Margit’s first painting doesn’t square with the rest
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Margit started painting when her last child left home, as she tells it in her memoir’s Oak Ridge chapter. Both of Margit’s parents had died in the last 5 years. And then in 1950, Frieda left for college. Margit felt the definition of “home” had changed. But she also felt freed up to pursue some personal interests, like painting. She picked up a small coloring set that had been one of her children’s and started to experiment.
Possibly one of Margit’s first works was a round painting that expressed her concern for her home.
Some think this plywood disc (with wooden trimming) had been used as a cover for an old stove pipe opening.
Margit is not known to have created any other painting that wasn’t rectangular or square.
Many of the houses Margit would paint over the years appear to be an unspecific place, But this early attempt is of the house Margit was living in at the time. At right is the Irvin Johnston farm on Oak Ridge, which Margit and Palmer rented from 1949 to 1954.
Margit Mindrum 