Corita Kent, more commonly known as Sister Corita, born in 1918 became known as an artist during the 60s and 70s with her colourful screen printed images. As her name may suggest, Corita was a nun and her spirit and passion for hope and peace is portrayed through her work. She worked as a teacher of art in The Immaculate Heart College where she was really focused on her students rather than her own work. She was inspired by the media and advertising and she concentrated on type for a lot of her artistic career- she was able to adapt current typography and incorporate it into her work in order to form a completely new meaning or message. She combined materials such as logos from bags, magazine covers and bread wrappers alongside type to redefine the purpose of the object. She would often include poetry, slogans and catchphrases as her type which, combined with other things, I think allowed her to grasp a wider audience because a slogan is often something which is known by many people. By taking a known piece of text, you are able to relate to the audience and manipulate the way in which something is taken- how it is expressed. I love this about Corita’s work because she has been able to give new meanings and life to contemporary sayings or logos.
The process of silk screen printing, or Serigraphs is where ink is applied using a mesh and an ink blocking stencil which will reveal the image. It is quite a simple process, but can look really effective as it does in Corita’s work. I enjoy the bright colours of her art work because I think it expresses her passion for a bright future and is fitting for the time period, she was a pioneer for pop art.
One of her most her famous pieces was a love stamp she designed in 1985 for the US postal service which shows a rainbow of colours, more than 700 million stamps were sold.
Her style of type is very unusual; each character is individual and it looks as though it has a taken a fair amount of time in order to perfect the process.
You can see links with the work I have been doing with polyfusion, however I could take it a step further and incorporate the type from the bags and think about my composition in order to form an effective image.
https://www.corita.org/coritadb/index.php?id=5&option=com_content&task=view
http://www.nowness.com/day/2010/6/5/685/breaking-a-habit--sister-corita
http://www.eusa.org/exhibit/SisterCorita
http://www.zachfeuer.com/artists/sister-corita/
http://lisacongdon.com/blog/2013/02/sister-corita-kents-art-department-rules/
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