Sybil Gibson

MARCIA WEBER / ART OBJECTS
1050 Woodley Road
Montgomery, Alabama 36106
(334) 262-5349
Fax: (334) 567-0060
weberart@mindspring.com

Sybil Gibson

This eccentric artist that would disappear for months at a time was born Sybil Aaron on February 18, l908 in Dora, Alabama. Although her childhood was filled with prosperity, she spent most of her adult life in abject poverty. Her father was a successful coal mine operator with a family farm. Gibson was college educated and married Hugh Gibson. An unsuccessful experience in a college art class "killed any interest she had in creating art," she later stated. She taught elementary school and gave birth to a daughter. In l963 on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 55, she became fascinated with making her own wrapping paper from brown grocery bags and tempera paint. She was totally seized with a compulsion to paint which lasted for three decades.

View Works by a Specific Artist

"Birds" acrylic on cardboard 17.5" x 13.5" $500 (9077)

Creating her subtle, dreamlike paintings in pastel shades was for her, a passionate escape from daily realities and responsibilities. When she disappeared, she was later discovered in Florida only to disappear again, leaving each time paintings strewn around her houses, mobile homes and yards.

Much of her work was destroyed by the elements but there are believed to be about 300 works in existence. Gibson died in l995. Her work is in numerous private and museum collections today.