Unfinished Story
Wood Blocks by Sr. mary Grace Thul, OP
Sr. Mary Grace Thul, OP, May 2008
Mary Grace graduated from St. Ursala High School and the University of Cincinnati, College of Applied Arts, had a summer internship at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, taught in the 
Cincinnati public schools, and established a custom art business before deciding to enter the Monastery of the Cloistered Dominican Nuns of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1962. Mary Grace now lives at Benecasa Monastery in Wilmington, DE, where she resides today continuing her art in the Dominican tradition.
The fine arts have always been utilized by the Dominicans (Order of Preachers) in their ministry. Mary Grace has attempted to blend the contemplative and the artistic into a single spiritual discipline as she lives out her Dominican vocation. Her forty years of living the monastic life as a Dominican Nun has provided opportunities to broaden her use of various media including sculpture, painting, wood carving, and printmaking in giving expression to religious and scriptural imagery.
Mary Grace is an award winning artist and has exhibited nationally. She has received commissions for liturgical spaces and events, including the Dominican Assembly in 1992, the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1997, and the Archdiocese of Washington DC’s Convocation 2000 in 1998. Her illustrations have been published in Crisis Magazine, Liturgy: The Journal of the Liturgical Conference, The National Catholic Register, Paulist Press, and Alba House Press.