NRECA Mural installed

My mural for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association's Washington headquarters has been installed, and is featured in a recent issue of "Rural Electric" magazine:

"The NRECA Collection's shining jewel spans the mezzanine of the main meeting room--a forty foot mural that , according to artist Susan Abbott, captures the inspiring story of America's electric co-ops.

Abbott's vision consists of ten separate oil paintings completed in her northern Vermont studio in half-size, then digitally reproduced and enlarged before being installed on-site. Her work features a road and power line crossing regions, landscapes and communities, from coast to coast, and incorporates farms, forests, mountains, churches, a schoolhouse, and a co-op line truck, all in bright, uplifting colors.

'The concept popped into my head as soon as I saw the space where it would go", Abbott relates. 'Because rural electrification was a New Deal program, I thought about how it unified people in rural areas all across the country...My parents were big supporters of President Roosevelt, and the New Deal was a frequent topic of conversation in our house. So I understood my project from the outset.' "