Carmelite Monastery

"Self Portrait in Carmelite Habit" 
 Kerry Wright, 1970 
Oils on canvas
60cm x 50cm (24in x 20in)

I have been sketching and painting my own image since childhood. The above self portrait is one of my first serious attempts at capturing my likeness in oils on canvas. This is how I viewed myself, albeit sans spectacles, during my time at Mount Carmel Monastery in Sydney. I had entered the Carmelite Order to study for the priesthood. Alas, however, over a period of time, I came to realize that I did not possess the religious vocation I had so fervently hoped and prayed would be mine during my adolescence. So I left the monastery and got on with my life in the secular world. It was a memorable experience and I met some wonderful people in the monastery. Certainly, I harbour no regrets about my time spent within the Carmelite cloister. In fact, I'm glad I went in, because if I hadn't done so, I would always wonder if I was meant to be a priest. It was a time of intense self-reflection in my life, which is evident in the above self portrait.

Here’s a selection of photos from my Carmelite photo album:

^ Here I am in the monastery’s rose garden. Filled with hope and high expectations. I was so very young and naïve.

^ That’s me beneath the white cowl of the Carmelites with capuche raised. The monastery grounds occupied an entire hilltop in outer Sydney and comprised a small working farm as well as the monastic building complex itself. Everything has long since fallen victim to the city’s ever increasing suburban sprawl. The grounds have been subdivided into new streets of gaudy, ostentatious McMansions. The beautiful monastery building itself, with its pretty little chapel, laid waste by the bulldozer’s might. George and I recently made a pilgrimage back to the site and were very saddened by the over development of what had once been such an idyllic, sylvan setting, with not so much as a plaque to signify a monastery had once stood there.

^ I’m seen here within the monastery grounds. It all seems so very long ago.

^ With Mum and Dad on visiting day. There was a visiting day once each month. Visitors were not permitted to enter the cloister proper. They were restricted to the visitors’ parlours and the monastery grounds. I am wearing the white cowl of the Carmelites.

^ A beautiful photo of my beloved mother, taken on visiting day with two of her grandchildren, Susan and Matthew.

^ Mum and Dad in the monastery's rose garden.