Beautiful Faith: All Things Are Connected
Exhibition Details
When: June 6, 2024 – July 13, 2024
Exhibit Hours: Sun 11-2, Mon 11-2, Wed 11-2, Thursday 4-7
Where: Mary Anderson Gallery at Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality
Opening Reception
Date and Time: June 6, 2024 @ 6:30 pm
Location: Mary Anderson Gallery at Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality
Artist Talk
Date and Time: June 27, 2024 @ 6:30 pm
Location: Mary Anderson Gallery at Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality
Exhibition Overview
“Beautiful Faith: All Things Are Connected”
“Beautiful Faith” stands as a profound journey into the expansive realms of artistic expression, where Joan Zehnder, M. Kathy Christian, and Cory Lockhart merge their unique visions to unveil the intricate tapestry that binds faith, nature, and the human spirit. This exhibition serves as an immersive exploration into the all-encompassing connectedness of existence, celebrating the beauty of belief and the spirituality of the natural world as reflections of a deeply personal yet universally shared experience. Beyond the echoes of the natural world, the collection transcends into the realms of divine and human creation, highlighting the profound interplay between the celestial and the earthly.
Joan Zehnder, drawing from her experiences as a former Sister of Mercy and an art therapist, delves deep into spiritual inquiry with her oil paintings and mixed media works. Her art, rooted in Native American spirituality, Shamanism, and Jungian Psychology, becomes a conduit for exploring the mysteries and truths of existence. Each piece, infused with the essence of the Divine Feminine, invites viewers into a contemplative space to explore the interconnectedness of color, form, and consciousness, urging an attentive presence to the call of life.
M. Kathy Christian, through her profound bond with nature and an innovative approach to her art, presents a world where mood, texture, and emotion are harmoniously intertwined. Her pastel painting collages, acrylics, mixed media, ceramics, and mosaics narrate a journey from feeling to belief, mirroring her emotional encounters with the natural world. Kathy’s work, a vivid expression of the ambiance and moodiness of nature, employs a blend of mediums to evoke a sensory experience that transcends mere visuals, touching the essence of the soul.
Cory Lockhart infuses a sense of playfulness into the sacred act of creation. Her art, spanning from word to material weaving, is an intimate process of self-reconstruction and a profound expression of connection—to the divine, the earthly, and the materials at hand. Cory’s artistic endeavor celebrates the act of co-creation, collaboration, and community-making, highlighting art’s power to foster understanding and connection across varied landscapes and cultures. Her work emphasizes the interconnectedness between pain and hope, weaves a tapestry of growth and understanding between them, and stands as an invitation to engage in the communal nurturing of ideas and relationships.
“Beautiful Faith” is an invitation to journey into the heart of artistic expression, where the lines between the individual and the universal, the earthly and the divine, beautifully blur. This exhibition, through the combined visions of Zehnder, Christian, and Lockhart, emerges as a vibrant celebration of faith in its most beautiful form—a faith that blossoms within each act of creation, each stroke of the brush, and each moment of divine playfulness. It calls upon viewers to delve into their own inner landscapes, discover the beauty in belief, and embrace the all-encompassing connectedness that threads through our shared human experience, highlighting the intrinsic unity of all things in the magnificent dance of life.
Exhibit Dates and Hours:
Thursday, June 6 – Opening Reception – 6:30-8 pm
Sunday, June 9 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Monday, June 10 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Wednesday, June 12 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Thursday, June 13 – 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Sunday, June 16 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Monday, June 17 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Wednesday, June 19 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Thursday, June 20 – 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Sunday, June 23 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Monday, June 24 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Wednesday, June 26 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Thursday, June 27 – Artist Talk – 6:30 – 8:00 pm
Sunday, June 30 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Monday, July 1 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Wednesday, July 3 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Sunday, July 7 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Monday, July 8 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Wednesday, July 10 – 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Thursday, July 11 – 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Place: Mary Anderson Gallery
Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality
101 St. Anthony Dr.
Mount Saint Francis, IN 47146
Meet The Artist
Joan Zehnder
I am an Artist and a Licensed Art Therapist. I received Masters degrees in Art at the University of Notre Dame and in Expressive Therapy at the University of Louisville. I was previously an Art Teacher at Assumption, Mercy, Holy Rosary, and Desales High Schools.
My main mediums are oil paint on canvas, mixed media (usually including oil paint), and oil paint on stretched fabric.
My art is an expression of both my personal and spiritual growth. It is an invitation to explore mystery and truth, and to bring to consciousness what I already know deep inside. What I give birth to emanates from the Divine Feminine within and manifests in multiple images of Her presence and power.
M. Kathy Christian
M. Kathy Christian was born in KY and has lived in Louisville all of her life. She worked in the field of Human Recourses for over 30 years and retired in Feb 2020. July of that year she picked up a paint brush and began teaching herself how to paint. In the first year of painting, she mostly focused on painting landscapes and florals in acrylic. In her second year of painting, she taught herself to paint with pastels which allows her to bring a moodiness to her paintings that she and others are drawn to. In 2023, she expanded her work to include mixed media which allows for the creation of a unique style that is her own. She enjoys the experimental nature of using acrylic, ink, collage, pastel, watercolor and charcoal etc. to develop the emotions that she experiences in nature. She also enjoys exploring the mixture of many mediums to develop texture, depth and unusual points of interest which are different than what can be achieved with a single medium. She also is often found in her studio using a variety of tools & brushes, including her fingers to create the texture that she thinks the painting needs.
Kathy has also begun working with ceramics and mosaics to expand her artist journey. She is extremely prolific which led to the fast development of her skill level as a new artist. She began to sell her artwork to the public in May 2022 when she presented garden themed paintings at the “Locust Grove Gardner’s Fair”. Oct 2022, she participated in the “Belknap Fall Festival”. Nov 2022 she was invited as a guest artist to the “Louisville Artisan Guild’s Fine Art and Crafts Showcase”. She has since become a juried member of the Louisville Artisan Guild. In both Dec 2022 & 2023 she participated in “WinterFair” showing both paintings and ceramics. In April 2023 she presented “Mixed Media” paintings at Cherokee Triangle Art Fair and has been juried in for both Mixed Media and Painting for 2024. In June of 2023 she was invited to present both Mixed Media and Paintings at “Arts on the Green” Art Fair in Crestwood, KY where she won the Blue Ribbon for Best Mixed Media Artist.
Kathy is currently represented by three Galleries in the State of KY: Kore Gallery in Louisville and Art House in Lexington for painting. She is represented by Gallery 104 in Crestwood for ceramics. She is also a member of Louisville Artisan Guild, Louisville Visual Arts Association and Art Association of Oldham County.
Cory Lockhart
I am the daughter of a professional artist. It is easier to say that than it is to say that I myself am an artist.
I, Cory Lockhart, am an artist. I know that I am an artist because when I allow creative expression to move through me, time becomes unimportant, I feel connected to God, Spirit, the Universe, whatever you may call That Which Is Greater than Us. I also feel connected to Earth, to my own physicality with its strengths and limitations, and to the materials I am working with, their strengths and limitations.
My art sometimes takes the form of word-weaving, sometimes takes the form of people weaving (an art more commonly known as teaching or facilitating), sometimes takes the form of material weaving with paper, pencils, water, glue, found objects, other things. When I am working in these ways, I know I am weaving myself back together, mending rips in the fabric of my being, both from my own lifetime and inherited from generations before me. I hope that in my mending, I am also fortifying the larger tapestry of which I am a part. I have to believe it is so.
My art enables me to experience the world with greater understanding, whether I am in Louisville, Kentucky or Rome, Italy or Chatra, Jharkhand, India or Hebron, Palestine. What flows from my fingers, my mouth, my body sometimes takes me by surprise. I don’t know what I know until it is outside of me, birthed into physical form. Sharing my art, inviting others to care for them, too, is an invitation to co-parent ideas, relationships, beings. I long to co-. Co-create, collaborate, community-make, communicate, compass(find-our-way)-ion-ate, connect.
For these reasons I create.
I am an artist.
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