Love Is Hard Work: The Art and Heart of Corita Kent

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.)