Rita Corbin, a graphic artist and printmaker, became involved in the Catholic Worker movement while living in New York City in the 1950s. The co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement and Catholic Worker newspaper, Dorothy Day, hired Corbin to make illustrations for the newspaper, and they became friends.
Corbin became a lifelong contributor and was one of the three primary Catholic Worker artists, along with Fritz Eichenberg and Ade Bethune.
In 1954, she married Martin Corbin, editor and literary critic. They worked on Liberation magazine with activist Dave Dellinger, in New Jersey where their first three children (Dorothy, Maggie and Sara) were born. In 1964, the family moved to the Catholic Worker Farm in Tivoli, New York, and two more children (Coretta and Martin) were born. She began publishing the Catholic Worker calendar with her original art and hand lettering, as well as notecards and Christmas cards.
Corbin and her youngest children moved to Brattleboro in 1981, and she lived in this area off and on until her death in 2011. She also spent a few years in Worcester, Massachusetts, developing strong ties with the Catholic Worker communities there.
Her work has appeared in many well-known religious publications, including The Christian Science Monitor, Commonweal Magazine, Fellowship Magazine, and Catholic Digest. Her artwork has been shown at Rockhurst College in Kansas City, the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, and the Sacketts Brook Gallery in Putney.
Corbin died in November 2011 due to injuries from a car accident. Every year since then, her children who live in the Brattleboro area continue to publish the calendar and cards using her artwork. Although the calendars are primarily sold by mail order through the Catholic Worker newspaper, there will be some still for sale at Everyone's Books in Brattleboro.
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.