- Date Of Birth: October 8, 1950
- Date Of Death: April 9, 2018
- State: Florida
Mary Aileen Winter Mostel died at home in Tallahassee, Florida on April 9, 2018, at 7:18 pm. She succumbed to breast cancer, after 17 years of sustained warfare. Her husband and best friend, Tobias, sister Barbara, niece Holly, and the dog Juno, were by her side, holding her hand and singing “I love you, a bushel and a peck.” Aileen leaves her husband, Tobias Mostel, son of the late actor Zero Mostel and his wife, Kate Mostel, and brother in law, actor Josh Mostel; Barbara Winter, John Winter, William Winter, John Petito, Emma Winter and Alexander Unger; Holly, Charles, Carter and Dennis Low; and beloved pets Juno, Albert, Wazoo, Vickto & Lali and the Pider. Born in Orlando, Florida on October 8, 1950, Aileen was the second child of Frances Wadsworth Beggs and Wallace Edwards Winter. She grew up in Madison and Ocala and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Florida State University. Aileen was profoundly influenced by her grandmother Frances, her Uncle, modernist industrial designer Carter Winter, and his wife Charlotte, art editor of Architectural Forum and Architecture Plus. They nurtured her creative spirit, supported her sense of curiosity, shared craft secrets and demanded concentration. In 1979, Aileen moved to New York City, where she met and married Tobias Mostel. She was a designer of A Handbook for the Study of Social Symbolism in Ancient and Tribal Art–A Record of Tradition and Continuity by Carl Schuster and Dr. Edmund Carpenter. This twelve volume book was published by the Rock Foundation in 1988 and it was, in her words, a nodal change in her life. She understood the meanings and reasons of tribal and ancient designs, the patterns of the memory of ancestors and the myths of ancient people. Thinking about traditional patterns became her daily work-routine in design, calligraphy, painting, kinetic sculpture and ceramics. Aileen made calligraphic awards for the Municipal Art Society, Classical America, The Cast Iron Society, The Inter School Orchestras of New York, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2001, she won an Art-in-State-Buildings award and created a large mural for the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) building for the University of Florida. Three years ago she and her sister started WinterPrint, a print design company, based on Aileen’s photographic images of nature and commonplace objects, needles, bobbins, fasteners. Aileen lived with Tobias in New York City; Amagansett, Long Island; Eastport, then Portland, Maine; Madison, then Tallahassee, Florida. At each home she grew gardens, built things, sewed, tiled, and cared for many pets, from turtles to pigeons. In each community, she drew people in with her joy and kind-heartedness. To know Aileen was to love her.
