[ Music ] >> Corrita would use the Bible, pop songs,
literature, pop culture, billboards. It was about finding joy in the every day. She got a lot of attention for being
a nun in habit who was making art. [ Music ] Corrita was born Frances Kent in 1918. As a woman from a working poor family,
she didn't have a lot of options. When she was 18, she decided that she would
enter the Immaculate Heart of Mary order. The religious name that she
took was Sister Mary Corrita. All of the nuns there were very progressive. [ Music ] It became known as this place where creative
people came: Alfred Hitchcock, Saul Bass, John Cage, [inaudible] -- this
well-known, liberal Catholic college. Corrita was known as being an artistic person,
so they told her she had to join the faculty. She sent away for a DIY silkscreen
kit and taught herself how to do it. >> In the 1950s, her silkscreens were much
more like abstract expressionist paintings. They were layered and multicolored. >> Her early work was mainly figurative. There was some negative feedback
from the hierarchy of the church. That pushed her in a more pop art direction. >> She started to make both
her own art and the activities at Immaculate Heart community
be part of the arts scene. >> For Corrita, it was about
meeting people where they are. Consumer culture was the language they
could understand, so that's what she used. She's re-appropriating symbols
to make a spiritual message. Airplanes became guardian angels. Wonder Bread stood in for the Eucharist. [ Music ] >> In 1968, it was a tumultuous
period with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. >> In that period, she made some of
her most activist, anti-war work. It was her desire to report more. >> Already an insomniac, being forced to
push this crazy schedule, being on the cover of Newsweek, Corrita was exhausted. She decided that the religious community
was not the right place for her anymore. She was 50. She'd never lived on her own. It was a big change for her, but I think
it was one that she really embraced. [ Music ] >> She designed sweeter,
more simple kinds of work. >> She also did a lot of
high-profile commissions. [ Music ] When she was diagnosed with cancer, she started
investigating other spiritual traditions. And the text that was in
her work reflected that. She was really influenced by the
environment that was around her, whether it's a religious environment
or a pop culture environment, Corrita felt like her job was to deliver
these messages about spirituality. But from an aesthetic standpoint, she
just wanted things to be beautiful. [ Music ] It was an expression of joy. [ Music ]
