As Smithsonian magazine notes, the catalyst that really sparked Corita Kent’s artistic drive came in 1962, when she went to see the work of the pop art innovator Andy Warhol. His work inspired her to create with the bright colors and prominent textual and culturally germane characteristics of the genre, and soon Kent was known by the nickname the “Pop Art Nun.” She worked in her L.A. studio from 1960 to 1968, but her art led to conflict with the church. One conservative cardinal reportedly called her work “weird and sinister.” So she left the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1968 and moved to Boston. A couple years later, fed up with the Catholic church’s opposition to civil rights advocacy and other social justice issues, many of her former sisters also left the order and formed their own nondenominational Christian fellowship called the Immaculate Heart Community.

Kent went on to produce the series “Heroes and Sheroes,” a set of prints honoring activists such as Cesar Chavez and Coretta Scott King. Her legacy is still remembered to this day as one promoting fairness and equality. Christina Morris of the national Where Women Made History campaign called her work “intentionally bold and challenging, to both the public and the Catholic church, awakening them in the 1960s to pressing issues of racial and social injustice.” Kent continued to create activism-oriented art until her death in 1986.