Painting Dreams: Minnie Evans, Visionary Artist - Hardcover

Lyons, Mary E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039572032X ISBN 13: 9780395720325

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996

Synopsis

An introduction to the life of Minnie Evans explains how she began, at age forty-three, to draw the strange figures that had haunted her dreams all her life and describes the restrictions that were placed upon her ambitions as an African-American artist.

About this title

About the Author:

The author of fifteen books for young readers, Mary Lyons lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband, Paul. Her grandfather was born in Ireland in 1869, in a place much like Knockabeg.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A vivid portrait of an African-American artist whose work remains controversial but who demonstrated courage and perseverance in the face of enormous obstacles. Minnie Evans was born in 1892 in North Carolina to a poor family. As a child she was haunted by strange and powerful dreams often based on her strong religious faith. She left school after fifth grade, married Julius Evans at age 15, and had three sons. Still she dreamed, for the next 20 years, until she finally began to draw what she saw in her dreams. Her output steadily grew until she was producing half a dozen or more pictures a day, with no training and only the guidance of ``the angel that stands beside me.'' Interest in the self-taught artist began to spread until her work came to the attention of a photographer/folk art specialist, who took on the job of selling the paintings for much more than the 50 cents Evans was charging. Some fame followed before Minnie Evans died in 1987, having completed the task which she believed God had set before her. Lyons (Letters From a Slave Girl, 1992, etc.) uses Minnie's own words for the few chapters that chart her life, all illustrated with full-color reproductions of the artwork. (afterword, notes, index) (Biography. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 039572032X
• ISBN 13: 9780395720325
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48