Artist Spotlight: Aileen Callahan
"Smoldering Heart/Moby Dick," 2019. charcoal, chalk on paper "22 x 30"
Aileen Callahan
M.F.A. Boston University School of the Arts
M.A. Dominican University, Institute of the Arts, Florence, Italy, Spellman Scholar
Aileen has received numerous grants and awards, including the Lincoln Fellowship in Mural Painting (Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura, Mexico City- 2 years, study with David Alfaro Siqueiros). She received two full scholarships to the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and has completed ten murals, two in fresco. One mural was under the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston. Aileen has given three sets of lectures on painting for the Boston Public Library (A National Endowment for the Humanities Grant). Exhibitions include the Academy of Arts & Letters Invitational in New York City.
Her work with Moby-Dick includes the oil paintings and charcoal drawings:
“White Whale: Moby Dick I,” 2002, “Birth of Moby Dick Series, 2002, “Furnace Mouth Series,” 2003-4, “White Spot,” 2008, “Fluke Moby Dick,” 2008, “Spine/Ribs Moby Dick,” 2008, “Skin of the Back- Moby Dick Series,” 2009, “Breaching- Moby Dick,” 2013,2019, “Bones,” 2014, and “Fire Whale,” 2014.
“The Mother’s Song (The Mother of Moby Dick) 2018 = video with images from
“Birth of Moby Dick Series” and Aileen’s original music
“Heart of Moby Dick Series,” 2018, 2019
“Moby Dick in Days of Pestilence and Chaos,” watercolors 2020
