Mary Corita
Kent

1918-1936 Frances Elizabeth Kent is born in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Corita graduates from the Los Angeles Catholic Girls' High School and enters the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and takes Sister Mary Corita as her religious name.

1941-1951 Corita finishes her Bachelors at Immaculate Heart College and is assigned to teach primary school in British Columbia. Corita is called back to IHC to join the faculty of the Art Department, and begins graduate school at the University of Southern California. After graduating from USC, she begins screenprinting.

1962 Corita continues working and teaching at IHC, her reputation as an artist and teacher start rapidly growing. Corita sees Andy Warhol's Soup Cans at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, and produces her first Pop print that summer.

1966 The Los Angeles Times names Corita one of nine women of the year. She's later on the cover of the Christmas issue of Newsweek Magazine. A commission of Corita's is printed by Harry Hambly at Hambly Studios in Santa Clara. Corita is very impressed with the quality of his work. She sends some of her own designs to him for printing.

1974-1983 Corita is diagnosed with cancer first in 1974 and then again in 1977. She continues to push on and later receives a commission from 'Physicians for Social Responsibility'. Corita calls the "we can create life without war" billboards the most religious thing she's done.

1985 Corita was asked to design a postage stamp in 1983. After several years in limbo, the design is issued. Furious at the unveiling, Corita creates the "Love is Hard Work" stamp design in response, which is one of her most famous pieces.

1988Three years later, cancer was found again. This time in Corita's liver. Corita dies from cancer September 18, 1988. She leaves her unsold works and copyrights to the Immaculate Heart Community. In 1997, 9 years later, The Immaculate Heart Community forms the Corita Art Center to honor her legacy.