Aymon de Roussy de Sales
Aymon de Sales was born in New York City. He went to school at Allen Stevenson and Choat. He was a major character in the best selling book Chocolates For Breakfast (1955) by Pamela Moore. In 1956 he studied in the South of France with the Albanian abstractionist painter, Chatine Charatsi. After living in London and Kenya with his first wife, Pat Cavindish, daughter of Lady Kenmare, he traveled to Mexico where he came in contact with the beat poet Phillip Lamantia in 1961 and drew inspiration from the ceremonies of the Yaqui and Mayan Indians.He lived in the south of Spain from 1962 - 1967 where he introduced "Happenings" at the Bar Central in Torremolinos and help create a movie, "Torremolinos." He had several art exhibitions in Marbella and Madrid, married Isabel Equidazu and had two daughters, Chantal and Monica de Sales. In the 70's Aymon moved back to America and painted at the Tim Leary house in Millbrook, New York. In the early 80's Aymon exhibited in New York City with such well known artists as Marisol, Larry Rivers, Steve Miller and Schnabel at the Jon Leon Gallery. He co-curated with LindaÊWeintraub of Bard College the "Halley's Comet Art Show," an extraordinary exhibit of over sixty artists and poets, which was shown at the Light Gallery in New York City and Bard College in Annadale-on Hudson, New York and included John Chamberlain, Alan Jacquet, Taylor Mead, Nathan Joseph, Tom Shannon and Frosty Myers. In the early 90's Aymon de Sales completed "The Wall" in Southern Pines N.C, commissioned by the late Richard Reynolds III, a huge cosmic glyph study of personal time, two hundred and twenty feet long by four feet, painted on an outdoor wall.
Aymon de Sales wrote a poetry piece for Orfeo by the late Angus MacLise which was adapted by Sylvia Degiez for the Kitchen in New York in 1995. He has written other fables: "The Brown Moo Bird," "The Founding Pig," "Tuka-Tet," "Isadora and the Unicorn," and the "Purple Lion." The Moo Bird and the Purple Lion were adapted in March 1996 for the internet and can be viewed at moobird.com.
At present he lives with his wife, Elisabeth -- an artist as well -- and his youngest daughter, Pauline (pictured, above, with her father), in New York City. In 1997 Aymon de Sales collaborated with Taylor Mead and created "Pop The Top With Taylor Mead" an on-line show using video and animation which is produced by Robert Galinsky and Aymon de Sales at Pseudo Programs Inc. With Galinsky he has also helped create "The Majoon Traveler," a show hosted by the renowned poet, Ira Cohen.
Aymon de Sales organized the Taylor Mead Film Festival shown at the Anthology Film Archives January 8, 1998 and presently is working on a Traveling Taylor Mead Film Festival. He is also putting up on the internet a story illustrated by children about the life of Saint Francis de Sales.
April 4, 1998