C capital clown (1968)

“Corita packed many thoughts into this work, also known as “Circus C.” The text by Samuel Howard Miller, Dean of Harvard Divinity School, gives clues as to how the imagery and lore of the circus mirrored Corita’s life at the time, summarized succinctly by the quote from Bob Hanlon: “Where there’s life, there’s mud.” The graphic interplay of typographies is a three-ring circus on this print, indicative of the cacophony and chaos Corita was presenting and living through at the time.”
– M.M.

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THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CIRCUS
Beneath a mammoth superb firmament pavilion
Where there's life there's mud
– B. Hanlon

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GRANDEST OF SPECTACLES
THE CROWNING SUCCESS OF THE AGE!
Even the simplest clown manages by gesture and incident to explore the mythology of the self. He too like the saint, extends the dimensions of consciousness beyond its normal limits. His ritual has its own sanctity as it elicits from us all the subtler dramas of our destiny.

In the first place, the clown recovers for us the nature of our humanity. In him, in his ludicrous contradictions of dignity and embarrassment, of pomp and rags, of assurance and collapse, of sentiment and sadness, of innocence and guile, we learn to see ourselves. We follow in his bold bluff and crumple in his public disasters. We are, in short, restored to our humanity, delivered of all the real bombast, the pretence of invulnerability, the emperor complex of being above it all. The smirks, the traps, the sudden descent, the shattering realization of reaching beyond ourselves, the startling disclosure of our absurd weakness, our naked self uncovered in its ludicrous contradictions -- all this is part of salvation. It is the tilted topsy turvy halo, half broken, that crowns the clown with a capital C.
– Samual Howard Miller

 G O greatest show of worth (1968)

“The “Circus Alphabet” series features only one example of two prints that are designed to be shown together – G and O.  Once again, in the basic title Corita was offering a message for anyone wanting to read it.” 
– M.M.
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Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name
– P. Beagle

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What matters today is not whether people believe or don't believe but whether they care or don't care.
– Abbé Pire

an unfolding (1971)

“By 1971, Corita was settling into her apartment on Marlborough Street in Boston, regaling in the Back Bay gardens, flora and fauna. Her observations of the tree out her front room window became a reference in many prints around this time. She collected and framed its seedlings as symbols of hope, especially during the severe New England winter – which was new to her.  The prints at this time are blazingly colorful and positive outbursts of new life.”
– M.M.

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All our progress is an unfolding like the vegetable bud, you have first an instinct then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. It is vain to hurry it. By trusting it to the end, it shall ripen into truth and you shall know why you believe.
– Emerson

let your mind be quiet (1971)

“Corita’s insomnia plagued her whole life, how she could not shut down after a day of teaching or printing or even walking in the park.  Quieting her own mind became a lifelong quest she did not achieve.  While not wanting to anthropomorphize Corita’s work, I would say it is a graphic attempt to bridge that gap.  Much of what propelled her graphics in the later works (the works after leaving L.A.), she imposed on her own struggles, if I can say that succinctly.”
– M.M.

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THE LAKE OF BEAUTY
Let your mind be quiet, realizing the beauty of the world, and the immense the boundless treasures that it holds in store. All that you have within you, all that your heart desires, all that your Nature so specially fits you for -- that or the counterpart of it waits embedded in the great Whole for you. It will surely come to you.

Yet equally surely, not one moment before its appointed time will come. All your crying and fever and reaching out of hands will make no difference. Therefore do not begin that game at all.

Do not recklessly spill the water of your mind in this direction and in that, lest you become like a spring lost and dissipated in the desert.

But draw them together into a little compass, and hold them still, so still; And let them become clear, so clear -- so limpid, so mirror-like; At last the mountains, and the sky shall fan themselves in peaceful beauty, and the antelope shall descend to drink, and to gaze at his reflected image, and the lion to quench his thirst, and love himself shall come, and bend over, and catch his own likeness in you.
– E. Carpenter

come home, america (1978)

“Corita contributed prints to several presidential campaigns including Michael Dukakis, Eugene McCarthy, and this one for George McGovern. She quoted from the candidate’s speeches, in this case, the simple phrase, “Come Home, America,” the theme of McGovern’s campaign.”
– M.M.

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Come home America
– George McGovern

the legs of the earth are my legs – shell writing #5 (1976)

“After she left the convent in 1968, from the earliest days on Cape Cod, Corita collected shells and they became emblematic of her freedom and new life.  In the 8-print series, “Shell Writings,” she pairs the abstract markings on some of her shells with Navajo writings.”
– M.M.

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It is lovely indeed,
it is lovely indeed
The legs of the earth are my legs
Navajo chant

bright bird (1978)

“This is a one-off piece that tells you that on some days Corita played, or rested, or left the struggle, however briefly.  The rawness of this graphic gave me hope for her when she did it and captures the momentum of her quest forward.  She did not dwell in the past.”
– M.M. 

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I greet the light in you
Namaste

crocuses for summer (1980)

“Corita’s fascination with Marlborough Street in Boston, where she lived, included the many tiny gardens in front of the brownstone buildings.  The annual and brief arrival of crocuses provided her with much personal hope and many graphic possibilities.  She utilized the image in at least a dozen prints, four of which are in this series, one for each season.”
– M.M.

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I loafe and invite my soul
– whitman

landscape no words (1983)

“This is one of Corita’s largest silkscreens (32 x 40”) and also one of a series of six works that utilize the same screens, cropped and finished individually. This was the basic pattern, which Corita chose to leave wordless, one of the few later works of color only.”
– M.M.

good for you #4 (1984)

“Corita’s apartment often included a modest bouquet of flowers on the Eames table in the living room.  Mostly irises, tulips, or daisies, they were straight forward in their presentation – no ribbons or extravagant greenery - and became the subject of several watercolors she turned into prints.”
– M.M. 

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good for you

love is hard work (1985)

“I’d never seen Corita more upset than when the US Postal Service issued the Love stamp that she designed on the set of the popular TV show, “Love Boat.” “That’s not the kind of love I’m talking about,” was her comment, and she refused to go to the day of issue ceremony on the set of the show. Instead, she produced this print which became one of her fastest selling images.”
– M.M.

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love is hard work