Posted - January 23, 2012

Preserving Nature Through Art is Topic of Eureka College Presentation

Clarence R. Noe Dean's Lecture series

Eureka College art professor Rhea Edge will present “Lost Nature and Painterly Pursuit” at 4 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Cerf Center at Eureka College. A reception will follow.

The free presentation will explore how Edge’s lifetime of travel and nature study has been transformed into paintings and prints that encourage protection of important natural habitats.  Edge will discuss her visits to tropical locations, including the Amazon rain forest basin, Trinidad, Africa and the Galapagos Islands, where she studied and painted birds and mammals. Her presentation will include how bird watching can lead to a greater understanding of how art influences social change.

Professor Rhea Edge's work entitled 'Rainforest Embrace'.

Edge has taught painting, drawing, printmaking, design and photography at Eureka College for 19 years. She is the chairwoman of the college’s Fine and Performing Arts Division.  She received the college’s  Helen Cleaver Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004.

Edge is president of the John Wesley Powell Chapter of the National Audubon Society. Her work as an environmental painter, produced at The Beluga Press Studio in Bloomington, has been widely exhibited, winning awards and major purchases.

Edge received a bachelor’s degree in art education, a master’s degree in printmaking and painting and a master of fine arts degree, all from Illinois State University, and she performed a year-long fellowship at the Brooklyn Museum Art School.

The presentation is the third of four Clarence R. Noe Dean’s Lectures by Eureka College faculty members this academic year. The last lecture will be “What's So Funny?: Teaching Humor in Creative Writing" by assistant professor of creative writing Zeke Jarvis at 7:30 p.m. March 1.

For more information, call the Provost’s Office at (309) 467- 6301.

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Contact:

Michele Lehman

Media Relations Coordinator

mlehman@eureka.edu

(309) 467-6318