Time to See, Part 2

All photographs by Baya Clare, CSJ unless otherwise noted.

Time to See

Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see it takes time, like to have a friend takes time.

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.

Georgia O'Keeffe

All photographs by Baya Clare, CSJ unless otherwise noted.

The Work of Our Hands

Sister Magdalen Schimanski was a well-established painter and poet who taught at the College of St. Catherine for many years. For the past few years she had been making original, one of a kind greeting cards using cut and torn rice paper. She displayed them each year at Bethany Convent, where she lived, for one month in the fall before giving them all away. Several of her paintings hang at Carondelet Center and at St. Kate's, and she had exhibitions at various galleries and museums as well.

She was always interested in my various artistic endeavors, asking me what I was working on and encouraging me to continue, and we enjoyed some very satisfying conversations over the years. Sister Magdalen died last week at the age of 89. Here is her obituary.

In her memory, I'd like to share four of her leaf cards, which she made in 2005.

Let the beauty of God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands...

Psalm 90

All photographs by Baya Clare, CSJ unless otherwise noted.

Joy is Everywhere

And Joy is everywhere;

It's in the Earth's green covering of grass;

In the blue serenity of the Sky.

Rabindranath Tagore

All photographs by Baya Clare, CSJ unless otherwise noted.