02/27/2024
Born near Wilmington, North Carolina, Minnie Evans (1892-1987) was never far from home. While working for a wealthy family as a domestic, Evans became a gatekeeper for the property after the widow of the household turned the Airlie Estate into public gardens, today known as the Airlie Gardens in Wilmington. Minnie Evans held this position for the rest of her life and retired from collecting admissions from visitors at 82 years old.
On Good Friday in 1935, Minnie Evans created her first two drawings using pen and ink. Her later works included pencil, crayon, oil paint, mixed media, and collage. Her artwork was centralized around nature and florals inspired by the Airlie Gardens, or religious scenes. Evans' work is full of symmetry, floral motifs, and vibrant colors, and has been compared to mandala paintings or Caribbean folk art. Another central motif to Evans' work includes a human face surrounded by plant and animal forms, to which she equates with merging nature with the image of God. Many of Evans' paintings are similar, yet no two are identical.
“We talk of heaven, we think everything is going to be white. But I believe we’re going to have the beautiful rainbow colors,” Minnie Evans.
When Minnie Evans passed away in Wilmington at age 95, she left behind more than 400 pieces of art to the St. Johns Museum of Art (today the Cameron Art Museum) in Wilmington. Today the Minnie Evans Bottle Chapel stands in her memory at the Airlie Gardens, created by artist Virginia Wright-Frierson. The Chapel is made almost entirely from reused glass bottles, with children’s artwork transformed into 95 stepping stones, each one representing a year of her life.
Her biography, “Painting Dreams: Minnie Evans, Visionary Artist” was published in 1996. "Minnie Evans" day was proclaimed on May 14, 1994, in Greenville, North Carolina.
Photo of Minnie Evans, Courtesy of Cape Fear Museum of History and Science Wilmington, NC.
