591 - Elizabeth Fuehrer - Shadow and Light on Hwy 6

Elizabeth Fuehrer began taking art classes at Art From the Heart in Bismarck as a child. Around age 14, a pivotal abstract painting assignment became the most freeing art experience she’s ever had. Her mural, Shadow and Light on Highway 6, brings life to a North Dakota landscape she carried in her mind for years.

I grew up on a small hobby farm near Mandan, and I spent a lot of time outside. There’s a view south of Mandan, along Highway 6, where hills and valleys rise and fold together, standing out against the flatter sections of North Dakota prairie. It always felt breathtaking to me. Every time I saw it, it looked different depending on the light and time of day, but it always struck awe into me. For years, I tried to capture it with photography, but I could never take a picture that really captured the depth, the light, the shadows of that view–everything that made it feel alive and full of that awe that I always felt. Every photo I took just looked flat, I guess I thought, well, that’s North Dakota. But it wasn’t exactly what I saw. I had this distinct image in my mind of what it looked like to me, and I had no way to capture it.

For a long time, that image lived in my mind. I didn’t know how to make it real, but I carried it with me. I am a person of very strong faith, and I feel that picture was something that God put into my mind to create, but it wasn’t meant to be captured in a photograph. It was meant to be expressed through painting, and I just didn’t know that yet.

When the opportunity came to create a mural for Mandan’s Art Alley, it felt like everything connected. The vision was ready, and I could finally translate that memory into art and create this image that I felt God inspired in me all those years ago to make. The colors I chose–yellows, pinks, browns, greens, blues–are part of my personal color palette, colors I often gravitate towards. Each color has a light and dark tone to reflect how the real landscape catches light and falls into shadow. The shapes are abstract, representing hills, sky, clouds, fence posts, and trees. If you want a literal interpretation of this mural, the top half is the sky, shifting in color like sunrise or sunset. The lower quarter shows the highway and fence posts as elongated ovals. But it’s not meant to be taken too seriously, there’s no exact symbolism. It’s not meant to be cut and dry. I want people to interpret it however they see it. What matters is the feeling. It’s the awe, the beauty, and the memory of a place that stayed in my heart for those years. It’s the awe of the Creator and His creation that made this place so beautiful and inspiring to me.

If you’d like to see more of my work or connect with me, you can find me on Facebook at Elizabeth Alice Creative Co. or on Instagram at @elizabethalice_creativeco. I’d love to hear from anyone interested in my art or my process.