By Jay Sorgi
Special to The Texas Catholic
Anyone who walks into the atrium for the theater at Ursuline Academy of Dallas will most likely encounter the natural light that fills the space.
Then, as that person turns the corner, it is impossible to miss the works of a now-90-year-old Ursuline sister who was artist-in-residence at the school from 1974 to 1979, Sister Mary Frances Judge, OSU, whose works have been exhibited everywhere from the Vatican Museum to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
“When you see Sister Mary’s work bathed in this light, I think it gives a very unique viewing experience that is unparalleled,” said Jocelyn Holmes, the chair of Ursuline Academy’s visual arts department and director of the Popolo Gallery.
Sister Mary Frances’ work first went on display there for the Ursuline students in February and will remain for the rest of the spring semester. Her works can also be found at the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas.
“It’s great for the students to see the way her work has grown and changed over time. I love that they can see references in her work to the way that the different locations that she has lived have impacted her subject matter,” Holmes said.
Some of Sister Mary Frances’ works reflect the subway experience of what she said was nearly four decades of life in New York, from which the world became her canvas.
“I would go to Italy and different countries to get inspiration,” she said from her current home in Alton, Illinois, just north of St. Louis, Missouri. “I went to Switzerland, Denmark, France, and Italy. My favorite country was Italy, where I had a place with the Ursulines.”
Sister Mary Frances said her first work of art came when she was 3 years old. Her canvas was not Italy or France but her grandmother’s place as she grew up in Minnesota.
“I took a jar of cold cream and painted on my grandma’s bedroom wall,” she said with laughter. “My aunt said, ‘I knew you were going to be an artist!’”
Her works, like the circular Tondos on display at Ursuline Academy, splash of vibrant, often contrasting colors that evoke reflections of creation and eventually outer space and the universe God created.
“When I first came back from a trip to Switzerland, I couldn’t paint the Alpine experience in a rectangular form. That’s when I first moved into the Tondo and had those shapes fabricated for me,” she said. “Later on, I picked it up again when I went to St. Paul, and was inspired by the cosmos. Since I was no longer traveling, I thought, ‘Go out into space, and ruminate about the cosmos.’ So, then I went into those shapes again.”
“The way that she’s talked about cosmology and the way she’s fascinated by the idea of the genesis of the universe, I think that goes back to the format of her work, that circular form, and looking at how it makes us think about the cosmos and the way that we see ourselves as part of that bigger entangled universe that we’re a part of,” Holmes said. “(Students) came back to the classroom and were able to experiment and create their own round canvases in her fluid painting style.”
Holmes believes this experience for Ursuline students will help them open doors, not only to understand the fine arts but to step forward with the talents God gave them for expression in their own lives.
“It’s so important for students to see the female voice in the art world. We still see an underrepresentation of the female voice in galleries and museums,” Holmes said.
“I am just so thrilled that we can have this connection to Sister’s work, bring that to our students, and help them see the possibilities of what they might be able to do possibly in their future,” she added.
That hope reflects what Sister Mary Frances has lived in her nine decades of artistic life, from her grandmother’s house to the walls of the Vatican.
“I just feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” she said. “I’m created to do what I’m doing, and I’m doing it.”
Cutline for featured image: Sister Mary Frances Judge, OSU, poses with her painting, “La Danza.” The Ursuline sister was an artist-in-residence at Ursuline Academy of Dallas from 1974 to 1979. (Courtesy photo)
