Seven Corners neighborhood

Seven corners refers to an intersection where seven streets run point blank into each other. For me, moving to this neglected innercity neighborhood was back to nature compared to the UofM, my sheltered life, and the more developed neighborhoods where I had been living. My paths collided too. With marriage and career going nowhere, I also was with unborn child. Everything was marginal. I was drawn to a couple of old women, who had been hard workers. Now in modest surroundings, without much money or support, I learned from their survival. See ink paintings of them and an oil painting of Rose in NYC.

Vacant lots and untrimmed vegetation were my jungle and my refuge. I didn't become a college art teacher. Instead, I worked part time as a stained glass designer. Some ink paintings were introspective self portraits.

Now the University has spread across the river and over this area.

When Carol Hoorn Fraser left Minnesota in 1961, we swapped paintings. In 2000, John Fraser sent slides of the oils shown on this page. The Old Lady at the top of the page also has a large version. Here is an overview of the same scene, Off the Back Porch.

Red Sky. Click the image for a medium-size version or here for a large one. It is one of the first color works stemming from the originally black and white Zen ink paintings, with writing. It says, "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning".

There's much more to show for this period.

• Spruce in Moonlight, oil, 1960. A branch that was my holiday decoration; a sunset; a moon
• Spring Snow, the last and largest oil. Ford Foundation purchase prize from the Walker Art Center Biennial, by invitation. Collection Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
• Spring Tree, a large 4' x 8' oil painting, 1961. It also is called Birth of a River.
• Path Through Weeds, large oil painting, 1960. Shown in one-woman show at the Walker Art Center, 1961. Collection of Nancy Ann James -> Theodore Pirsig.
• Birth of Leo, won second prize in oil painting, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
• Treetops is a greenish swishy oil that varies from thin washes to thick impasto. See a small, medium, or large version.
• The Hedge, oil, 1961. See a small or medium version.
• A few sculptures - bronze, cast from wax.
• Cottonwood Tree at Sunset, oil, 1960, 85" high. Collection Steven Lindberg.

Back to the Minnesota Art page.