The idea for Our Lady of Michigan came during my artist-in-residence fellowship at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which remains powerfully beautiful despite being bounded by factories at one end and a nuclear reactor at the other with Chicago hovering on the horizon. The park owes its existence to a grassroots movement to take back the natural beauty of the Dunes from abusive exploitation. To me this endeavor enacts humanity's ongoing struggle between destructive narcissism and spiritual union with the divine as expressed in the natural world. If Our Lady were to bless this effort by miraculously appearing over the lake, I imagine that she would want to materialize in a form in keeping with the contradictions of the surroundings and symbolizing the spirit of the park's creation.

This painting appeared in the international exhibition Visions VIII in Covington, KY and was on exhibit through April at the Camelot Cellars Gallery in Columbus. It is currently in a national exhibition in Winston-Salem, NC, called Dimensions 2006.

Kim Elliott’s paintings have won several awards, including an artist-in-residence fellowship from the National Park Service. She lives in Columbus, contact .