Call Of Isaiah

Call Of Isaiah

A male figure stands with his feet apart, knees bent, and hands lifted at his sides with palms open. He gazes up toward the top left corner. White lines extend from this corner toward the figure's face. The background is red and the wood carving technique and the grain from the wood create simulated texture throughout the image.

Sister Joanne Emmer (known as Sister Photina in the 1950s and 1960s) is a an artist and educator who brings a deep sense of spirituality to her creation of art. She was born on March 9, 1930 in Moose Lake, MN, and currently resides at Carondelet Village in St. Paul, MN. She studied art from a young age, beginning at the Walker Art School in Minneapolis in the late 1940s. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ) in 1951 and completed a B.A. in art at the College of St. Catherine in 1956. She furthered her education at the California College of Arts and Crafts where she received a M.F.A. in painting in 1961. She taught art at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul and St. Mary's Junior College in Minneapolis, where her students were primarily young women studying to be health care professionals. During the 1980s she developed and taught a non-visual art course to undergraduates at the College of St. Catherine, which is just one example of her innovative and holistic education philosophy. She retired from active teaching in 1995. Her art career has included many forms of inspiration and exploration with various techniques. Her early career focused on oil painting, and in her later career she returns to painting using a wet-on-wet acrylic wash technique. Mid-career, she discovered printmaking, and explored many forms of woodblock and screen printing. The subject matter of her prints and paintings are often centered around religion and nature. In a guide to the 2008 Joanne Emmer, CSJ retrospective at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Center, she is quoted: I have often thought of my career as an art teacher, therefore, as opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, strengthening withered limbs all the grand metaphors of the Gospels. I make paintings and prints with the same hope for those who view them.

1965

ink

paper

12 x 18 inches

woodcut

print

2013.0.377