The first time I came across Corita Kents work was as an early teen in central Illinois. I would ride my banana seat bike with the flowered basket from my house in Urbana, across the campus at University of Illinois and into Champaign to the stamp and coin store to add to my stamp collection - absolute geek moment here - Once there I would search for the most colorful and unique stamps I could find (and afford) and would happily add to my budding collection. This continued for me for many years and in 1985 I added the Sister Corita Kent Love Stamp to my collection. I moved on to college and later to other pursuits and it wasn’t until 2014 when I was reading a blog post by Austin Kleon that I was reminded of the Love Stamp and learned that Sister Mary Corita was an artist, educator and social justice activist in Los Angeles.
In 2017, on a trip to LA, before I moved here in 2018, I visited the Corita Art Center, which was then housed at Immaculate Heart College in Los Feliz and was able to view the serigraphs she created, in one place. At the time I visited, the works were in flat files and were just being curated and archived. It felt as though I had stepped back to the 1960’s.
What I did not know until recently was the amount of photography she produced during her time in LA. One of her favorite activities was cutting a square out of a piece of paper and having her students use it to frame what they might want to photograph. Using a “viewfinder” or:
“a device which does the same thing as the camera lens... It helps take things out of context, allows us to see for the sake of seeing, and enhances our quick-looking and decision-making skills.” - Corita Kent
she would encourage her students to create unique compositions of the world around them. While teaching her students, she also developed her own photography and amassed a very large history of Los Angeles.
In the past several years, over 5,000 slides have been sorted and archived by the center and 1500 of them are now on display at the Marciano Foundation here in Los Angeles. Set up as a room with bean bag chairs, three slide shows simultaneously project a history of Los Angeles, Immaculate Heart College and Social Activism in 1960’s LA. Having an opportunity to sit quietly in the dark with these images takes about 45 minutes until the slide show starts over and provides a deep introspective look into how she viewed her world. It was a moment of quiet contemplation, to be able to shut out the outside world, and become completely absorbed in the images being projected.
Corita Kent: The Sorcery of Images is on display at the Marciano Foundation until January 24, 2026.
Here is a list of 5 articles I found worthwhile this week:
Lets Talk About Monet
A Little Gratitude Experiment (via my friend Andrea)
Let’s Get Cozy
The girl who holds the world
Little Rooms
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Thank you for the mention! Sister Corita is one of my favorites as well. Growing up near Boston, we drove by the gas tank she painted on the edge of the city all the time. Her 10 rules for an art student should hang in every classroom!