John Hoare Kerr in St. Benet’s dorm in 1946
It is not often that the person chosen for this monthly series on “Artists of the Abbey” also happens to have been an Oblate of St. Benedict. One notable example of this occurred three years ago, in January 2022, when we featured the artwork of oblate Adelaide de Bethune (1914-2002). Like Ade, this month’s artist is also buried here at Portsmouth in our monastic cemetery. Much of the ongoing inspiration for this exploration of artists came from our renewal of efforts undertaken by Fr. Damian Kearney and librarian Roberta Stevens to fully process and archive the sprawling collection of artwork over which the monks have ownership and stewardship. The idea of highlighting the artists represented throughout our community history became a regular feature of the “The Current.” Their creations span centuries, grace the indoors and the outdoors of the monastic grounds, and represent work in a wide variety of media.