BORN AN ARTIST

 

Among Catholic artists, of course, are many religious-  some more known than others.

SISTER MARY THOMASITA FESSLER O.S.F. was an American artist  whose work consisted of paintings, sculptures and designs for stained-glass windows.

She was born as in 1912 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the granddaughter of the prominent architect Erhard Brielmaier. She joined the Sisters of St. Francis when she was seventeen years of age and went on to graduate from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

One of the most publicly known artists within the Brielmaier artist family, she was profiled by Life magazine in a 1953 feature story written by Jaqueline Mitchard. Prior to the publication, Sister Thomasita was being asked by the Church to reconsider whether she should remain in the convent due to what the church hierarchy was 'seeing' in her artwork. 

Sister founded the Art Department at Cardinal Stritch College, becoming the chair of the Art Department and founding the Studio San Damiano art gallery and studio for artists and education, which were based on her philosophy of, "Nature is God's art and art is man's nature", as well as the Brielmaier tradition of, "A child who learns to create will not destroy."

She did the mural "Mary, the Queen”  in Memorial Library at Marquette University

This mural depicts Mary's Queenship over all heaven and earth.

Sister Thomasita created over 600 paintings, most of which are now held in private collections, some within art galleries or museums such as the Haggerty Museum at Marquette University.

 Two of her large sculptures made of precious woods are featured on the second and fourth floor walls of the Marquette University library.

 

The two murals, "Christ the King" and "Mary, Queen," are made from over one thousand individually cut pieces of precious wood. These woods are cut in geometric and amoeba-like shapes and placed in mosaic-like fashion forming positive and negative areas. Each piece was cut separately from an original template of the large cartoon and range in size from a quarter of an inch to about six inches in the larger panels.

This mosaic-like construction made necessary the individual beveling of each piece of wood. The nature-colored hard woods, coming from various parts of the world, are listed below. Each piece of wood was evaluated carefully for color and grain in order to bring out the desired result in symbol as well as design.

The  13 different woods came from across the globe – white holly from the USA, ebony from Africa, Rosewood, India, etc.

Her hand-carved 16-foot crucifix, altar sculptures, or stone carvings are found in churches throughout the United States. Her Studio San Damiano, where she worked for decades with artist Irene Kilmurry, closed on April 14, 2004.

"We are all born creators and artists. There is uniqueness in each one of us."