Sybil Gibson (1908 - 1995)

Sybil Gibson, known for her dreamlike paintings on grocery bags, cardboard, newsprint, and other found materials, passed away on January 2, 1995.  Born Sybil Aaron in Dora, Ala., she graduated from Jacksonville State Teachers College, with a major in biology.  Sybil married Hugh Gibson in 1929 and taught elementary school in Cordova, Ala.  After a divirce, she relocated to Florida in the mid-1940s.  She was married a second time, to David de Yarmon, around 1950.  In 1981 she lived in a home for the elderly, in Jasper Ala.  Sybil Gibson began drawing on Thanksgiving Day 1963 with the intention of making her own Christmas wrapping paper out of brown paper grocery bags.  Through the 1960s Gibson`s work appeared in small galleries in Miami area and in May 1971 she was given a show at the Miami Museum of Modern Art.  She became known as the “Bag Lady” because most of her paintings are done on used paper bags.  Gibson created dreamlike drawings in pastel shades that mirror a sweet unreality.  The faces of her subjects, which are mostly female, are mask-like images that appear to be hiding from the real world.  Sybil`s flowery, childlike women have a lyrical quality that is quite appealing.  She portrays a very harsh-even cruel world, and her sweetness is superficial and deceiving.  Gibson worked on old guitar cases, mirrors, and newsprint in addition to used brown paper bags.  Her brown paper bag paintings, however, are the most common.  Although, Gibson is known for her “girls” in frilly dresses, she also painted a few male faces, multiple portaits, and some animals.

The paintings range in size fron 9 by 12 inches to about 15 by 20 inches.  Many of Gibson`s works were destroyed by the elements when she abandoned her home in 1971, but there are believed to be about 300 surviving pieces.