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The town of Bay St. Louis itself is sometimes cited as the creative force behind the most talented artists on the Gulf Coast. For Elizabeth D. Schafer, a self-described painter of music, her move to Bay St. Louis began her professional development as an artist.
Elizabeth grew up in the Mid-West and at age 18 left home and landed in Melbourne, Florida where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Geological Oceanography from the Florida Institute of Technology. But it was her move to Bay St. Louis in 1991, where she found an environment bursting with art and music, that stirred and nurtured her creativity. She has become a well-known contemporary Southern art force.
Elizabeth has exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum’s Museum on Main Street Program, the William Jefferson Clinton President^ Library, Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Meridian Museum of Art, Gulf Coast Community College and Meridian Community College. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and in The .Art of the Storm, a documentary film.
The magnificent live oak trees along the Gulf Coast inspired Grand Oak, Elizabeth’s work for the bridge. “Each of the wonderful places 1 have called home here on the Gulf Coast has had the grace and security of a very old live oak tree. After the storm, many of our oaks survived although battered, bruised and scarred. The Bay of St. Louis Bridge is a symbol of the perseverance and the rebirth of our coastal communities, and now gracing our bridge is a grand oak, a living symbol of quiet beauty and ageless strength.”
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