Weather inspires June artist of the month

Elise Spaid-Roberts is the River City Art Association artist of the month. Her work will be on display at the Vigo County Public Library for the month of June.

The name of the exhibition is “Art of the Atmosphere: Tornado Paintings and Weather Awareness.”

Spaid-Roberts grew up in a rural area with a full view of the sky in all directions. She loved rainy days and thunderstorms until she saw an alert on TV. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t for her county, she would go into panic mode. As she got older and better understood how to be safe during severe weather and even experienced tornadic weather, her terror eased into wiser caution.

She says she uses her art to decompress, process and better understand herself and the world around her. While she enjoys the process of building up and blending paint for the clouds, it is often emotional learning about all the ways tornadoes and violent storms devastate everything in their path.

The paintings featured at Vigo County Public Library include a variety of older storm paintings and new pieces.

Spaid-Roberts can be followed at www.leafpileart.com.