CENTRAL — American painter and educator Bruce Herman will be on hand for Southern Wesleyan University’s first Faith and Learning Lecture Series of 2025 at 4 p.m. Feb. 12.

Herman will present a talk on the human capacity for creativity and the innate “itch” to make things. As he puts it, we are “made by a Maker to be makers, and our hearts are restless until we make something — something beautiful.”

“Herman possesses a unique ability to speak with clarity and beauty about what it means to worship and serve the Creator God who makes us in His image and calls us all to also be makers of beauty in our world. Your heart and mind will be filled and encouraged,” SWU vice provost for student success Trudy Summers said. “You’ll be so glad you came.”

Herman is an American painter and educator who resides in Gloucester, Mass., where he maintains his art studio. His paintings, prints, and drawings have been exhibited in more than 150 shows across major U.S. cities — including Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles — as well as internationally in Italy, England, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, and Israel. His work is featured in numerous public and private collections, including Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art, Rome, Cincinnati Museum of Fine Arts Print Collection, Grunewald Print Collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, DeCordova Museum, Boston, Cape Ann Museum.

From 1984-2023, Herman was a professor and curator at Gordon College, where he was the founding chair of the art department and held the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts, Gordon’s first endowed faculty appointment. Herman earned both his BFA and MFA from Boston University College of Fine Arts, where he studied under esteemed American artists Philip Guston, James Weeks, David Aronson, Reed Kay, and Arthur Polonsky. His artwork has been widely published in books and journals, and his latest book, Makers by Nature (IVP Academic Press), will be available for purchase after the lecture or online at ivpress.com/makers-by-nature.

The event will be at the Alive Chapel at SWU, located at 807 Wesleyan Drive in Central.