Indie Project Report

Shawna Caldwell
February 25, 2014
Sister Corita Kent
Final Project: http://issuu.com/shawnacaldwell/docs/sister_corita_kent
Summary:
A small Catholic college in the hills of Hollywood might be the last place one would
think to look for a progressive art program. When it involves the teaching of a modern nun
named Sister Mary Corita Kent, however, that is exactly what one would find. As an art teacher
and then later head of the art department and spokesperson for Immaculate Heart College, Sister
Corita worked at the college for fifteen years, inspiring students through her non-stop, red-eye
assignments (Kent and Steward, 1992). After leaving the college in 1968 for a quieter life with
more time for her art production, she dreamed of writing a book with some of the teaching
methods that were most beneficial for her students. Ten years later, with the idea still lingering
in her mind, she asked her friend and prior student to write the book for her. In Learning by
heart: Teachings to free the creative spirit, Sister Corita and Jan Steward worked together to
share Coritas teachings that inspired her students at Immaculate Heart College in Hollywood,
California.
Coritas Teachings:
Part of what Sister Corita taught was her philosophy on life. She had rules and mottos for
the classroom, but a unique aspect to her rules was to expect a new set of rules next week, and
they read more like a manual on how to live life. For example,
Rule 6: Nothing is a mistake. Theres no win and no fail. Theres only make.
Rule 7: The only rule is work. If you work, it will lead to something. Its the people
who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.
Rule 8: Dont try to create and analyze at the same time. Theyre different processes.
(Ault, 2006, p.46).
The motto for the art room was based on the Balinese saying We have no art, we do
everything as well as we can (Kent and Steward, 1992, p. 6). Corita did not believe that you
could live a life that was already defined by labels, nor is art separate from life. Art isnt
something set off in a niche; therefore, you do everything as well as you can (Glascock, 2013).

Many of the teachings by Sister Corita involve training the students to see not just to
look, but to truly see. She taught two types of looking: slow looking and fast looking. Slow
looking is best done alone and might involve tools such as viewfinders, microscopes or cameras.
This type of seeing requires the student to slow down and truly notice the beauty in the mundane.
She had many different techniques for this. One way was to follow a two-year-old child from one
end of a house to the other and observe their journey. She also used a chair to teach students to
draw negative space, and encouraged contour drawings so that the eyes and hand had to move at
exactly the same pace. Viewfinders were used frequently as a way to focus on limited
information and find interesting compositions in the world around them. Sometimes she would
have the students draw twenty drawings of an object, and then use a viewfinder and draw twenty
drawings from the original twenty drawings and compare them. Fast looking is the kind of
looking you do in crowded places or while looking out the window of a train. The images are
stored in your mind to be used later. These are just a few of the many methods that Sister Corita
and Steward included in Learning by heart (1992) to teach students to slow down and look at the
beauty in their everyday lives.
By teaching her students to slow down and see, she also taught them to find sources for
their art. Sources can be anything and everything, and theyre everywhere. A bottle of ink. A
seashell. A grocery list. Quotes from literature or advertisements. A dandelion drawn over a
period of a week. Sources are everywhere. In Learning by heart (1992),Sister Corita wrote of
always collecting, either visually putting images into her mind to be used later, or physically
collecting pictures and lists that would mount into piles, only to be dug through when the time
comes to use them.
Another theme that Sister Corita and Steward wrote about was structure. Structures are
simply assignments. Sister Corita would set the students up for success by methodically
assigning each little step along the way so that the students did not have a chance to become
uninvolved. They were anxious for the next step because they felt very secure about the
background that they already had (Glascock, 2013). Sister Corita spoke to this point in the video
We have no art by Baylis Glascock.
Assignments make a choice and say work within this area and that, in a sense, frees
you. You are free not to do everything, so that is one of the reasons for an assignment.
An assignment can come from outside of you from a very foreign influence even and be

helpful to you. Or you can build your own assignments from within which are very
helpful in another way. But if you build your own assignments from within and youre
not fully mature, chances are you might get in a kind of shallow rut and never question
your own structure or your own assignment (2013).
Sister Coritas assignments were large, and often referred to as nonstop, red-eye specials.
In We have no art (Glascock, 2013), a former student discussed this point. Sister Corita would
tell the students to make fifty or a hundred of something. This student would start and only have
ideas for twenty things, so then she would have to struggle to come up with ideas from a nonidea area, not knowing if they were right or not. If she had stopped at forty, she would have
twenty predictable pieces and twenty pieces that she wasnt sure of. But she would have to press
through, creating more pieces from this area of conflict between knowing what to do and not
knowing what to do, and this is where the best work came from.
She believed that everyone was capable of making art if they were nurtured in that way.
Her opening words in Teaching by heart: Teachings to free the creative spirit (Kent and
Steward, 1992) addressed this.
We can all talk, we can all write and if the blocks are removed, we can all draw and paint
and make things. Drawing, painting, and making things are natural human activities, but
in many they remain in the seed state, as potentials or wishes (p. 1).
Even after Sister Corita left Immaculate Heart College, her teachings were handed down from
her students to their students and their students after that, and then to more generations of
teachers through her book.
Personal Reflection:
I am in awe of this woman. As a rule, I dont put people on pedestals, but I may make an
exception. Not only is she inspiring as a teacher, she also inspires me as an artist and a person. I
didnt want this to just be a research project; I wanted to learn from her like I was one of her
students. I watched the videos where she is talking many times, so that when I would read, I
would hear her voice and intonations. Then I worked through some of the assignments myself.
Although I only got through a handful of them, I can see how valuable the rest will be. Ive
decided to start a sense diary because I am constantly seeing or hearing something that I want to
use in my art, but then forget it before I have the chance to use it. I also like the use of a

viewfinder. One of the main reasons I create art is to slow down and truly see what is around
me. Sister Corita gave me techniques to deepen my work and view life a little differently.
Not only did she inspire me as an artist but she also helped me to see the kind of teacher
that I want to be. While I may not ask my middle school students to create a hundred of
something, I see the value of pushing them out of their comfort zone and not letting them dwell
on the first or second thing they think. Its important to grapple with an idea and turn it around a
few times until it becomes something else entirely. I think its also imperative to teach kids to
slow down and look at whats around them in their everyday, mundane lives. There is beauty to
be seen, but is often overlooked. And then after you work hard, you should play and have fun.
Create celebrations. Enjoy yourself. Its even part of her class rules.
As a person, she was described as charismatic and fearless. She spoke and acted with
conviction and verve, exuding good energy as she beckoned people to graciously sidestep
oppressive cultural conventions in favor of a celebrational interrogation of society through
creativity and everyday actions (Ault, 2006, p. 12). Her artwork, like her teaching, is bold and
colorful, filled with words and images from her everyday life. One of the best quotes about her
comes from Sasha Carrera from Corita Art Center as she explains Coritas transparency in all she
does (Gobsen, 2012). What she taught is what she did is what she was thinking is what she was
surrounded by. All aspects of Sister Corita confirm that this is a person I would like to emulate.
References:
Ault, J. (2006). Come alive! The spirited art of Sister Corita. London, UK: Four Corners
Books.
Kent, C. & Steward, J. (1992). Learning by heart: Teachings to free the creative spirit. New
York, NY: Bantam Books.
Glascock, B. (Producer and director). (January 27, 2013). We have no art. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YDYbNk570.
Gobsen, D. L. (Editor). Center for the Study of Political Graphics. (2012). Decade of dissent:
Democracy in action 1965-1975. Retrieved from
v=OuU7jc7zScA&index=9&list=PL70C2D0E57C05B3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
2E.