The woman in the painting wears bushy eyebrows and a moustache, her blue eyes fixed in a quizzical stare.

"It's more of a kick having my sister's face plastered up," said Alexandra Jelleberg, an upcoming graduate from Bismarck State College.

She painted the picture of her sister, Christina, dressed as Groucho Marx using a cell phone photo that she took of her sister at a birthday party.

It's one of two paintings Jelleberg has on display in the BSCLibrary.

Jelleberg graduates from BSC on Friday. She is one of 885 students graduating with an associates degree or certificate.

The other painting on display looks like an explosion of golden sunlight illuminating a field. The artwork displays two of Jelleberg's favorite styles of painting: impressionism and realism.

Her interest started as a child, when her mother would buy her watercolor kits or let her and her sister draw on butcher block paper on the dining room table.

"My mom fostered all our creativity," Jelleberg said.

The yellow painting is a representation of her mother's favorite song, "Fields of Gold." Her mother encouraged her over the years with art kits and art supplies.

She and her mother have a close relationship. Her mother began home schooling Jelleberg in eighth grade because of complications with fibromyalgia. The school schedule was too taxing on her, she said. When home schooled, she took correspondence courses and then followed a curriculum through A Beka Book.

She came to BSC because her sister went there and she lived in Bismarck.

"I was more timid and Iwanted a place that was safe," she said.

After she graduates, she plans to get a bachelor's degree from Minot State University, then get a master's in fine arts.

"I always joke that I'll marry a rich man and paint," she said.

In reality, she plans to teach or work in a gallery or museum.

The BSC graduation ceremony is 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Bismarck Civic Center. The keynote speaker is Ed Schafer, former U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary and former North Dakota governor.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)