Art Exhibition and Sale Earns More than $1,500 for Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE)

Written on: October 19, 2023

The day is Saturday, September 9, 2023. The place is St. Joseph University Parish, Buffalo, NY, and the event is Sister Bridget Connor’s 3rd Art Exhibition and Sale for the Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE).

We are pleased to announce that the financial benefit amounted to more than $1,500. Who can measure the benefit of making known the good work of AWE! For spreading that word, we thank:

• The Western NY Catholic for printing the announcement of the event and a brief history of Asylee Women Enterprise, and
• St. Joseph University Parish for the use of their Parish Center and for publishing the event in their church bulletin and announcing it at the Masses.

Actually, we could hear the announcement being made after the 4:30 PM Mass inviting people to “come and see”. Many did come downstairs to the Parish Center and spent time in awe of the paintings and visited with Laura Brown, Director of AWE, and Sister Bridget.

Brochures were readily available for the taking. Our thanks continues – Mary Jane Key, Grey Nun Associate, was our extension for months. She was the “boots on the ground” making all the many necessary connections.

Finally, we thank our Buffalo Grey Nun Sisters and friends who also helped spread the word. It is amazing to see how many it takes to make a 3.5 hour event successful. And it was successful!

There is a backstory of the event that should be told. For years, Sister Bridget has been honing her artistic gift using many different media. She’s done wood carving, stained glass work, wood burning, acrylic and oil painting and watercolor. Ask what she likes best, she would say oil painting, while trying to include watercolor.

Several years ago, Sister Bridget began to understand that God gave her this gift in order to pursue her other passion – women’s issues. Hence, Asylee Women Enterprise became her great joy and her mission! When we begin to focus with passion on something outside of ourselves — something begins to happen to us, imperceptibly at first.

For an artist, I believe it is the gift of noticing, then seeing more clearly. Sister Bridget will spend hours, days, or weeks on a painting and each time she returns to the canvas she sees it from a different angle, in greater depth, more intimately. This is a huge time commitment which can be frustrating and hard work, but which can also turn into a love affair. It is said that artists use their “tools” to cast light on darkness. It’s equally true to say that artists use their “tools” to cast light on beauty that we may miss as we hurry through life!

Thank you Sister Bridget for generously sharing your gift of seeing and making visible to others the beauty in landscapes, seascapes, people, and animals.

~ By Sister Diane Bardol

This entry was posted in From our Sisters and tagged: Art show benefit, Art Show: Sister Bridget Connor, Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE), Buffalo, NY