Art, Beauty and Joy

We have cultivated beauty through leadership, encouragement and support of the fine arts. Many women with natural ability for the arts joined the community and offered their talents to the students and others they encountered in schools and parishes. Along with the required core courses, FSPA taught music, art, drama and appreciation for literature — creating lessons without the aid of text books. The arts have a way of inspiring a love for learning and creating communities committed to the flourishing of each generation — communities committed to collaboration rather than competition. In an effort to provide a common curriculum for music, FSPA published the “St. Rose Hymnal” and taught generations of students four-part harmony. There seemed to be nothing that would stop the community from glorifying God through the arts.


FSPA Visual Art Experience

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"With every stroke of the paintbrush, every stitch in fabric, every handful of clay, every iconography workshop and every shaving of wood that falls away, the history of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration is told through the art and fine arts created over the years by the sisters themselves," Perspectives magazine shares in the story "FSPA Shares 'Love of Creation," Franciscan tradition of art."

"Art has always played an essential role in the lives of the sisters — an outlet to express their love of creation, a celebration of the beauty of the world and a means to live out their Franciscan values. The Franciscan tradition of art is often encapsulated in the legendary story of Mother Antonia Herb, who went out to buy food for the community and purchased a painting instead. As she explained it, the sisters needed food for their souls as well as their bodies."

For 175 years, FSPA has worked to enrich the lives of others. They are a talented group of individuals, working past retirement to serve and inspire. The creativity they possess spans a reach that not only touches their immediate community but spans worldwide. 

Now it is critical that we preserve the legacy of “every brush stroke” and share the beauty and joy of FSPA art in this visual collection. A selection of FSPA artists and their galleries of work are to be featured here,  in celebration of both 175 years of prayer, witness and service, and their legacies will live on in this visual gallery for generations to come.

Celebrating Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Maryam Gossling

Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Maryam GosslingFranciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Maryam Gossling, born in 1938, grew up on a farm in Festina, Iowa, where her family grew crops and raised cows and horses. She earned a master of arts from Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, and spent the majority of her career as a professional artist, art teacher and graphic artist.

She was sent on mission to teach art in Wisconsin and Iowa. In the 90s and early 2000s, she served as an artist in residence at Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in Hiawatha, Iowa. Returning to La Crosse in 2011, she focused her art practice primarily on writing Icons.

Throughout her career, Sister Maryam experimented with a variety of artistic mediums including painting, drawing, printmaking and graphic arts. Her work has ranged from commercial to fine art and draws inspiration stylistically from iconography, Celtic designs, indigenous art, Japanese sumi-e, portraits and landscapes. Her life was fully devoted to creative exploration and many hours of dedicated art-making.

Sister Maryam currently resides at St. Rose Convent in La Crosse, Wisconsin where many of her works are on display.

Read more of Sister Maryam's story, view her gallery

Click the images below to watch more FSPA artists tell the stories of their ministries and view galleries of their works.

Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Pauline WittrySister Pauline Wittry

 

 


Sister Malinda Gerke's Harp Collection

Emmanuel (full album)

Instrument of Peace (full album)

Music of Healing Comfort (full album)

Peaceful Journey

Prayerful Impressions


FSPA Christmas Music Collection

December 2024

Featuring Sisters Rosemary Desmond and Rochelle Potaracke

Featuring Sisters Clara Abisola Adelakun and Meg Earsley

Featuring Partners in Mission Josiah, Marcus and Oliver

December 2023

Featuring Sister Meg Earsley

Featuring Sister Malinda Gerke

Featuring Sister Nina Shephard and Partner in Mission Carolyn Scott


An interview with Sister Marlene Weisenbeck

How have the fine arts been a part of your life as an FSPA?

My involvement in the fine arts started in the first grade, as I was educated by FSPA throughout my grammar, high school and college years. FSPA had written music curriculum, which was taught in all the grades. At age six I was singing and reading music on a daily basis, learning about sharps and flats. By grade four I could sing the “Dies Irae” from the Latin Requiem Mass by heart because we were taught to sing all the parts of the Mass early in grade school.

In grade six I began to take piano lessons and a couple of years later organ and trumpet lessons, also taught by an FSPA who was probably one of the most influential people in the development of my vocation (though we never talked about that). By grade seven I was playing organ for daily Mass and marching in the high school band.

When I joined FSPA, my desire to study music was solid. I loved learning to play as many instruments as possible during my college years. I earned a baccalaureate degree in music education at Viterbo College. After four years of teaching music in elementary and high schools staffed by FSPA, I earned a master’s degree in piano performance and soon thereafter served as a faculty member in the Viterbo music department. I became the department chairperson during my 18-year tenure there.

My doctoral studies took me in other directions, but still prompted by beauty and an inner song, I earned a doctoral minor in art history. The arts have always been an impetus for the way I approach my ministry throughout life. Their spiritual essence helps me to hear and see reality through a lens of beauty that is part of God’s ongoing revelation. Even today I still love to sing and do so as a cantor and member of my community’s schola. I can say that the fine arts have been an integral part of my life for the whole of it.


An interview with Sister Karen Kappell

How have the fine arts been a part of your life as an FSPA?

Being an artist isn’t something I could file away when I decided to be an FSPA. It was important that I felt the arts were valued in community and that I could continue as an artist. Through the years I have not been disappointed, and have encouraged many to get in touch with deeper meaning in their lives by finding the arts as means to express themselves. I do this while I am on staff at one of our three spiritualty centers, Marywood. I also have been encouraged and supported in producing and selling art which finds a place in a home, business, clinic or other places. Hopefully it brings a sense of beauty to the environment. I have been invited to contribute art for community gatherings, brochures and publications. Because art is a creative process and intuitive, it affects the way I work in other areas of life and I find this helpful in serving in my current ministry of leadership. These have been some ways I have used the gifts that I’ve been given. Through the years I have come to a closer realization of the close fit between serving as an artist and religious sister—and the value of the call to this life and community.

Click or tap on the images below to download Sister Karen's art and photography.


An interview with Sister Laura Nettles

How have the fine arts been a part of your life as an FSPA?

The arts provide a variety of lenses through which we come to see the dignity inherent in all of creation and provides a glimpse of the divine artist. The arts, music in particular, have always fed my soul. Music, whether listening or performing, is where I find beauty, peace and healing. More importantly, it is where I encounter the divine. Like Moses and the Burning Bush, God speaks to me through music. I am blessed to be part of a religious community that actively supports my love of music and enthusiastically encourages my membership in various musical groups. Even better, my own spiritual journey has been enriched beyond measure by the artistic creativity of our sisters. Though we are diverse in many ways, the arts have become, for FSPA, a profound medium through which we share our humanity. And our souls are continually nourished. “… the arts have been an inseparable part of the human journey; indeed, we depend on the arts to carry us toward the fullness of our humanity." - National Standards for Art Education


An interview with Sister Betty Bradley

How have the fine arts been a part of your life as an FSPA?

Sister Betty Bradley currently serves the ministry of artistry. Sister Betty’s art (pictured above) and story shows how God uses our natural gifts and talents to lead us into the mission fields. The canvas of her life is filled with all the ways her ministerial positions have flowed with creativity. She has found ways to continue the FSPA fine arts as she brings out the best in all those she meets.

Q: How did your vocation lead you to become an artist?
Throughout my eight years of grade school at St. Ann’s in Spokane, Washington, having been taught by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, we had art class every Friday afternoon. This was where I began to love the gift of creativity and artistic expression.

Q: How is art a part of your spiritual practice?
To me, art is very meditative. When creating art, I believe God and I are playing together. God is our greatest creator. With God, the creative potential is endless.

Q: What are the various ways you have used your artistic skills in ministry?
When I was teaching in elementary schools and as a religious education director, I always tried to encourage and support creativity. It is such a great gift to behold. I have also enjoyed teaching watercolor classes to adults.

Q: How is being an FSPA part of your journey as an artist?
While I was ministering as associate director for FSPA Incorporation Office, I lived next door to Sister Margaret Ann Schlosser. She taught oil and watercolor classes, so I decided to take watercolor classes. In this process I discovered I had natural talent for watercolor painting, so I decided to pursue additional education. As a Franciscan Sister, my hope is to continue expressing the goodness of God through my art.


Artistic expression continues as a primary ministry of several FSPA members. To learn more about contemporary projects by FSPA members visit our Books, Video, Art page and Sister Betty Bradley Original Watercolors and Religious Icons.


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