic and awe. Experiencing a true moment of connection with any wild creature, in its habitat, on its terms, is life changing and priceless,” said Jay in an article posted by Evermaven.

So, as Asher explained during one of her many fiery talks – National Geographic Live! or TEDxVailWomen?– her social life suffers.

Elephants win over cocktails and dinner:

“Wildlife trafficking is a prevalent conservation crime of the Anthropocene, it is a soulless trade that makes a currency of death, commoditizes life and condones irreverent consumerism. It has no compassion, compunction or common sense dictating its next take, and that makes the take result in extinctions.”

Stippled Scars, Cheetah

Much of Asher Jay’s best-known work spotlights the illegal blood ivory trade.

In 2013, the grassroots group, March for Elephants, asked Asher to visualize the blood ivory story on a huge animated billboard in New York’s 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. She created a similar campaign in China, in which she described elephants as the “Pandas of Africa,” a very clever hook in a country that prides itself on saving that particular species.

But Asher’s focus is broader than elephants. However important, elephants are just one entry on the activist-artist’s long list of causes.

Asher Jay plans to tackle biodiversity loss during the Anthropocene (or the slice of history in which man started impacting the planet big time) and expose threats to the world’s most traded and endangered mega fauna. Overfishing in the Mediterranean and threats to Africa’s remaining lions also make Asher’s list of near and dear.

Code Blue

Someone once said: “There is no inconsequential action: only consequential inaction. Real transformation originates from the bottom and moves outward.” Paul Hawkens (Mountainfilm 2007) put out more or less the same message in “Blessed Unrest,” a book about all the dharma saints in the world – people like Asher – trying to make a difference. Asher’s goal, as expressed on her website: “To motivate the one person she believes holds the real power to determine Nature’s fate. You.”

Her weapon of choice? Art. Asher Jay, uses groundbreaking design, multimedia arts, poems, stories and lectures to inspire global action to combat illegal wildlife trafficking, advance environmental issues, and promote humanitarian causes. Although she received an education in fashion design and marketing at New York’s Parsons the New School of Design, Asher found her way back through the arts, to her primary passion in wildlife conservation and today collaborates with scientists, non-profits and other change agents and speaks at various conferences, academic institutions and private salons to evoke hope and action in favor of a “wild” future.

Take Pride

Whatever form Asher Jay’s message takes, however, count on it to be edgy, sleek and designed to throw her audience slightly off balance. In her TEDx talk, she enjoined her audience to “channel your inner mosquito.”

Every time a mosquito bites, it has an impact.

To learn more about Asher Jay, click the “play” button and listen to our chat.