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Sister
Mercedes was also drawn to art and studied art at Rosary, Alverno,
and Cardinal Stritch Colleges, the Catholic University in Washington,
D.C., and at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received a
Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing. She also participated
in the Summer in Europe Program sponsored by Loyola University of
Chicago. This program provided a panoramic survey of European art:
Early Christian, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical
periods of nine European countries.
Over
the years, Sister Mercedes has produced art works on scratch boards,
canvases and walls, and her work has been reproduced in a variety
of publications and on Christmas cards. She designed book covers
and produced illustrations for the Chronicle of the Catholic Church
in Lithuania, 1975-1979, the SSC publication Aidai, two children's
books, and the periodical Laivas of the Marian Fathers, 1977-1990.
Her largest project was a commissioned 17 x 22-foot mural of Our
Lady of Рiluva for the Nativity B.V.M. Church in Chicago in 1957.
It depicts the appearance of the Madonna in Рiluva, a town in western
Lithuania, in 1608.
A major
exhibit of 40 of Sister Mercedes works was held at the 69 Art Gallery,
in 1969. Her works were shown at the University Club of Chicago,
the Ciurlionis Lithuanian Art Gallery, the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian
Culture, and many were purchased by private collectors. Her paintings
and graphics have received awards in juried group exhibits.
A book
of her drawings and paintings, edited by Algimantas Kezys and Sister
Mercedes, titled The Art of Sister Mercedes was published in 2000,
and is available from the Sisters of St. Casimir.
Sister
Mercedes continues to work at her studio in the Motherhouse of the
Sisters of St. Casimir, in Chicago.
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