Sister Corita Kent & using "finders"

Sister Corita Kent was a fascinating artist, activist, and teacher, and happens to be the only nun on my top ten list of famous people I wish I could hang out with.

I could gush on about her greatness, but I'll keep it brief so we can all get back to work!

Corita Kent was a printmaker working with text-based collage silkscreen before it was cool, and many of her students have said that she forever changed the way they thought about art. She showed her students how to really look at their surroundings, and that when we first look at things, we are not really seeing them. She was a true revolutionary in the form of a small person wearing a nun's habit.

Anyway, the real reason I bring her up right now (and this will probably not be the only blog post about her) is to tell you about her concept of "finders."

The idea is pretty simple: look at your surroundings through a small rectangular hole cut in a piece of paper or cardboard. If you're a photographer (as we all seem to be these days), you undoubtedly have done something similar just by looking through your camera.

One of Kent's students uses a finder.
Still from the documentary Become a Microscope (dir. Aaron Rose),
photo courtesy of austinkleon.com

The result is a decontextualization of objects and visual compositions-- in other words, you are seeing things in a way you've never seen them before. This technique allows you to truly look, and to behold small pieces of the world with fresh eyes.

See what happens if you try looking through your finder at different things:

- your living room

- a loved one's face

- photos in your photo album

- your own artwork

- a TV show

Some places to take your finder:

- a shopping mall

- a forest

- an art museum

- your friend's house

- a walk around your neighborhood

- the beach

Kent recommends making drawings of the compositions we see through our finders, among other exercises.

What if you wrote a short poem about something you see through your finder? What if you made up a song based on it? What if you had to coordinate your outfit to match it? What if this was the only thing you could look at for the rest of your life?

Go look at the world! Do it now!

Look at these books for more info about Corita Kent:

Learning by Heart by Corita Kent & Jan Steward

Someday is Now: the Art of Corita Kent by Ian Berry, Michael Duncan, Cynthia Burlingham, Alexandra Carrera, & Megan Hyde