ANP Quarterly Issue 6

The Teachings of Sister Corita :: Article by Amber Abramson

I was first turned onto the art of Sister Corita by my old friend Ben Loiz, around 2004. I was bowled over and then delved deep in to the world of all things Corita, became a familiar face at the Corita Foundation, and took a course on her teachings for teachers. It's amazing how the progression of things go; it was a Christmas morning (2008) that I gifted Aaron Rose the Corita print with the "a rose is a rose is a rose...." image. His mind was blown as well (naturally) and he presented her to a new generation; we are all lucky to be have been touched by this incredible woman.

Issue 6 : The works of cover stars, Paper Rad should be familiar to anyone who follows contemporary art, comic books or experimental or independent music, but that’s not to say that any of their admirers would even know anything about the individual artists who form the group. Coming out of the same American North East that spawned Forcefield and Lightning Bolt and the Fort Thunder art scene as a whole, Paper Rad are fans of a little unforced mystery as much as they are fans of working in every medium they humanly can while sticking to their ideals like glue. How do they do it? We are proud to say that we have examples and answers! Sister Corita Kent is someone we have been hoping to do a story on for a few issues now. Her work is probably going to be making a major public comeback soon and that is truly for the good of all people on this earth. For those of you who don’t know, Corita was a catholic nun/artist/teacher/mentor person in Los Angeles in the 1960’s. Her colorful, politically charged images from that period are seriously some of the coolest things you’re going to see this year (for real!) so get ready. In our story here, maybe for the first time since the 1960’s, we present to you pages and pages of her awesome works, but also a bit about her personal story. In a short span of time, due to her inspiring art and teaching methods, Corita went from being an anonymous art teacher at an all girls’ Catholic school to a minor celebrity in art circles. Her freedom (both in art and life), however, didn’t always fit in with the official church doctrine and in the interest of freedom of expression; she fought against the church tooth and nail. We present it all here along with an article by Amber Abramson about her teaching techniques that should really get your fires burning. (Check out her rules for students and teachers…seriously words to live by!).