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"She breaks from the norm and did not use typical stained-glass
techniques, but instead uses glass lenses for abstract elements
of color," Dena added. "Her unique figurative approach is
also seen in the chalices she made for priests and in her
monumental windows."
Sister Mary Trinitas was a woman of the Great Depression who
was known to upcycle discarded items into her artwork, including
wood scraps, fabric, wire, and pieces of metal.
Even the field of pottery was within her lengthy repertoire.
Always the innovator, Sister Mary Trinitas was the first university
instructor in the state of Montana to build a ceramic kiln on a
campus. She later showed Frances Senska, known by many as the
"Grandmother of Ceramics in Montana," how to build her own
kiln, Dena noted. Branson Stevenson, one of the founders of the
now-world-famous Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, was among
her many ceramics students.
"Her ceramic work is squarely in line with what was happening
in twentieth-century pottery in the 1940s and the international
Mingei Movement," Dena said.
Visitors to the Galerie Trinitas find themselves immersed in a captivating array of multi-media treasures.
