AT HOME ART DATE | watch browse draw + paint
Sister Corita Kent was a religious sister, poet, designer, and educator from the United States. Christianity and social justice were significant themes in her work. She also worked as a professor at Immaculate Heart College. Corita's contribution to the pop art movement has gotten her further attention. Critics historically overlooked Kent's work, but there has been a resurgence of interest in her work in recent decades.
Corita's art was an expression of her advocacy, and her spiritually-based social commentary encouraged love and tolerance.
She had a prolific time in her career after being diagnosed with cancer in the early 1970s, which included the Rainbow Swash logo on the LNG storage tank in Boston and the 1985 edition of the US Postal Service unique "Love" Stamp.
This AT HOME ART DATE is a chance for you to find your kitsch married to your high art.
(element one) WATCH a short video.
(element two) BROWSE in a store.
(element three) DRAW + PAINT a response to commercialism.
(element one) WATCH: This short video about Kent and her art life.
(element two) BROWSE: at your local grocery store. Before you go to the store, make yourself what Kent calls a “finder.” It is a tiny (no bigger than an inch) rectangle cut into a piece of cardboard that acts as a frame for what you see in the open space. Instead of looking at what you see on the shelf as grocery items, look at the shapes, colors, and shadows. Find the artistry in that open space. Once you’ve discovered an image you love, use your phone camera to take a photo of the finder with the image inside. “It gives you a small idea of the richness that is in the whole.” -- Sister Corita Kent
(element three) DRAW + PAINT your discovered image. The simpler your tools the better. A piece of typing paper and a children’s paint set would work just fine.
How does it feel to have taken such public commercialism and turned it into art? Is it freeing and empowering?
Finished? Congratulations. Well done, artist!
If you seek perfection, you will never reach completion.
Please share your pop art with a friend or send it to me. I would love to see what you have created! Try always to share your art.
I hope you find Sister Corita Kent + Your Pop Art to be a compelling AT HOME ART DATE.
I curate provocative AT HOME ART DATES for you to enjoy solo or with others in your own home. Many of these art dates have online elements combined with supplemental reading, listening, and a variety of activities you can do at home to enhance how you express and experience art. Feel free to forward these art dates to others. Remember to check out the bonus material below.
These AT HOME ART DATES are free of charge. However, they do take time, energy, and a lifetime of artistic experience to put together. If you’d like to buy me a cup of tea as a bit of thanks, I’d appreciate your generosity. Buy Pattie a Cup of Tea.
Yours,
Pattie
Bonus Material: