Painter Bruce Aiken has lived for 33 years at the bottom of the Grand Canyon where he has worked for the Park Service, raised a family and painted intimate and unique views of the Canyon.

A native New Yorker, Aiken first encountered the Grand Canyon while on a road trip out west with his brother at the age of nineteen. The following year he dropped out of the School of the Visual Arts in New York and moved to Arizona. He spent a few years in Phoenix where he attended Phoenix College and met his wife, Mary.

In 1973 Aiken took a job at Grand Canyon National Park working on the trails. This employment led to his job as the Roaring Springs Pumphouse Operator at the bottom of the North Rim. The couple and their three children lived in this location from March until November of each year. They had a three-bedroom house complete with a white picket fence and helicopter landing pad. Their home was so remote that a run to the grocery store included a five-mile hike and 200 mile drive.

While Aiken worked for the Park Service he also painted, filmed and wrote about the Grand Canyon. He is the only artist to live within the canyon walls and paint views only found from inside the canyon. The Grand Canyon is a great inspiration to the artist who paints mostly by commissions. His international clientele includes First Lady Laura Bush.

In 2006 Aiken will retire from the Park Service and move his home to the South Rim of the canyon where he will continue to paint his great muse.

Source: Art-Talk, November/December 2005