1/06/2008

damn everything but the circus.

After reading that great list of rules I had to know more about the woman who wrote them. That woman was Sister Corita Kent, who had a huge influence on pop art in the 60's. Kent was a nun at the Immaculate Heart Convent in Los Angeles, as well as a teacher in the art department at the Immaculate Heart College. I listened to the show about her on Weekend America and looked at some of her very familiar art and I'm so eager to learn more about this fascinating woman. As soon as I'm finished with the book I'm reading I plan on starting in on Come Alive, a book about her art and her life.





It's impossible to post just one of her amazing prints, I'm in love with so so many of them. This one reads:
damn everything but the circus --e.e. cummings ...damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn every thing that won't get in the circle, that won't enjoy, that won't throw its heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, full of existence...S.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"be happy whenever you can manage it. enjoy yourself. it's lighter than you think."

love that. xox. d.

molly said...

juicy. juicy. juicy.

nell said...

i actually had this very book, never knew i'd see these pages again, when i was about 11, in 6th grade, 45 years ago! wow! it wasn't a thick book, and the pages were very slick, a style of the time. it must have been on a list somewhere of what cool writers and artists were reading! (i was on my way to becomming a flower child, but hadn't smoked weed just yet.)

i have never forgotten the wonderful quote i memorized in this book by theodore roethke:

"those who are vulnerable allow themselves to move amongst mysteries."

i guess i knew this would be me, and that i would never be able to be anyone but my vulnerable self, and that i may as well enjoy the mysteries.

sure could have saved myself about three years of peer pressured angst wanting to be well liked by everyone - like 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. at about 15, it's not that i gave up trying to be popular .... it's that i realized i love the shadows, i was born to the margin. it's where the real stuff is. and the mysteries are.

same with art; real art is vulnerable.

lovely blog you've got here. thanks for sharing your passion and showing me back to some old beginnings of mine.... be seeing you. ;)

Op-Ed Madison said...

My wife and I bought the four posters Damn Everything but the Circus as a wedding gift for each other in early 1970 from a gallery in Laguna Beach, CA. It remains on our wall today.

Kate Smith said...

Hi. I believe in " damn everything but the circus". Would you mind telling me who the artist is with this beautiful print? Thanks!