Gayleen Aiken
Encyclopedia
Gayleen Aiken http://stirusfreeus.com/aiken.html was an artist
, musician
, and historian
who lived most of her life in Barre, Vermont.
Gayleen Aiken shared her unique artistic vision with the world through Vermont's Grass Roots Art and Community Effort's exhibition program. GRACE, http://www.graceart.org, a not-for-profit organization, works to discover, develop and promote the population of elders and other special constituencies in rural Vermont.
Sometimes referred to as the "Grandma Moses" of Vermont http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2005/04/03/gayleen_aiken_artist_called_vermonts_grandma_moses/ , Gayleen Aiken produced a body of work that often combined texts and images; her themes include music
and musical instruments, the large old farmhouse
where she grew up, the lyricism of Vermont’s seasons, the granite
industry, and the pleasures and ordeals of rural life. These themes are threaded together by a cast of characters, members of an imaginary extended family, which she called The Raimbilli Cousins.
The work of Gayleen Aiken has been featured in exhibitions at the American Visionary Museum, the Fairbanks Museum, the Vermont Granite Museum, and KS Art. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum of American Folk Art, Williamsburg, VA and the Smithsonian American Art Museum
, Washington, D.C.
http://stirusfreeus.com/aiken.html. In 2007, the artist and friend Peter Gallo
organized the first posthumous exhibition of her work at SUNDAY
in New York
http://stirusfreeus.com/aiken_aiken.html.
She is the subject of Jay Craven
’s award winning film, Gayleen, and was a recipient of a Vermont Council on the Arts fellowship. In 1997, Harry B. Abrams, Inc. released Moonlight and Music: The Enchanted World of Gayleen Aiken. Her artwork has been featured in The New York Times
, Raw Vision
, The Boston Globe
, Smithsonian
, and Folk Art
Magazine.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
who lived most of her life in Barre, Vermont.
Gayleen Aiken shared her unique artistic vision with the world through Vermont's Grass Roots Art and Community Effort's exhibition program. GRACE, http://www.graceart.org, a not-for-profit organization, works to discover, develop and promote the population of elders and other special constituencies in rural Vermont.
Sometimes referred to as the "Grandma Moses" of Vermont http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2005/04/03/gayleen_aiken_artist_called_vermonts_grandma_moses/ , Gayleen Aiken produced a body of work that often combined texts and images; her themes include music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and musical instruments, the large old farmhouse
Farmhouse
Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm. It is a type of building or house which serves a residential purpose in a rural or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm. Many farm houses are shaped like a T...
where she grew up, the lyricism of Vermont’s seasons, the granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
industry, and the pleasures and ordeals of rural life. These themes are threaded together by a cast of characters, members of an imaginary extended family, which she called The Raimbilli Cousins.
The work of Gayleen Aiken has been featured in exhibitions at the American Visionary Museum, the Fairbanks Museum, the Vermont Granite Museum, and KS Art. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum of American Folk Art, Williamsburg, VA and the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
http://stirusfreeus.com/aiken.html. In 2007, the artist and friend Peter Gallo
Peter Gallo
Peter Gallo , Rutland, VT is a reclusive artist and writer who lives in Hyde Park, VT and Montreal, Quebec. Gallo attended Middlebury College and Concordia University in Montreal where he is a doctoral candidate in Art History...
organized the first posthumous exhibition of her work at SUNDAY
SUNDAY
SUNDAY is a contemporary art gallery located in the Lower East Side of New York City, USA.The gallery was founded by Clayton Sean Horton in the summer of 2006 and opened its first exhibition on October 6, 2006...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
http://stirusfreeus.com/aiken_aiken.html.
She is the subject of Jay Craven
Jay Craven
Jay Craven is a Vermont film director, screenwriter and professor of film studies at Marlboro College.Jay Craven is known for creating award winning films on modest budgets, adopting all of the novels of author Howard Frank Mosher to film...
’s award winning film, Gayleen, and was a recipient of a Vermont Council on the Arts fellowship. In 1997, Harry B. Abrams, Inc. released Moonlight and Music: The Enchanted World of Gayleen Aiken. Her artwork has been featured in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Raw Vision
Raw Vision
Raw Vision is a British magazine devoted to outsider art and edited by John Maizels. It features content about the subject worldwide.-History:...
, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, Smithsonian
Smithsonian (magazine)
Smithsonian is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.-History:...
, and Folk Art
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
Magazine.