by Dan Paley (Author) Victoria Tentler-Krylov (Illustrator)
The story of how a Catholic nun became one of the twentieth century's most significant artists and activists is brought to life in a colorful picture book biography.
"To be fully alive is to work for the common good." --Corita Kent
Frances Kent always loved making things. When she joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, she took the name Corita--meaning little heart--and devoted her life to what mattered most to her: art and religion. As an art teacher, Sister Corita emphasized practice and process over the final product and taught her students to experiment and break the rules. As a religious person, she turned her faith into concrete action and spoke out about the injustices she saw in the world. In the height of post-war consumerist culture, Corita, a contemporary of Andy Warhol, turned advertising on its head and wrote a new kind of scripture. Complimented by Victoria Tentler-Krylov's vibrant illustrations that--like Corita's work--incorporate typography and ads, author Dan Paley paints a portrait of the little-known but immensely influential pop-art nun whose messages are just as relevant today as they were in years past.
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A devout Catholic, Corita Kent (1918-1986) spent much of her life as Sister Mary Corita, entering a Los Angeles order where she was able to nourish her talents in making and teaching art. There, she exhorted students to break with convention, to think of words as an essential tool of creative expression, and to seek inspiration in the city's eye-popping commercial landscape ("She would reclaim the words, colors, and persuasion used in advertising, not to sell products but to redirect people's attention"). Focusing her work on activism and social justice, for example, she adapted Wonder Bread's graphics to critique a society allowing hunger. Tentler-Krylov's digitally enhanced watercolors give a sense of her vibrant palettes, dancing lettering, the times in which she thrived, and, as Paley puts it, "Corita's heart and consciousness, filling and spilling onto her canvas." Background characters are shown with various skin tones. Ages 4-8. (Nov.)
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