Featured on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints video

Posted Jan 23, 2020

About a year ago the church's video production team was out in our area looking for "interesting people" to shoot stories about faith and the Book of Mormon.  Somehow they ended up at my house and filming in my art studio.  I don't know why they thought I was interesting -- they obviously didn't ask my kids.  But anyway, it was actually not great timing because I had just finished one painting and was getting ready to start another, but it was only in the drawing stage.  They really wanted to get some action shots of me in the middle of painting.. so we played around with a few things, painting and drawing for a while.  Then one of them noticed this large unfinished canvas I had against the wall.  

"What's that one?", he asked.. 

So, funny story about this painting that ended up in the film.  It was supposed to be a depiction of the Lord appearing to Enoch, an illustration of Enoch's vision in the Pearl of Great Price.  I started it about 11 years ago now, before I had learned to be more diligent and careful in my process.  I just wasn't quite ready to take on something that ambitious at the time. There are composition problems, proportion issues.. but, I do like the way the Lord's face turned out, and the sky is pretty good..  I had put it away unfinished and haven't had the heart to throw it away in over a decade.  There's been a few times over the years where I've almost discarded it, but I would look at it for a while and think -- well, maybe I can fix it.. maybe I can finish it.  Shortly before the team showed up I had it out and was thinking about what to do with it, but still hadn't decided. 

So when he asked about it, I told them the story. I also said - "I can just paint around on this one for a bit, if you want to get some shots of me painting."  And that's what they ended up using.  After seeing how they edited the final video, I feel like this painting did what it was supposed to do.. and served it's purpose.  A few months ago I decided the painting was pretty much unfixable, so I did finally throw it away. 

But this whole event has got me thinking that I'll take another stab at a religious themed painting. The gospel is a huge part of my life, really core to who I am.  And I do love doing this kind of figurative illustrative painting, even if I'm rarely successful at it. 

Oh and yes, I do love the Book of Mormon.