Oil Stains Artist Inspired by BP Spill to Speak at Florida Tech

Eleanor McCain Will Offer Free Talk at Funk Center July 26

MELBOURNE, FLA.—The Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at Florida Institute of Technology will present a free gallery talk by featured artist Eleanor McCain at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 26 in the center’s galleries.

McCain will lead guests on a tour of her current exhibition at the Ruth Funk Center, “Oil Stains: A Series by Eleanor McCain.” The exhibit features 14 quilts representing the artist’s reaction to the 2010 BP oil spill and its effect on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The lyrically abstract quilts are stained, producing a powerful visual statement.

“To term it simply a ‘spill’ is to imagine that it can be wiped clean, that all our sea creatures, estuaries and the Gulf itself, have recovered or can recover,” McCain said. “This is not so. It is a stain, indelible, unnatural, permanent.”

McCain is a practicing doctor of internal medicine in Fort Walton Beach as well as a highly regarded artist. An exhibitor in the annual international quilting exhibit Quilt National five times, her work can be seen in many public and private collections including the Mint Museum in Charlotte, N.C. She lectures frequently on the art quilt and has been featured in numerous publications.

The gallery talk is presented in conjunction with the center’s current quilt exhibits, both McCain’s and “Florida in Fabric II,” which are on view through Aug. 23.

Regular hours for the Ruth Funk Center are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. The center is located on the Florida Tech campus at 150 W. University Blvd. in Melbourne. Admission is free. For more information, visit http://textiles.fit.edu or call (321) 674-8313.

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