Aiken lecture marking book launch
Tomorrow evening, artist Bruce Aiken talks about three decades of life and art in the Inner Canyon. Titled "Bruce Aiken's Grand Canyon: An Intimate Affair," the lecture and visual presentation begins at 7:30 at the Shrine of the Ages. It's free and open to the public.
The program also marks the release of a book of the same name, written by art writer Susan Hallsten McGarry and published by Grand Canyon Association. Through narrative and more than 130 images, this hefty coffee table book creates rich context for Aiken's intricate, signature Grand Canyon paintings.
Like his influences Thomas Moran, Louis Akin and especially Gunnar Widforss, he allowed the Canyon to define his body of work. But unlike them, he had the luxury of time and place to develop an unparalleled intimacy with his subject.
For more than 30 years, he worked for the Park Service's water utility, overseeing the Roaring Springs pump house 4,000 feet below the rim on the North Kaibab Trail. The area around the home he shared with his family became known as "the neighborhood," where he spent the first five years just observing and absorbing and more time after that developing his distinctive and meticulous style.
Aiken retired from the Park Service in 2006. He now operates a gallery and studio in the Babbitt Building on San Francisco Street in Flagstaff.
There will be time for book signings after the lecture.
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