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This spring’s graduating class of nursing students donated a lithograph, titled “Valentina and Kore,” by internationally renown American artist Edna Hibel to the School of Nursing. The donation could mark the beginning of a tradition that results in a gallery of fine art displayed by the school.
“I'm so proud of the students for making this gesture,” said nursing school Director Jean Leuner. "Giving this way enriches everyone who is involved in the school and the community as a whole. It will hang prominently in the School of Nursing for all to enjoy."
UCF joins a distinguished list of institutions that display Hibel’s work: the National Archives, the United Nations headquarters, the Russian Academy of Art in St. Petersburg and Harvard University, just to name a few. The Hibel Museum of Art, housed at the McArthur Campus of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Fla., displays over 2,000 of Hibel’s paintings, lithographs, drawings and sculptures.
Hibel was asked to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the White House with a painting, which she titled, “The Heart and Conscience of America.” Hibel has also been esteemed as a humanitarian, earning donations for children’s and medical charities with her work. She has received many awards and honors for her artistic and humanitarian contributions, including a Medal of Honor and Citation from Pope John Paul II and an audience with Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Hibel began painting in elementary school at age 9 and continues to work daily in her studio as she nears age 90. Though the artist portrays a variety of subjects, Hibel is best known for her paintings of mothers and children.
According to Theodore Plotkin, Hibel’s husband of over 60 years, the artist’s philosophy can most nearly be described as positive humanism. Of his wife, Plotkin writes, “Edna Hibel believes in virtue: high on the list is the virtue of accepting with equanimity the responsibility for facing up to those burdens that life proffers. The joys of parenting cannot be realized without accepting the caring for and the nurturing of the children. Observe the serenity with which her mothers carry their children and babies and the resulting calm of the children.”
“Valentina and Kore,” a portrait of a mother and child, has been rendered in a variety of colors. Hibel embellishes each lithograph by hand, and she numbers and signs each one.
— Kristie Smeltzer
Photo by Thomas Alan Smilie
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