Sister Fran Ault glides blue, yellow, and purple pastels across manila paper. Her blue eyes dart behind her tortoiseshell glasses. They glance at my head.
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Sister Fran, dressed in a T-shirt and maroon pants, perches comfortably on a chair at Saint Barnabas, the south-side convent where she lives. “I was an art teacher at Visitation High School in 1981, when an English teacher said her poems contained colors because she saw people as colors. I said, ‘I know what you mean.’ We talked about that the whole afternoon, and the next day–we had the whole school drawing the colors of personalities.” At the time, she saw her ability as “a fun, curiosity thing.” She read auras at fairs and art shows for a dollar. Her readings were so well received that she began giving talks on auras at women’s clubs and art centers, and even read auras at an annual gathering for her order. “As long as I don’t usurp God’s position and try to control people’s lives, my religious community sees nothing wrong with my aura readings.”
Sister Fran says she has presented more than 110 aura workshops, most of which are attended by eight to ten people. She charges $20, which she donates to the Dominican sisters’ retirement fund.
She is now an art teacher at Saint Martin de Porres High School. “I read the kids’ auras, and there’s only one faculty person who can’t accept it. She doesn’t think nuns should do things like auras.”
