“Designer, printmaker, artist, and educator Corita Kent has been a longtime inspiration and guide. Every time I drive by that natural gas tank just outside of the city of Boston, I feel a kinship and comfort in her exuberant stripes and colors. I have long enjoyed all the urban myths regarding various images that can be extracted from the paint strokes. I imagine Kent would have liked that, people looking deeply and intuiting messages beyond the surface. Her rules for students and educators are lighthearted but exactly on point and they serve as a foundation for my own teaching practices. Her work is bright, daring, and subversive.”
–Nikki Juen, instructor and lecturer of experimental and foundation studies, RISD
By Sister Corita Kent via Gallerie Allen
Sister Corita Kent’s Rules + Hints for Students and Teachers.
rule 1
Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.
rule 2
General duties of a student: Pull everything out of your teacher. Pull everything out of your fellow students.
rule 3
General duties of a teacher: Pull everything out of your students. [Latin origin of the word educate is 'to draw out / to lead out / to pull out']
rule 4
Consider everything an experiment.
rule 5
Be self disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be disciplined is to follow in a better way.
rule 6
Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.
rule 7
The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.
rule 8
Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.
rule 9
Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
rule 10
“We’re breaking all of the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for x quantities.” –John Cage
helpful hints:
Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything; it might come in handy later. There should be new rules next week.