102 S 10th St
Lafayette, Indiana 47905

Sister Mary Rufinia was a Lafayette artist who began painting in the 1920's. Born in Germany in 1885, she was a Catholic nun who launched her nursing career in St. Elizabeth Hospital in 1906. Crippled too severely in an accident to continue nursing, she became involved as an artist and an art teacher in 1920. She studied at the Academy of Art in Berlin, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Duchune College. In the 1930's she opened a studio at St. Francis High School near the hospital and taught watercolor, pottery and sculpture. In an essay titled "Reveries of an Artist" she wrote: "For me, an artists, one of the greatest happiness's this world can offer is to behold the beauty of creation. In each tree, sunrise, sunset, ocean, mountain, landscape, and garden, my soul overflows with gratitude to the Supreme Maker." She died in 1959. This exhibition will feature many of Sister Rufinia's works loaned from private and institutional collections as well as works from the students she taught. The Art Museum's Permanent Collection includes five of her works, including the oil: "The Old Carpenter," which will be included in this show.

Added by Upcoming Robot on September 1, 2011