My name is Elizabeth White. I created the Rodeo Bulls mural. I went to school for art at Bismarck State College, as well as Minnesota State University in Moorhead. I grew up in Mandan, North Dakota, and my grandparents would take us to the rodeo in the summer. I always remember it being this exciting event. I know I wanted to use bright, bold colors to represent that feeling. I’m drawn to impressionism and post-impressionist artists, so I was thinking about Georges Seurat and pointillism, where you place dots of different colors next to each other, and from a distance, they all sort of merge together to create this imagery. I just love that idea. Since these murals were to be quite large. I thought this would be perfect, but there was so much motion and movement that I wanted to represent that dots just weren’t enough for me. I needed something a little more expressive.

I began thinking about some illustrations that I had seen in one of my children’s story books. I’m a mom to three beautiful boys and one of our favorite authors and illustrators is Ted Arnold. He writes the Fly Guy books. He used watercolor in his illustrations, but then he goes back in with colored pencils and draws scribble lines all over them to create this texture. It got me thinking, what if I did an entire piece all in scribbles with different colors and the lines overlapping to create the same sort of effect as pointillism? It creates this image when you stand back but it’s all made of scribbles.

When I was painting this, I was reminded of when quilters do this meander pattern on top of their quilts. It sort of felt like that when I was creating all these loopy lines with my paintbrush, just that continuous line meandering all throughout my images.

The most challenging part of doing this mural was probably being a couple months pregnant with my third baby that summer. I had to climb up and down scaffolding every day, and I was out there for the better part of a month. I think I spent at least 90 hours painting it. But it was an amazing experience. I’m so happy to have been able to be a part of this project. It really helped me to step outside of my comfort zone, paint in a public space, and talk to people about my artwork. I’ve always been such an introverted person, but art has really helped me to express myself and to interact with people more. But the thing that people always tell me is that they are not artistic themselves or that they cannot even draw a stick figure. I just think that’s crazy. I think anybody has the capacity to create artwork. Some people place too much value on realism. Art doesn’t have to look a specific way or be a specific thing. Art is anything you imagine it to be. Just look at my mural. It’s essentially just a bunch of scribbles, right? Anybody can scribble. I even let my kids put a few scribbles in there. It’s Pablo Picasso who said, it took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child. Who’s to say what artwork is better than another, as long as it makes you happy or it speaks to you. I think realism is a bit overstated. Any art skill can be learned. We aren’t born knowing how to do everything. As long as you have a passion and confidence to try, to make mistakes, to learn, anybody can create art, no matter your age or background.