Minnie Evans: Difference between revisions

'''Minnie Eva Evans''' (December 12, 1892 – December 16, 1987)<ref name="Oxford Art Online" /><ref name=":3" /> was an [[African American]] [[artist]] who worked in the [[United States]] from the 1940s to the 1980s.<ref name="Oxford Art Online" /> Evans used different types of media in her work such as oils and graphite, but started with using [[wax]] and [[crayon]].<ref name="Oxford Art Online" /> She was inspired to start drawing due to visions and dreams that she had all throughout her life, starting when she was a young girl.<ref name="Oxford Art Online" /> She is known as a [[Southern United States|southern]] [[folk artist]] and as a [[surrealist]] and [[visionary artist]] as well.<ref name="Oxford Art Online" />

Evans began drawing on [[Good Friday]] 1935, where she finished two [[drawing]]s using pen and ink "dominated by concentric and semi-circles against a background of unidentifiable linear motifs".<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?ID=1466|title = Minnie Evans|date = |accessdate = |website = |publisher = |last = Smithsonian American Art Museum|first = }}</ref> These two pieces were titled "My Very First" and "My Second," respectively.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Minnie Evans|url=https://whitney.org/artists/406|access-date=2020-11-12|website=whitney.org|language=en}}</ref> From a young age, Minnie depicts her experiences of receiving visions and viewing mythical creatures that acquaintances could not.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Angel That Stands By Me {{!}} Folkstreams|url=http://www.folkstreams.net/film-detail.php?id=71.|access-date=2020-11-11|website=www.folkstreams.net|language=en}}</ref> Inevitably these visions circulated throughout her life as she started to hear and see more into her early adulthood. She heard a voice in her head that said 'Why don't you draw or die?'<ref name="Folk Art Messenger" /> After this, Evans did not resume drawing until 1940.<ref name="Folk Art Messenger" /> She started using [[pencil]] and wax on paper for her beginning works and she later worked with [[oil paint]]s and [[mixed media]] [[collage]]s.<ref name="Oxford Art Online" /> Her subject matter were usually either [[Bible|biblical]] scenes or scenes from nature. Often, it was a mixture of both. <ref>{{Cite web|title=The Tree of Life – NCMALearn|url=https://learn.ncartmuseum.org/artwork/the-tree-of-life/|access-date=2020-11-12|language=en-US}}</ref> Her influences included [[African culture|African]], [[Caribbean]], [[East India]], [[China|Chinese]], and [[Western cultures]].<ref name="Oxford Art Online" /> Since she held the position as gatekeeper at the [[Airlie Gardens]], she often used the gardens as her inspiration in her work to depict nature scenes.<ref name="Oxford Art Online" />

Evans first started selling her work at the Airlie Gardens by hanging her pieces on the front gate of the gardens. Those whoShe would comeoften andgive visither thepieces Airlieaway Gardens began purchasing herto workvisitors. Soon she became known throughout the south and visitors would come to the gardens just to see her work.<ref name="Painting Dreams" /> In 1961, she had her first formal exhibition of drawings and oils at the Little Artists Gallery (now St. Johns Museum) in Wilmington, North Carolina.<ref name="Painting Dreams" /><ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Otfinoski|first=Steven|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcWHdpRoDkUC&dq|title=African Americans in the Visual Arts|publisher=Facts on File, Inc|year=2014|isbn=9781438107776|series=A to Z of African Americans, Facts on File library of American history|location=New York City, NY|pages=74-75}}</ref>

Evans was the subject of the [[Documentary film|documentary]], ''The Angel that Stands By Me: Minnie Evans' Art'' (1983), by [[Allie Light]] and [[Irving Saraf]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Angel That Stands By Me|url=http://www.folkstreams.net/film-detail.php?id=71|last=|first=|date=|website=Folkstreams|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-05-09}}</ref> The title of the documentary comes from a quote Evans herself. She says, "God has sent me an angel that stands by me. [It] stands with me and directs me what to do."<ref name=":0">Saraf, Irving, and Allie Light, dir. Angel That Stands By Me: Minnie Evans Painting. Directed by Minnie Evans, Wilmington, NC: FolkStreams, 2008. Film. <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEAkHRQFdNc</nowiki> </ref>

Evans began to [[Drawing|draw]] and [[Painting|paint]] at the age of 43, creating her first pieces of artwork on a scrap of paper bag. She was known to free-hand her drawings from left to right. <ref>{{Cite web|title=About the Artist: Minnie Evans {{!}} Folkstreams|url=https://www.folkstreams.net/film-context.php?id=120|access-date=2020-11-12|website=www.folkstreams.net|language=en}}</ref>Five years later she decided to really dedicate herself to recording her dreams through art. She painted her early works on US Coast guard stationery and later worked with more precision, using ink, [[graphite]], [[Crayon|wax crayon]], [[Watercolor painting|watercolour]] and [[Oil painting|oil on canvas]], board and paper.<ref>''[http://www.rawvision.com/books/outsider-art-sourcebook Outsider Art Sourcebook]'', ed. John Maizels, Raw Vision, Watford, 2009, p.71</ref>

Evans' drawings were inspired by her dreams and filled with many colors, possibly inspired by her work at Airlie Gardens. Her designs are complex, with elements recalling the art of [[China]] and the [[Caribbean]] combined with more Western themes. The central [[Motif (visual arts)|motif]] in many pieces is a human face surrounded by plant and animal forms. The eyes, which Evans equated with God's omniscience, are central to each figure, often three eyes were depicted and frontal faces with concealed lips. Symmetry was also a common theme in Evans' work<ref name="Folk Art Messenger" /> In addition, [[God]] is sometimes depicted with [[wing]]s and a multicolored collar and [[Halo (religious iconography)|halo]] and shown surrounded by all manner of creatures.