Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, June 25, 2026. Reprinted with permission and gratitude.
By David Phillips
Some Kingsland students found their creative spark while exploring the depths below the surface.
In May, students in Valarie McConnell’s art class ventured underground during a tour of Mystery Cave at Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park, southeast of Spring Valley, to find inspiration for their artwork to wrap up the school year. The cave’s passages, pools and rock formations became the foundation for their creations, which are now on display at the cave visitors center.
The idea came from Dawn Ryan, who oversees Mystery Cave. She used to work at a national park with an artist-in-residence program that visitors loved. Mystery Cave doesn’t have the budget for that, but she thought it would be a fantastic idea to invite art students from Kingsland, the closest school to the cave, to create art inspired by it.
“I’m a big fan of art in parks,” she said. “I really believe art and nature go hand in hand.”
McConnell was so excited about the idea that she took the students on a field trip in May. Many of them snapped photos to help guide their projects. The gallery opening was on Saturday, June 13, with many of the students on hand to chat with cave visitors about their art.
The student artwork showcased a wide range of techniques, from pencil on paper to abstract acrylic on canvas.
Elissa Schneider started the process for her acrylic on canvas project when she discovered a section of the cave that really grabbed her attention. At first glance, this small part of the cave seemed unimportant, she said, but when she looked closely, she found an incredible amount of detail and texture, so she wanted to capture that amazing beauty and complexity.
“One of the most important artistic choices I made was deciding to paint the entire piece using only shades of purple. Part of the reason was that I had often heard that painting with only purple is extremely hard to do because it can be hard to create depth and variation without introducing other colors. I wanted to challenge myself creatively,” she said.
“The other reason was inspired by the cave tour itself. The guide used both a regular white flashlight and a purple blacklight while showing us different features of the cave. The blacklight revealed glowing bacteria and highlighted details that were invisible under normal light. I wanted my painting to reflect that experience and show that there is often more than one way to see and understand a place.”
Carter Gilbert was drawn to a smooth area of the cave, a striking contrast to the jagged rocks and edges everywhere else. He used pencil on paper for his piece, called “Below,” because it shows what’s underneath when people are walking on top.
“The stalactites, flowing down, were all smooth because of the water dripping over time,” he explained. “I thought it looked really nice.”
Maddie Horton also used pencil on paper for her artwork, called “Darkness of the Cave.” She took lots of photos but picked one that showed a dark tunnel.
“I liked it because of how it was kind of like the structure of the cave. It’s not showing exactly what it looked like, of course, but there’s just definitely a lot of different rocks around and I don’t really know how to explain it. It was just going into somewhere kind of like an abyss or a void or something like that,” she said. “So I like the mystery of where it was going.”
Emily Sargent used acrylic on canvas for her project called “Into the Desolate Depths,” which is actually quite colorful. Her scene is near the beginning of the tour and includes a walking bridge over a water pool.
She said she was attracted to this scene because it has “a bit of everything seen in the cave, like some of the water pools, all the limestone,” and even the stalactites.
Reyna Campbell also explored acrylic on canvas with “Golden Cave to Crystal Waters.” Her inspiration came from two cave sections: one with a cave lake featuring light blue, teal, and brown hues, where a friend posed, and another with a lot of yellow lighting streaming through a large, round, black tunnel.
“It really gave me like a good idea on how really expansive this cave is, and the variety of all the different places inside the cave really inspired me,” she said. “I had a lot of fun with this piece.”
Brynn Fussy also used acrylic on canvas, but her piece, “Golden Waters,” is more abstract. She spread paint around, using a palette knife to smear it for an abstract effect.
“In the cave, we ended our little tour with this really cool pool of water. The gold comes from the really pretty reflection of gold that you get at the bottom of the pool,” she said. “And then the greens, the blues, and the dark blues come from the reflection from the top of the water, which I thought was really cool. The shimmering white also represents the dripstone in the cave that you get from the ceilings in the cave.
“So I kind of wanted to just represent the beauty of that pool, which I thought was really cool.”
Abigail Carlson took a bold step by trying watercolor for the second time ever in her piece called “The Eyes of the Beholders.” She enjoyed how the red values showed up in a rock formation with stalagmites and stalactites, but when she took a photo for reference, two of her classmates were accidentally included. However, she liked the lighting on them, so she included them in her painting.
“The blue of the figures contrasts very nicely with the nice red and orange tones of the rock formation. I really liked all the depth and composition of just the two figures looking at it,” she said.
McConnell also contributed to the gallery with the largest piece on display. Her acrylic on cotton is based on a spot in the cave that looked like a desert scene. “I thought it was really cool that you could find a desert in a cave,” she said.
“Mine is called Stone Remembers because stone is kind of like water and it has memory. And it just kind of fit because maybe once upon a time there was a desert,” she said.
The Kingsland instructor mentioned that Ryan’s request came out of the blue, but she loved the idea, which was great for her class, so she hopes to make this an annual trip with a bigger group next year.
The students also found it beneficial. For example, Campbell explained, “I have not really had the time or the determination, I suppose, to find a place and be like, ‘I want to paint here and take inspiration from here.’ So this was kind of a first for me. But it was a really fun experience, and I hope I get to do it sometime again because it was a good learning experience.”
Schneider said she really enjoyed the project because it gave her the opportunity to “spend time with a group of amazing people, all of whom had great personalities and made the experience enjoyable.” She also appreciated the quiet time painting, as it was calming to focus on one aspect of the artwork.
“I really appreciate them coming,” said Ryan. “It brings some added value to the visitor center, to the visitors. They like to see changing exhibits as well.”
Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325
