Artists bloom at Loretto Motherhouse

Since 2022, the Loretto Motherhouse has partnered with Kentucky Foundation for Women to offer residencies to artists living in Kentucky through the Loretto Artist Residency Program. Residencies are for literary, media, performing and visual artists who have demonstrated achievement in creating work high in artistic merit and based on social justice issues/concerns. They span one-to-three weeks at the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky. A residency gifts artists with space, time to devote to their work and the opportunity for rest and rejuvenation. They enjoy interacting with Motherhouse residents, and are invited to give an artist’s talk.

We offer reflections and art from five recent participants in the residency program.

Lucy Azubuike

Spending time with Jeanne Dueber SL’s works at Loretto Motherhouse solidified my idea to work with natural forms I collect in nature. Ultimately the stay at Loretto widened my perspective to expand my medium.

I began to not only take pictures of natural forms but also collect them to create works. ‘Agwo no n’akilika’ was the first of this kind after my Loretto residency.

I aim to provoke a shift in perception, value, connection and appreciation. I strive to awaken a deeper connection to the world around us. I discover and reveal images that lie hidden in the structure of natural forms, things that are recognizable to us, like figures and faces, recognizable patterns and artistic abstract forms. I emotionally react to each artistic form or impression I find. Most forms I discover bring me unparalleled happiness and joy; they unravel memories and art that I couldn’t possibly create without encountering trees. They stimulate thought-provoking subjects about life.

Lucy Azubuike, a multimedia artist, completed her Loretto Motherhouse residency in 2023. Her diverse practices encompass photography, sculpture, painting, performance and video art. She shares, “My work weaves themes of nature, femininity and societal issues, offering insights into the human experience and the environment.”

Jabani Bennett

I arrived at the Loretto Motherhouse after a blizzard — and after a season of giving: parenting, delivering a keynote and completing research for a show catalog honoring 30 Black women cultural leaders in Louisville. It was my first residency as an artist-mother. The quiet welcomed me. I painted ‘Oyo, 1850,’ now hanging in Louisville’s NuLu (New Louisville) district, and a self-portrait probing identity and meritocracy. I worked beside Jeanne Dueber SL’s sculptures, sharing slow conversations with the Sisters about the beauty of women’s company, the privilege of aging in community and the power of play. The week held me gently. I made. I thawed. I rested.

Jabani Bennett completed her residency in January. She is a Louisville-based interdisciplinary artist, mindfulness facilitator and writer. She shares that her mixed media practice explores memory, rest and spiritual resilience rooted in ancestral lineage and embodiment practices.

Tori Christgen

Tori Christgen, artist and professor, completed her residency at the Loretto Motherhouse in spring 2024. She explains that she has a dynamic and ever-changing relationship with the arts. You might find her capturing the beauty of the Rocky Mountains or strolling through the canals of Amsterdam with drawing students. She could be exploring ancient Cambodian temples or immersed in a Costa Rican jungle, studying the intricate patterns of a giant boa. Or, she might be exploring her new home state of Kentucky, engaging with students and peers.

Tori Christgen shares that her multidisciplinary approach to art-making, coupled with her infectious zest for life, results in passionate and vibrant works of art that straddle the line between fine art and street art. These creations serve as not only documents of her adventures but also as a means of connecting her with friends, old and new.

Nancy K. Jentsch

I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to spend time writing and reflecting during my residency at the Loretto Motherhouse. I had been on group retreats there in the past, but this time I felt a deeper connection to the place, the residents and the amazing history of the Sisters of Loretto. Sharing meals with Sisters and Co-Members was one of the high points of my week. I learned so much about the active lives and passions of the people I met, but I also was moved by the power of the silence I shared with others during a prayer meeting. My creative time was richly blessed by these experiences, and I completed work on a poetry manuscript, which I have submitted for publication. I also wrote and revised other poetry on my porch at the Valley House. The poem I share here is in the form of a golden shovel, which means that I have used the words from a line of poetry for the final word of each line of my poem. The line is ‘All day the stars watch from long ago’ taken from W.S. Merwin’s ‘Rain Light.’

Morning Blessing
May this day begin all
dressed in gold, a day
that looks up to the
sky, not seeing stars
but knowing they watch.
They are stars made from
mere dust with love, God’s long-
bright love, dawning now as ever ago.

Nancy K. Jentsch

Nancy Jentsch completed her residency at the Motherhouse in April. She shares that her poetry reflects a sense of awe at the Creator’s handiwork, its beauty and its intricacies. Nancy lives and writes in Northern Kentucky.

Danica Novgorodoff

My week at Loretto was inspiring and productive. I was working on a graphic novel about motherhood and women artists, and made a great deal of progress on the artwork for that book. I was also able to work on two other projects: brainstorming new ideas for children’s books and a series of drawings and watercolors about water. In my everyday life at home, as the parent of young children and a working artist, I don’t have time to work on any side projects, so this time and space to create was a true gift.

Danica Novgorodoff completed her residency in June. She is an artist, writer and New York Times best-selling illustrator. She has published four graphic novels, two children’s books and a cookbook.

To read all of the articles in the fall 2025 issue click here.