CCMS Medicine Spring 2017 - 14

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Cocoa, 30 x 40, Terra Cotta
Rhoda grew up in Central Pennsylvania on her parents'
poultry farm. With no obvious artistic inspiration, and
certainly not surrounded, as perhaps the young Mary Cassatt
was, by the cosmopolitan turn of the century Philadelphia
art community, young Ms. Kahler was left on her own to
discover and refine her artistic talents. Though Rhoda may
not have recognized it, living "miles from anything," this
artistic polymath was "surrounded by everything" needed to
start the fire that powers her wide-ranging creativity.
Rhoda's formal art education began at York College, and
then after a serendipitous move to West Chester she found
a thriving art department at West Chester University where
she became a student and subsequently received her Fine
Arts degree. Like many artists born in or who have settled
in Chester County, she was drawn to and captured by the
beauty of the Brandywine Valley and its river, over which her
studio window now looks.
Rhoda is accomplished in the fine arts of watercolor,
oil and charcoal, as well as commercial and fashion design.
For the last decade she has primarily focused her creative
energies using ceramics as her medium. Her tile work has
been featured in magazines, newspapers and on television,

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including on the Home and Garden Television network
(HGTV). Rhoda has also taught classes and workshops at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Delaware Art Museum, and at
regional art centers and has participated in a wide range of
Resident Artist programs, including a Guest Artist Residency
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for their Form and Art
Program. For the last 6 years, Rhoda has been Artist-in-Residence
at Inglis House, heading their art program. Rhoda created the
centennial tiles for the Delaware Art Museum in her Alphabet
City motif. Working with a select group from the Chester
County Art Association, Rhoda's art has also been spotlighted
in several award-winning displays at the Philadelphia Flower
Show, receiving the blue ribbon in 2008 and 2011. Drawing
from nature, much of her art bends toward the organic, making
use of abstraction and collage. There is a tactile intimacy that is
translated from the mud between her fingers to her pieces that
beg to be touched. Her handmade tile murals appear in public
and private collections throughout the Delaware Valley - her
most recent murals are located on the Planetarium and new
E.O. Bull Center for the Arts at West Chester University. One of
these exterior walls spans 85 feet x 15 feet, covered in handmade
tile and other shards with a painted background. Other murals
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CCMS Medicine Spring 2017
