A Life In Art and Spirituality

After recieving an MFA from the University of Oregon, she painted in Roosevelt's WPA program and won 5 Treasury Department awards to paint mural in public spaces. In 1943 when Tillamook post office was being built, the community petitioned the government, asking that Lucia be allowed to paint one of these awards in her hometown. The result was Lucia's egg tempera mural, "Captain Gray's First Visit to the Oregon Coast". While she was working on this mural, and a county judge realized that he had an old letter from the architect of the courthouse, which described how he had left an unadorned wall to be used by an extremely talented young woman muralist. So in 1950 Lucia painted her courthouse mural, "The Building of the Morning Star", using the ancient technique of true fresco. A few years later, she became a member of an Episcopal religious order, the Community of the Holy Spirit, in New York City. Now at age 92, Sister Lucia is still teaching and advising students.