Meinrad Craighead
Meinrad Craighead is an artist, scholar, and visionary, influential in the field of woman-centered religious art. Her work explores the human relationship to the Divine, particularly feminine images of God. [1]
Early Life and Education
Meinrad Craighead was born Charlene Marie Craighead [2] in 1936 in North Little Rock, Arkansas, one of three daughters in a Catholic family. She discovered her love of art when her father gifted her drawing charcoal. She experienced her first "real religious experience" at the age of seven during an experience in nature with her dog. [3]
Craighead was raised in Chicago, and attended Catholic school until she entered the University of Wisconsin, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in 1960.
Career
University of Albuquerque
Craighead moved to the Southwest after graduating from the University of Wisconsin to accept a teaching job in the art department at the University of Albuquerque. Here, she taught classes, painted, and explored Native American traditions in the Southwest. [3]
Europe
After two years at the University of Albuquerque, Craighead was invited to teach art in Florence, Italy. She spent 21 years in Europe, first in Florence and then in Spain, studying Catalonian art on a Fulbright Grant. While in Spain, she lived for ten months at Montserrat, a mountaintop monastery near Barcelona best known for its shrine to the Black Madonna. Soon thereafter, Craighead became a Benedictine nun at Stanbrook Abbey in England. [3] After fourteen years of monastic life, Craighead began working as an artist supported by the Arts Council of Great Britain. [4]
New Mexico
Craighead returned to the United States to continue her artistic work, settling on the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque. She conducts workshops on the feminine divine across North American and Europe. In 2009, a documentary was made about Craighead and her work. [5] She is featured in several books, including Soul Sisters: The Five Sacred Qualities of a Woman's Soul. [6]
Publications
In 2003, Pomegranate Press published Crow Mother and the Dog God: A Retrospective, which is a compilation of Craighead's life's work. [7][8]
Other published works by Meinrad Craighead include:
- The Mother's Birds: Images for a Death and a Birth. Worcester: Stanbrook Abbey Press, 1976.
- The Sign of the Tree: Meditations in Images and Words. London: Artists House, 1979.
- "Immanent Mother." in The Feminist Mystic, and Other Essays on Women and Spirituality. Mary E. Giles. New York: Crossroad, 1982.
- The Mother's Songs: Images of God the Mother. New York: Paulist Press, 1986.
- Liturgical Art, Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1988.
- The Litany of the Great River. New York: Paulist Press, 1991.
References
- ↑ "Meinrad Craighead". sybilarchibald.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
- ↑ reviewer. "Meinrad Craighead, Meinrad Craighead: Crow Mother and the Dog God, a Retrospective". thegreenmanreview.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
- 1 2 3 "Art and Spirituality: In the name of the mother". National Catholic Reporter. 2008-07-18. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
- ↑ Craighead, Meinrad, (2003). Meinrad Craighead : crow mother and the dog god : a retrospective. San Francisco, Calif.: Pomegranate. ISBN 0764924540. OCLC 51936832.
- ↑ "Meinrad Craighead Project". www.meinradproject.org. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
- ↑ Peay, Pythia. Soul sisters : the five divine qualities of a woman's soul. New York, NY. ISBN 1101497327. OCLC 860833853.
- ↑ "Meinrad Craighead Studio – Meinrad Craighead: Crow Mother and the Dog God, A Retrospective". www.meinradcraighead.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
- ↑ "Pomegranate Communications". Retrieved 2017-07-26.
External links
- Merinrad Craighead - official artist website
- Meinrad Craighead: Praying with Image - website of documentary film about the artist and her work
- The papers of Meinrad Craighead are archived at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, NC http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/craigheadmeinrad/#aspace_ref20_0uq