Sister Mary Jean Dorcy was born on March 10, 1914 in Anacortes, Washington. She was an artist in the unique discipline of paper-cutting–but her work is much more elaborate and charming than you might think by the name! She was also a writer.
Dorcy began writing when she was six “because I had the measles and my sister didn’t.”^1 She loved it and never put down her pen after that. Her art began to blossom when her mother’s paper and her sister’s watercolors mysteriously disappeared one day and an illustrated book about canaries appeared in their place. She entered the Dominican Order when she was grown, and her creativity followed her. There the Mother Superior had her write for a publication, which she did against her own wishes for the sake of obedience. Her sisters in the convent were very supportive of her art as well, and she became quite talented with paper-cutting–usually images of Mary and often with the child Jesus, with elegant flourishes which bring to life the beauty of that relationship.
Dorcy never could decide whether she was an artist who wrote or an author who illustrated. I think the distinction need not be made when someone is so brilliant at each.
Her silhouettes were used in her own books, but also as magazine covers and illustrations. They throb with emotion; even though we cannot see the details of a face, the art communicates volumes.
Below are shown a few more examples of her work.
^1 http://www.catholicauthors.com/dorcy.html