Manierre Dawson’s parents appreciated visual arts as a hobby but did not deem the arts a viable vocation. His father encouraged a more professional career, thus Dawson obtained a degree in Civil Engineering in 1909. Although Dawson had started painting from his imagination while in college, his education influenced his creative vision to the end that his abstract paintings heavily incorporated geometric shapes and structures. Dawson’s journal entries reveal that artworks he witnessed, ranging from the Rouen Cathedral to paintings by Paul Cézanne, were analyzed by Dawson in terms of their structural content. Dawson participated in the Armory show when it came to Chicago, and called it the most exciting time of his life. Similar to how his early