Who was sculptor Leona Evelyn Raymond?

This article was originally published by MNopedia on July Leona Evelyn Raymond is remembered for the large architectural sculptures she designed and named for such virtues as love family and peace For sixty years she taught workshops and classes creating a region of novice and professional sculpture artists who dubbed her Minnesota s dean of women sculptors Evelyn Raymond who went by her middle name was born in Duluth and grew up in a creative family that worked hard for a meager income She learned early that what she didn t have she could make Even as a small child she fashioned toys from twigs and whistles from willows Her art training began with an innovative operation connecting Duluth high school students with Columbia University instructors providing classes in drawing pottery metal work and art history After completing high school Raymond attended the Minneapolis School of Art where she experimented in abstract and modernist sculpture She is announced to have produced the school of art s first abstract sculpture A sparse years into her studies however she was called back to Duluth to care for her ailing mother and to help raise a younger brother and sister For eight years she supported her family by working as a cook on a dairy farm near Duluth but she produced no artwork It was only after her mother s death in that she felt she could resume her life as a Minneapolis artist Clement Haupers director of the Minnesota division of the WPA s Federal Art Project FAP remembered her initiative and her work at the school of art and he agreed to hire her if she could prove she was still able to create sculptures Raymond responded to the challenge by constructing a twenty-inch-tall gray plaster figure she named Erg meaning a unit of work or force The statuette was constructed as a collection of tools and body parts coming together in the form of a brawny humanoid part man part robot Haupers hired Raymond and within a year he appointed her to head the FAP sculpture department which moved into the Walker Art Center s new society art school As an FAP instructor Raymond s responsibilities included teaching and creating three-dimensional works for post offices schools hospitals and other population buildings Her first major assignment at the FAP was to construct a large bas relief sculpture for the high school stadium in International Falls It was a crucial departure from the Erg figure while Erg was measured in inches this mural would be twelve feet by eighteen feet It was more complex featuring seven muscular athletes emerging from a cement frame Tiny Erg was created within three months while the Bronco Stadium relief was under construction for nearly three years Both sculptures offered proof that she could still sculpt and both demonstrated her range of media and style FAP funding ended in and the scheme closed Raymond remained as a coach and head of the Walker art school s sculpture department through the transition with the continued charge of conducting classes and workshops and progressing her own sculptures Her work was often experimental combining modernism with cubism and realism with abstraction In her own works she designed pieces she deduced viewers could relate to in her teaching she encouraged students to create for themselves Related Remembering Henrytown Minnesota In the Walker Art Center shut down its art school and Raymond lost her job Almost overnight she launched Minnesota s first all-sculpting school which came to be known as the Evelyn Raymond Clay Club For the rest of her life she supported herself by combining teaching with sculpture commissions large and small She created a locality of sculpture artists by offering classes for children high school students and adults then celebrating their work in exhibits staged in local cafes libraries shops and once in a barn in Hopkins Several of her large sculptures remain in situ in the s bulk notably her seven-foot-tall bronze statue of Maria Sanford the University of Minnesota s first woman professor The Sanford statue is one of two statues representing the state of Minnesota as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington DC Bibliography Abbe Mary At Evelyn Raymond Sculpts a New Niche Minneapolis Star Tribune June Alburn Miriam Talk of the Week Amateur Artists Organize Club Minneapolis Morning Tribune June Art for Relaxation Module Draws Pupils from Multiple Walks of Life Minneapolis Morning Tribune February Art Aspirant Given Award Duluth Herald June Arts Center to Be Open Next Month Minneapolis Morning Tribune November Arts Council Pushes Drive on New Center Minneapolis Star May Brataas Anne Bigger Is Better Says Local Sculptor Minneapolis Star January Chiseling at Its Best Sculptresses at Work Minneapolis Morning Tribune May Duluth Students Win National Art Contest Mention Duluth News Tribune May Evelyn Raymond Opens Own School Minneapolis Morning Tribune June Evelyn Raymond s Shepherd Is Largest Church Sculpture in Minnesota Minneapolis Morning Tribune January Flanagan Barbara Minnesota s Gift to Nation Minneapolis Star November Henrickson Jr Kenneth E The WPA Federal Art Projects in Minnesota Minnesota History no Spring https storage googleapis com mnhs-org-support mn history articles v i p - pdf Keaveny Joan Hobby Stirs Interest Says Art Instructor Minneapolis Morning Tribune October Kimball Willis M City s Walker Gallery Going Streamlined Minneapolis Star-Journal November L Enfant Julie Pioneer Modernists Afton Press Levin Ann Biographical note in Evelyn Raymond An Inventory of Her Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society Finding aid September https storage googleapis com mnhs-finding-aids-public library findaids p html a Luther Sally Moving Day for Sculptor Will Be No Light Task Minneapolis Star May O Sullivan Thomas A Sculptor s Own Story An Oral History Edited and Introduced by Thomas O Sullivan Minnesota History no Summer https storage googleapis com mnhs-org-support mn history articles v i p - pdf The WPA Federal Art Project in Minnesota A Job and a Movement Minnesota History no Spring https storage googleapis com mnhs-org-support mn history articles v i p - pdf Riley Dorothy Fame Begins at Home Says Minneapolis Artist Minneapolis Star Tribune May Shah Allie L Evelyn Raymond Dies at Sculptor and Apostle of Art Minneapolis Star Tribune April Town Toppers Here s a Quick Look at Evelyn Raymond Minneapolis Star June Wins Scholarship Duluth News Tribune June Related Materials Secondary How Maria Sanford Statue Was Made Minneapolis Morning Tribune October Raymond Evelyn Sculptor Puts the Episode for Local Artist Minneapolis Tribune August Raymond Sculpture Finds Home on CST Coughlan Field House College of St Thomas Memorandum October November https cdm contentdm oclc org digital collection magazines id rec Riley Dorothy Sculptress Does Head of Author Minneapolis Sunday Tribune December Sculpture s Work from the s Featured Nowadays International Falls Journal February Originally published on March https www twincities com sculptures-work-from-the- s-featured-today Winegar Karin WPA Kept Both Arts and Artists Alive During Grim Days Minneapolis Star and Tribune November Web Berkowitz Elizabeth Timeline Foundations and the Walker Art Center RE Source November https pool rockarch org story foundations-and-the-walker-art-center Evelyn Raymond St Louis Park Historical Society undated https slphistory org raymondevelyn Maria Sanford Statue Architect of the Capitol https www aoc gov explore-capitol-campus art maria-sanford-statue Research appointment with the MNHS collections department Minnesota History Center St Paul May A Tribute to Evelyn Raymond March mp video From video recordings and in the Evelyn Raymond papers undated and Manuscripts Collection Minnesota Historical Society St Paul https storage cloud google com mnhs-finding-aids-public library findaids p video p - mp Wurzer Cathy MN History Sculptor Evelyn Raymond s -Year Career in Minnesota MPR News March https www mprnews org story mnhistory-evelyn-raymond The post Who was sculptor Leona Evelyn Raymond appeared first on MinnPost