The only New Zealander selected to produce artwork for the closing ceremony of the 800-year jubilee of the Dominican Order at the Santa Sabina Basilica in Rome in November had not painted a picture until she was 57.
Now 78, Waimate-born Oamaru nun Sr Mary Horn is one of 16 sisters of the order around the globe who have been selected to produce artwork for the finale of events celebrating the order receiving Papal approval.
"We've been celebrating this 800 years for 10 years,'' she said this week.
"This is the last year of it.''
Sr Mary said the order asked 16 Dominican artists around the world in February 2014 to produce artworks to be transferred on to banners to be displayed in the side naves of the Santa Sabina Basilica.
Sr Mary was asked to produce a work that represented Norwegian woman and a latecomer to religion, Sigrid Undset.
Undset, the mother of two children with disabilities, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.
Outspoken against Adolf Hitler, when the Nazis invaded Norway she had to flee to the United States.
Sr Mary was asked to do a provocative piece on Undset's life.
"They didn't want a figurative work. It had to be abstract.''
Sr Mary listened to Norwegian music while she created a vibrant red and blue piece depicting Undset's battles and her native homeland.
'I did two charcoal and pen pictures of her and used them to help create the picture.
"I did about four works before I got to this one.''
"When she painted she started with no clear idea of where she was going with a piece, she said.
"I have to go into a sort of prayer mode; a meditative state.
"It's not like prayers, like saying prayers, it's a sort of allowing something to come that you don't know.''
She would not be travelling to the opening of the event, opting to stay at home instead.
"It's only for a day.
"I need to have a bigger reason than that to make a carbon footprint.
"Unless you have to, I don't really believe in it.
"We have to do something to save our planet.''
The banners would be hung from late November to January.shannon.gillies@odt.co.nz
