ARTIST DEPICTS COMPASSION AMID TRAGEDY

JACKSON -- The artist who painted a mural of the Cherokee Indians as they crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri on the "Trail of Tears" says the painting depicts the unique compassion, love, and care shown to the Indians by Cape Girardeau County residents.

The mural, titled "Charity Along The Trail of Tears," is on display through June 1 at the Riverside Regional Library, 204 S. Union Ave., in Jackson. After June 1, the mural will be returned to the Visitor's Center at Trail of Tears State Park, where it has been on display since August 1990.

The mural, styled after the American painter Thomas Hart Benton, was painted by Brother Mark Elder, a lay member of the Congregation of the Mission of the Vincentian order in St. Louis.

Elder says he chose his theme after learning how local residents treated and cared for the Cherokee while they were in Cape Girardeau County.

Elder credited Marie Exler, a member of the park staff, for her assistance in researching the history of the Cherokee and the local history of what is now the park. As a local resident who grew up and now lives near the park, Exler provided and documented many of the stories used in the mural.

"The research showed the people of Cape Girardeau County, unlike others who lived along the Trail of Tears, had much compassion, love and care in their hearts for the Cherokee as they passed through here during the winter of 1838-39," Elder said. "This was certainly in sharp contrast to the prevailing attitude of that time that the only good Indian was a dead Indian."

Elder said what he found so striking about the people of Cape Girardeau County as the Cherokee came through was "this great Christian charity of compassion and care."

As examples, Edler's mural depicts Mr. and Mrs. Henry Windeknecht, who adopted an orphaned pair of teenaged Cherokees (brother and sister) who had been hiding in the underbrush, just off the trail. The Windeknecht's lived near Moccasin Springs, where the Cherokees came ashore.

Another scene depicts local farmers tending to the grave of Otahki, daughter of Cherokee Chief Jessie Bushyhead, who died that winter of the hardships along the trail. Another local farmer digs another grave - possibly for a man who died in his wife's arms of influenza.

Yet another scene is the water well at the Ivan Reimann farm near Oriole, where the Cherokee were given food and water. Elder said this contrasted sharply from other locations along the Trail of Tears, where the Cherokee were charged outrageous prices for food and water.

"That's the thing that I think is important for all of us to remember nowadays ... to remember that when things get tough, that we can still help out," he said.

Elder said he styles his paintings after Benton because he was one of the first, truly American artists. "His paintings had a story-telling style," Elder said. "The mural of Trail of Tears is very narrative in its presentation. It flows. You can look at it as a whole, or you can start at one side and move from on scene to another with any hesitation. Or you can stop and focus on one particular scene."

Elder says he got the idea for the mural when he heard about plans to paint a full-scale mural on the Mississippi River floodwall in downtown Cape Girardeau. "I had already done a mural on the priesthood for one of our seminaries at Lamont, Ill., so I felt I could do one here," he said.

At the time, however, there was no money for the floodwall mural project, but Elder decided to go ahead with the smaller painting, anyway.

Using Hart's method, Elder first created three-dimensional clay models of the figures, then placed them in a diorama to use the lighting effect that would show the exact shadow and depth that would be shown on the canvas.

He began the mural in February 1990 and completed it two months later. It went on display at the visitor center in the park that summer.

Elder said his painting is actually a scale model of a larger mural he wants to paint someday in Cape Girardeau County. "If the opportunity comes, and I can find a sponsor or patron, I would like to paint the Trail of Tears on a 15-foot-high, 40-foot long mural on the floodwall, or some building," he said. "I would use a fiberglass paint that would stand up to the elements for at least 60 to 70 years."

Elder says he can't remember when he wasn't interested in drawing or painting. "I've been interested in art since I was a kid," he said. "In school, I was drawing Charlie Brown in 1966, but after I entered St. Vincent's Seminary in Cape, the art work went into hibernation, and didn't come out again until I was in college at the seminary in Perryville." Elder became a Vincentian brother in 1972.

The 38-year-old Elder was born in Quantico, Va., where his father was stationed in the Marine Corps, but he claims Southeast Missouri as his home because his mother is from Perryville and his father from Ste. Genevieve.

Unlike ordained priests who work close to the church, or monks who live in the cloister, Elder works in the secular world as a teacher in East St. Louis. He lives with other lay brothers in one of several houses in St. Louis owned by the Vincentians.

Elder teaches art and science in what he termed "an alternative high school" to inner city high school-age students. The school is operated by the Vincentians.

Elder will also be remembered locally by many former students at St. Vincent's grade school and St. Vincent's Seminary here, where he taught physical education.

Elder had no formal training in art until he entered Fontbonne College in St. Louis several years ago. Later this summer, he'll receive his master of arts degree from Fontbonne.

Until the opportunity to paint the larger Trail of Tears mural comes along, Elder will be busy working on a mural that depicts St. Vincent de Paul, the founder of the order, in a scene on one of the columns at the new St. Vincent de Paul parish hall, located just south of downtown St. Louis. He's already started the rough drawings of the mural.

But Elder admits he won't be satisfied until he can come back to Cape Girardeau to complete is full-scale mural.