[3] Craighead next attended Holy Angels Academy, where she spent ample time in the art department and discovered prominent Catholic writers such as Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day.

She stopped to pray in the Karlskirche, where she happened to find a pamphlet with a photo of Bruder Meinrad Eügster, her maternal great-great uncle.

[3][6] This discovery represented a pivotal moment for Craighead, who "knew [she] had to visit the monastery where he had lived" and became curious about the Black Madonna associated with Einsiedeln.

"[3] Craighead moved to the Southwest after graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and accepting a teaching job in the art department at the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[3] For ten months, Craighead sought solitude and darkness while working on large, abstract charcoal drawings in her room in the bell tower.

[3] The abbey gave Craighead a time of seclusion, during which she mourned her mother and created small charcoal drawings, for which she composed accompanying haiku.

[3][4] The Arts Council of Great Britain provided Craighead a grant through which she completed work focused on images of God the Mother until her 1983 return to New Mexico.

In May 1983, Craighead arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico at Sagrada Art Studios, where she worked briefly before settling in a small house near the Rio Grande.

Apart from her work as an artist, Craighead began lecturing and conducting workshops on the divine feminine across North America and also in Europe.

In July 1995, Craighead launched "Praying with Images: Creative Retreats for Women," the first of several four-day gatherings held at a house she purchased with a neighbor near her own home in Albuquerque.

[3] While living in Albuquerque, Craighead embarked on a number of pilgrimages, including international trips to Egypt, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, France, Greece, the Rhine Valley, Switzerland and, domestically, to the source of the Arkansas River.

[7] In 2009, the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South and Minnow Media produced Praying with Images, an hour-long documentary about Craighead and her work.

At workshops and retreats in Europe and the United States, Craighead invited participants into the creation of rituals and incorporation of spiritual practices into their daily lives.

"[12] In the publisher's note to Meinrad Craighead: Crow Mother and the Dog God: A Retrospective, Zoe Katherine Burke writes that Craighead's paintings "deliver us to thresholds and dare us to cross them, to see differently, to expand our vision of what's possible, to become humble in the face of our earthliness, to feel immeasurably blessed and empowered by the presence of animals in our lives, to trust in and respect the mystery of the unknown.

[9] Recurrent themes in Craighead's art include the divine feminine, motherhood, the Black Madonna, sacred animals, landscapes, and thresholds.

[13][14] In 2009, the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South and Minnow Media published the documentary Meinrad Craighead: Praying with Images.