Sister Gertrude Morgan: The Mystic of New Orleans - Book - Page 98
month of shared spiritual joy and communion that we’ll never forget. It
was a reminder to do as she did: answer every higher call without delay.
Don’t just think about it—take action and get in the race!
Soon after, several of her paintings and photographs became
available to us. After one of her painted megaphones arrived—the
only one known to still exist except for the megaphone housed at the
High Museum in Atlanta—we knew we were on a mystical journey
inspired by her life. Sister Gertrude had entered our home and our
hearts. She became one of the primary “saints” of the Sacred Ecstatics Guild—people we dream whose strong rope to God and fire-born
expression left spiritual tracks for us to follow. I was inspired to make
my own illustrations and to share the story of Sister Gertrude’s life
through this little book. Brad dreamed its three opening lines.
For me personally, Sister Gertrude gave me the courage to fully
step into my work as a spiritual conductor and teacher of Sacred
Ecstatics. Her unbending faith, unhindered artistic expression, exuberant sacred joy, pure mysticism, and burning faith in God shout
from her paintings as loudly as her voice shouted through her megaphone. I believe this is the sanctified dart that strikes someone’s heart
when they see her art, even if they can’t consciously put their finger on
what it is that moves them so.
When Brad and I write or speak of Sister Gertrude, we try to avoid
interpreting, explaining, or translating her art and life through frames or
lenses to which she herself did not subscribe. As scholars, we are familiar with how layers of filtration and theoretical abstraction are typically
required to make raw religious experience admissible to institutions of
art and education. Strong spiritual emotion, ecstatic fervor, and explicit
religious devotion are often kept out of the gallery, the university, and
public discourse about Sister’s work. Her life is sometimes explained
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