Roslyn Zinn, 85; Blended Social Activism With The Arts

Roslyn Zinn, 85; Blended Social Activism With The Arts
by Byran Marquard

NEWTON, Mass. - The dunes overlooking Wellfleet’s shore, a terrain Roslyn Zinn revered during summer visits, glow in one of her paintings with a singular warmth, as if she perceived the landscape more deeply than any seasonal pilgrim.


“After years as a teacher and social worker, I turned seriously to painting, which throughout my life had sparked and enlivened my spirit,” Ms. Zinn wrote in a brief introduction to “Painting Life,” a collection of her work that was published last year, a few months after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. “What I see in the world, so burdened and troubled, and yet beautiful in nature and in the human form, impels me to seek to create images that give the possibility of hope.”

A glorious spray of tulips, the gentle curve of an unclothed hip, the deep smile lines etched around her husband’s mouth - Ms. Zinn’s brush found in each of her subjects a sense of serenity and promise. And those same qualities, present in her along with a radiant delight in life, impressed those she met her during her long marriage to historian Howard Zinn as they walked arm in arm in marches protesting wars from Vietnam to Iraq.

Ms. Zinn, who was always the first and most important reader of her husband’s many books and essays, died May 14 in their home in the Auburndale village of Newton. She was 85 and had continued to climb the stairs to her studio and paint until the last days of her life.

“She was a passionate person, passionately committed to the causes of peace and justice, and she was anguished by what was happening in the world,” her husband said. “At the same time, she was a very sunny, happy, warm person.”

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/21/9095/

thanks for posting this...

Condolences to the Zinn family.

My condolences to her family.

What a beautiful family.