Rosemary’s Memories: “I wanted to do something special with my life. I wanted to make a commitment to something I thought was important.”
Life in a Convent
They say God has a sense of humor… perhaps it seems so because life takes some truly unexpected turns. One year, Rosemary was working for the FBI and the very next, at age 19, she was living in St. Catherine’s Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters in Springfield, Kentucky.
To become a Dominican sister back in those days one followed a strict three-year program. In Year 1, a postulant (a questioner) was expected to listen, to learn and to keep silence. Speaking was allowed during recreation, for only one hour in the afternoon and one hour in the evening. For Rosemary, the remainder of her waking hours were spent, in silence, attending college classes and helping with household chores. Each aspiring nun who survived the first year with her aspirations still intact, became a novice in Year 2. At the end of the second year the novice would become a professed sister by professing her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
In Year 2, Rosemary’s life took another one of those little jogs around an unexpected curve in the road when she learned of a person, without whom she might never have realized her dream of becoming an artist.
Rosemary’s Memories: “I always had this great desire to be an artist, without knowing any artists or ever having studied art in school. And it was an amazing thing to me, that one day during recreation, the novice mistress told us about a wonderful sister (Sister Dorothy) who was going to Italy to study art. And she said that although this sister had a scholarship to pay for her studies, she wanted to raise money to help pay for expenses by making and selling laundry bags. We were told that if we wanted, we could use some of our patrimony (monies the young novices had brought with them into the convent) to buy one of the laundry bags. As I remember, I was the first one at her desk to buy one (and I still have it). I thought, if I could just meet this sister and talk with her, I know she would understand exactly how I felt about wanting to be an artist.”
God gave Rosemary another little nudge, seemingly in the right direction, when in August, of Year 3, each newly professed sister received her first assignment.
Rosemary’s Memories: “The miracle was that six months after learning of Sister Dorothy, when we all got our assignments, I was assigned to Sacred Heart Convent (where Sister Dorothy was). Many years later, I have often wondered if the reason I joined the convent was to meet Dorothy. I’ve always said I could never plan my life as well as God did.”
Perhaps it was God’s quirky sense of humor at play, but when Rosemary arrived at Sacred Heart Convent, Sister Dorothy was actually leaving in two weeks for Italy where she would remain for two years while she studied and completed her degree in art. Never the less, the connection between Rosemary and Sister Dorothy had been established and remained intact.
When Sister Dorothy returned from Italy, she taught art to the students of Sacred Heart Convent. Rosemary remembers the first time Sister Dorothy taught an art lesson to her second-grade class.
Rosemary’s Memories: “She asked questions to draw out how the students felt and everything they knew about a circus and then she announced, Let’s make a circus parade! Here, was this tall sister marching through the rows with all the children following her in a joyful circus parade. Every week when Sister Dorothy came to teach art, I stayed and observed. I was like a sponge and I learned how to teach art, by watching Dorothy.”
Life brought them together many times, in many ways during their time spent at Sacred Heart Convent. Their mutual love of art was interwoven throughout the time they spent together.
Rosemary’s Memories: “At home in the convent one day, Dorothy was pulling out large prints from different artists. That’s how I was introduced to the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists and the Fauves. But since I had only been exposed to very traditional art, I didn’t know at the time if their work was considered good art. At first, I didn’t know if Dorothy was serious and then I realized she was. So, I decided to just be quiet, listen and learn.”
In those days, nuns weren’t allowed to go anywhere alone. Perhaps because she was the youngest, the Superior always sent Rosemary along to accompany Sister Dorothy when she attended art meetings, exhibits and workshops. One snowy night coming back from a student art exhibit in Boston, Rosemary made an unexpected, heartfelt confession as they waited for the street car.
Rosemary’s Memories: “I told her… I just can’t do this with you anymore. I can’t go to all these art things. Dorothy said, What? I thought you liked art. I told her, I love art but that’s the problem, because I see things kids can do, but I can’t. She responded by saying… What makes you think you can’t do it? My frustrated desire to do art finally came out. I said, That’s just it! I think I could, if someone would just show me. Her response was immediate. She simply said; We start tonight! And that was the beginning of my art education.”
Her informal art education included discussions about artists in the room she shared with Dorothy and trying her hand at oil painting in Dorothy’s studio in the basement of the school. Ceramics, batik, silk-screening, candle and card projects raised monies for the many fundraisers she and Dorothy worked together.
Rosemary’s Memories: “I was working on a degree in French. Dorothy was always asking me; What do you love more French or art?”
Rosemary’s art education and the partnership between she and Dorothy was about to take a multi-year detour as each took separate roads. Rosemary was sent to teach art in Puerto Rico for five years, while Dorothy remained in Boston. And the year before Rosemary returned to Sacred Heart Convent, Dorothy was sent to Memphis to teach art and head the art department at Sienna College.
Two things happened the year Rosemary returned to Boston. The first was, the Dominican community established regional Superiors to visit the various convents.
Rosemary’s Memories: “One of the things they were asking the sisters was, if there was something different, they would like to do or study and what would it be? When she asked me, I said; Yes, I would like to study art.
The second thing that happened that year, was this time when Dorothy asked me; What do you love more French or art? I said… Art!”