DownloadJuly 6, 2009 issue
‘Happier Days’
Artist contributes to remembering, healing after Amish school shooting
By Heidi Martin For Mennonite Weekly ReviewPARADISE, Pa. — On Oct. 2, 2006, tragedy shattered the lives of Amish families at West Nickel Mines School when an invading gunman murdered five girls and seriously wounded five others.
Beiler
The crime — and the forgiveness that followed — seared the minds and hearts of Lancaster County residents, and artist Elsie Beiler is no exception.
Painting is her way of contributing to remembering and healing.
“I started painting ‘Happier Days’ just a couple of months after Nickel Mines happened,” Beiler said. “I wanted to do a painting of the schoolhouse to remember it as it was.
“I wanted it to be a reminder every time we look at it to pray for our neighbors who were going through this.”
Having lived in rural Lancaster County all her life, Beiler and her husband, Paul, always had a close connection with the Amish community.
She never lost her fascination with the simple games the children loved to play at recess.
This became the inspiration for “Happier Days,” the first of four paintings capturing the essence of the Amish schoolhouse and the aftermath of a tragedy.
“I decided that I wanted to have the actual amount of boys and girls in the painting,” Beiler said.
Beiler painted the children enjoying recess under a blissful blue sky. She added an uneven number of birds in the sky, as she always does. This time, she added five. The public noticed and consider the birds a symbol of the five girls who died.
Comments
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i love the painting happier days and would love to see the other paintings and purchase a print of ahppier days can you tell me how i can do that
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