Faculty and Staff

Henry (Duke) Oursler

Associate Professor , Sculpture
MFA, Georgia Southern University
Office: 105(C) HPA (Heating Plant Annex)
Phone: (309) 298-2018
Email: HC-Oursler@wiu.edu

About the Artist

Henry Charles "Duke" Oursler is an Assistant Professor of Art (Sculpture) at Western Illinois University. He graduated with a BA in sculpture from the University of Northern Iowa and received his MFA from Georgia Southern University. He teaches all levels of sculpture as well as 3D design. He is a member of Tri State Sculptors.

Duke has been creating large-scale public sculpture for the past several years and has exhibited his work throughout the Southeast and Midwest. Many of his large sculptures are metaphors for scientific and social issues. Using steel and wood, his sculptures are often animated and precarious in nature. He is a native of Garden City Kansas.

"To make sculpture can be as basic as this - you need a love of making things ... and when you have made work for a long time you can't just throw it together ... When you know how to do something properly, like playing a musical instrument - whatever it happens to be - you can't do it badly, you would be untrue to yourself..."