24 x 36 inches - Oil on stretched canvas - Frame custom made by Grant White - painted July 2021
IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ : This painting is currently being judged for an upcoming art show. If it gets accepted, it will be on display at the Springville Museum of Art until January 12, 2022.
Let me start by saying that the idea of personally connecting with a Heavenly Mother is really hard for me. For 25 years, I’ve been talking to God the Father when I pray. I’ve heard His voice. I know it, but not Hers.
I was approached by many to create a Heavenly Mother piece and I couldn’t do it. Not that I don’t believe in Her, I always have. But I didn’t want to create something just because it was trendy and I didn’t want to paint anything that taught some kind of ‘’Carly Doctrine” and misrepresented the topic.
Yet the topic kept coming up again and again.
I had a bishop once tell me when I was around 12 that as an artist, I am on the Lord’s marketing team. If there’s something He’s trying to say to the world, he will often ask artists to visually create His message.
Well, a lot of artists I admire were painting their versions of Heavenly Mother. Clearly this is an assignment given to artists from the Lord at this time. But how could I get on board with this rightful acknowledgement of Her while also being sincerely unsure about who this woman is to me? This is my attempt to paint all of my above feelings.
Divine femininity is basically the idea that there is a feminine counterpart to the traditional masculine worship. I decided to parallel Michelangelo’s painting and create the feminine counterpart to this idea of God reaching down to men by painting a Heavenly Mother reaching down to women. This felt to authentically represent my feelings as the two fingers aren’t touching, there is not a full connection yet made, but I recognize Her reach and I’m willing to put my hand out to be touched by Her.