Monday, November 9, 2015

A Saturday in Pasadena ~ PMCA and Corita Kent


Maybe we are less than our dreams,
but that less would make us
more than some gods would dream of.
~Corita Kent


Pasadena Museum of California Art


A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with my friend Karen in Pasadena and chatting. All of the sudden she said, "I have free passes to the Pasadena Museum of California Art." Neither of us had been before and we looked at the clock and figured if we raced over there, we'd have a little more than an hour. So, out the door we went!


Love the moment,
and the energy of that moment
will spread beyond all boundaries.
~Corita Kent


Turns out the main exhibition was of Los Angeles artist, Corita Kent (1918-1986), who was also known as Sister Mary Corita. She was a sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and rose to fame during the 60s and 70s, for her serigraphs. Her art is a reflections of her spirituality and her conviction as an activist, often making statements about social justice and what was happening in the world, at that time.

admirable exchange
1951

Someday is Now
The Art of Corita Kent
June 14, 2015-Novemeber 1, 2015

the lord is with thee
1952


This quick video explains a bit about her work.


christ suffering over jerusalem
1951


then feathers all
1958



All the alphabet, done in 1968



(from above piece)

YOUR
NAME
is 
A
golden 
bell
hung in
my HEART
I would
bReAK
my body 
to pieces
to CALL
you
ONCe By
youR
NAME.-

f is for food
1964


(from above piece)

is 
FOR
FOOD
FULL
FINE
FAVORITE
FLOWERS
FUN
FLAVOR
FREEDOM
FRANK
FOUNDATION
FOUNTAIN
FAITH
FRIENDS

help the big bird
1966


only you and i (2parts)
1969


The moment in which light comes
is God
Only you and I can help the sun 
rise each morning.
If we don't it may drench itself out in sorrow.
~Camus


 tiger
1965

if
1965


... Someday when we're dreaming
Deep in love, not a lot to say Then we will remember
Things we said today

Me, I'm just the lucky kind
Love to hear you say that love is luck
And though we may be blind
Love is here to sty and that's enough
~McCartney and Lennon


This is a great little documentary about her, with interviews with people who knew her. In this video I think you get a really good sense of her as an artist and educator. Go ahead and skip to 2:05, if you'd like. That's when it gets going!


new hope
1966


 (from above)

i love you much 
(most beautiful darling)
more than anyone on earth and I like you better
than everything in the sky
-sunlight and singing welcome your coming
although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
no one can quite begin to guess
(except my life) the true time of year-
and if what calls itself a world 
should have the luck to hear singing
(or glimpse such sunlight as will leap higher than high
through gayer than gayer someone's heart at your each nearness)
everyone certainly would 
(my most beautiful darling
believe in
nothing but love
~e.e. cummings

be, of love, (a little) more careful,
than of everything
1967


 I think this one, above, was my favorite.



After the museum we went to El Cholo in Pasadena for margaritas and appetizers, then walked around a bit and wondered into Pasadena Antique Mall which had various vendors. One of the vendors had these amazing pieces of stone!


Amazing malachite, right? They were 450.00 and 500.00. The Labradorite below was breathtaking and was 240.00.


Heading back to the car, she wanted me to see the beautiful Pasadena City Hall building, with its Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival architecture, which was completed in 1927. It was designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and John Bakewell, Jr.


Life is a succession of moments.
To live each one is to succeed.
~Corita Kent



video footage of Sister Corita ...


To visit the PMCA (Pasadena Museum of California Art) website, click here.

For more about Corita Kent, you can visit the Corita Kent Art Center website here.
(It located in Los Angeles at the Immaculate Heart High School.)

Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us.
To create means to relate.
The root meaning of the word art 
is to fit together
and we all do this everyday.
Not all of us are painters but we are all artists.
Each time we fit things together
we are creating-whether it is a loaf of bread,
a child, or a day.
~Corita Kent

Blessings and light!

3 comments:

Loree said...

I really love the colourful alphabet.

Rick Forrestal said...

Looks like a cool museum.
Love the art, the layout.
Great pics and notes (as usual.)

Amazing minerals . . . I would have bought that labardorite.
OMG.

Thanks for sharing.

donna baker said...

Glad her art has been recognized. I find nuns an enigma and recently posted on Sister Mary Lucy who came to visit my husband in the hospital. I also love minerals and stones and those were spectacular. Would have been much higher around here. New career on ebay?