Meinrad Craighead

Meinrad Craighead (1936–2019) was 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

Teaching in Albuquerque

Craighead moved to the Southwest after graduating from the University of Wisconsin to accept a teaching job in the art department at the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande in Albuquerque.[4] Here, she taught classes, began printing gesso relief prints, and explored Native American traditions in the Southwest.[3]

Europe

After two years at the College of St. Joseph, Craighead was invited to teach art in Florence, Italy. She spent 21 years in Europe, first teaching in Florence and then studying early medieval Catalonian art on a Fulbright Grant in Spain. 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, where she made block prints, charcoal drawings, and began working with black ink on scratchboard.[3] After fourteen years of monastic life, Craighead began working as an artist supported by the Arts Council of Great Britain.[4]

New Mexico

In 1983, Craighead returned to the United States to continue her artistic work, settling near the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque. She conducted workshops on the feminine divine across North American and Europe. In 2003, a retrospective of her work was published by Pomegranate Press, Meinrad Craighead, Crow Mother and the Dog God. [4] In 2009, a documentary entitled "Praying with Images" 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
  1. "Meinrad Craighead". sybilarchibald.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  2. reviewer. "Meinrad Craighead, Meinrad Craighead: Crow Mother and the Dog God, a Retrospective". thegreenmanreview.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  3. "Art and Spirituality: In the name of the mother". National Catholic Reporter. 2008-07-18. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  4. Craighead, Meinrad (2003). Meinrad Craighead : crow mother and the dog god : a retrospective. San Francisco, Calif.: Pomegranate. ISBN 0764924540. OCLC 51936832.
  5. "Meinrad Craighead Project". www.meinradproject.org. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  6. Peay, Pythia. Soul sisters : the five divine qualities of a woman's soul. New York, NY. ISBN 1101497327. OCLC 860833853.
  7. "Meinrad Craighead Studio – Meinrad Craighead: Crow Mother and the Dog God, A Retrospective". www.meinradcraighead.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  8. "Pomegranate Communications". Retrieved 2017-07-26.
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