The Art and Heart of Corita Kent
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Candlewick Press
(pub.11.5.2024)
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Dan Paley
Illustrator: Victoria Tentler-Krylov
Character: Corita Kent
Overview:
" 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."
Tantalizing taste:
"Through her art, Sister Mary Corita engaged with the overlapping artisti``c and social revolutions of the 1950s and '60s to spur change, change that she knew would take love, and hard work. 'To e fully alive,' she once said, 'is to work for the common good.'"
And something more: The author, Dan Paley, shared in the Author's Note: Corita's "work had a profound influence on the visual identity of the 1960s and has greatly influenced the fields of graphic design, advertising, and pop art, yet she remains largely unknown even in those fields. This is what inspired me to learn more about her and, ultimately, to write this book... I discovered a teacher whose method with students of all ages opened their eyes to what was possible, not just on the canvas but in their communities and in society as a whole: an artist who used color, perspective, and the written word to make the common uncommon; and an activist whose message of love and peace empowers us for the work ahead."
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