Sometimes it is just one or two words
from an artist teacher who notices
that makes a difference in an art student's work.
But in 1950, Margaret Peterson
was forced to leave the University of California
when she refused to sign the loyalty oath.
Her painting, her spirit, the example of her life
were missed by many of us in Berkeley.

It was the same year that Jackson Pollock,
Mark Rothko, William Baziotes,
and Ad Reinhardt
protested the lack of abstract art
exhibited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[ Paths of Memory and Painting]
[when the foreground meets the background]