GAYLEEN AIKEN

(American, 1934-2005)

Two Oils on Canvasboard

Footnotes

N.B.
Musician, writer, and outsider artist Gayleen Aiken was born in Barre, Vermont, and spent most of her life in the surrounding area. She was a self-taught artist and worked in a wide variety of media and formats. Many of Aiken's works are populated by a group called the "Rambilli cousins", an imaginary extended family whom Aiken created in elementary school. These imaginary figures and their adventures remain central fixtures of Aiken's art throughout her career.

Aiken used her art and writing to reconstruct the memories of her Vermont childhood, including the home she grew up in (which appears in one of the present works). She was bullied in school and therefore homeschooled after junior high, and her family was forced to sell their beloved farmhouse when her father died in 1950. It is possible that the Rambilli cousins and their lives are visions of the large family and idyllic childhood that Gayleen did not have, as her work often depicts familiar landscapes - frequently including the same dilapidated farmhouse in which she grew up - encased in a sort of nostalgic unreality. The Raimbillis existed in this lyrically beautiful vision of Vermont and its countryside which Aiken so lovingly depicted. As Vermont Public Radio's Steve Zind commented, 'The Raimbillis were the big family Gayleen never had. But they also represented something more universal. The happy Raimbillis, in their sturdy farmhouses filled with music, with the soft moonlight falling on the rooftops - these images aren't just Gayleen's idealized Vermont. They represent a Vermont we all carry in our imaginations."

Iterations of the following inscription are found on the reverse of both works: 'If person who buys my art would like to write to me, a friendly letter, please tell me if you ever saw & heard an old Nickelodeon, where? Seen many? I love Nickelodeon music. Tell me about your hobby, music, favorite sports, your family farm, biggest houses & buildings you've lived in or owned. Tell me about Nickelodeon."

Inscribed on the reverse of Buttercup and Gawleen: 'Artist, camper, comics-cartoonist. I been in movie-films. I like large country houses, I like player-pianos, player organs, old Nickelodeon music boxes, juke boxes, I like to play music on my drums, little bells, xylophones, kalimba, autoharp, marimbas, panpipe, harmonicas, organs, pianos, wind-chimes, accordions, and more music. When we camp around helping relatives with the farmlands, properties, camps, apartments, I liked & miss the very old wallpaper, fancy old chandeliers, fancy old woodwork, attics, closits, old porches, long halls, country-hills, old familier scenes and more. Music echo good in our old high rooms. We once thought we'd like to have a big hobby-museum in our old big heirloom art studio, we camp now. We move often. We might move back to one of our old big heirloom country houses later. Sometimes we've done many hobbies when we had spare time.'

OVERALL CONDITION: There are scattered surface accretions and stains to both. There are no other condition issues to report.

This condition report is provided for your convenience based on the opinion of our cataloguers. It is not a comprehensive condition report and if you require more detailed information, please contact us. Lots are sold on an 'as is' basis, with all faults and imperfections.