Celebrating Community Through Art - Emily McQueen's Paintings Highlight Histories Of Mills County Communities

“You can’t really have art without having a sense of community as art is for others to enjoy as well.”

The quote from screen actor Jaime Zevallos seems fitting for a set of community paintings created recently by Mills County artist Emily McQueen.

McQueen, a Glenwood resident and owner of the Fine Arts On Fifth art gallery and studio in Malvern, has created nine original paintings for the newly-branded Mills County Chamber of Commerce. The paintings depict Mills County’s eight individual communities as well as the Loess Hills.

Each painting features several iconic buildings and landmarks within a particular community, such as the clock tower and Davies Amphitheater in Glenwood, the large bicycle and Art Church in Malvern, grain elevator and community building in Hastings, Main Street gazebo and Methodist church in Silver City and the railroad in Pacific Junction. Canvasses created from the original paintings are being presented for display in city hall or another prominent place within each community.  The chamber is also using the artwork for promotional and fundraising purposes through the sale of prints, postcards, note cards, coffee mugs and other items.

“I had seen neighborhood art in the past and knew we wanted to do something local,” Mills County Chamber Of Commerce Executive Director Jennie Davis-Rubek said. “I approached Emily and she was receptive to it right away. She seemed to know exactly what I was looking for and completely surpassed our expectations.”

McQueen donated her time and work for the project and has been gratified with the positive response to the paintings.

“To have something made that just feels personal – parts of their town they thought were not on anyone’s radar – appearing on a piece of fine art was a little boost to them,” the Oregon native said. “That’s kind of what I wanted because I came to this area captivated by these small, but also rich communities.”

Each painting consumed about 20 hours of McQueen’s time – 10 hours of research and 10 spent in front of the easel creating the “line and wash” watercolor painting. She researched each community, drove to the town, took photos of prominent structures and got input from local leaders to determine what she should include on each painting. She learned a lot of Mills County history during the process.

“I really benefited so much from talking to them,” McQueen said. “The last one was Hastings and they had an amazing historical past, so there were those little nuggets, I call them little Easter eggs, to hide in there with their history.”
McQueen said her favorite painting is the one she created for Pacific Junction, a town that was decimated by historic flooding in 2019.

“I love Pacific Junction because they have such an incredible past as well, but they also have some really beautiful icons, even though their town has been through so much,” she said. “Their symbols of their town are so strong and that was fun to pull in – the railroad and just the architecture of Main Street.”

Davis-Rubek said the paintings are a symbolic gesture to show the chamber’s commitment to all of Mills County. The name change from Glenwood Area Chamber of Commerce to Mills County Chamber of Commerce was announced at the organization’s annual community betterment awards dinner earlier this fall, the same night McQueen’s paintings were unveiled.

“We wanted to take it a step further and not just change the name but to show we really wanted to unify the whole county together,” said Davis-Rubek. “It meant so much that Emily also cared about the project and donated her time, energy and efforts. She’s insanely talented.”

McQueen said she was honored to be part of a project that will not only benefit the chamber but promote community pride and local history through art.

“Art should be exciting because it feels like art is overlooked and not important, but then you realize it connects people and I think that’s important,” she said.

How To Order Community Artwork

The Mills County Chamber of Commerce’s community artwork created by Emily McQueen is becoming available for purchase at several retail outlets throughout Mills County but can be ordered directly online at millscountyart.square.site or via the Mills County Community Art Work link on the homepage of the chamber’s website.