Since March of this year the Conference Center has displayed some of the art from the Church History Museum's Eighth International Art Competition for the public to view. It is open Monday-Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. until October 11, 2009 in the Conference Center in Downtown Salt Lake.
The theme for the competition is “Remembering the Great Things of God.” Each painting, sculpture, quilt, mosaic,and picture has a plaque by it the tells the viewer the title and includes an explanation of why the the author thinks their piece is one of the "Great Things of God".
Some painted pregnant mothers, or mothers with new born babies and explain that birth, or procreation, is one of God's great gifts to us. Others paint their take on the atonement, or resurrection that explain how great Jesus Christ's Atonement was. Others painted pictures or made sculptures of famous church leaders or church figures such as Joseph Smith Jr., Eve, Temple Presidents in Ghana, Africa, and favorite scripture characters.
What I found interesting was that everyone found somethings else to be great things from God than others, but whatever they created was beautiful. Every piece of art in the exhibit was beautiful. There were some with bright and happy colors depicting the eternal happiness of marriage in the temple, and darker sinister colors depicting Gethsemane or the Crucifixion, and still more holy white colors depicting Christ in a garden surrounded with a bunch of little children.
Each person who visited was able to vote on two or three of their favorite pieces in the exhibit, and in October one would be chosen to receive an award. There were also little markers on a number of the pieces that meant the church had bought those paintings. I chose one of Eve kneeling and praying to Heavenly Father outside the Garden of Eden that was just breathtakingly beautiful. What I loved most about the experience was the spirit could be felt there. It was silent, and even though if you listened hard you could here the hustle and bustle of the city going on around the Conference Center, when you were thinking of nothing but the fantastic art in front of you couldn't here it. The light that streamed through the windows onto the art made it almost like heaven. This created an atmosphere that everyone could enjoy. I loved it!
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my favorite was "the mother of all living" which was an eve painting. eve was depicted as a blond woman, wearing a cloak, with more of an upward view of her looking up into the heavens, a lot of sky behind her head. that was the one i liked the best since it made you stop and think about how do i see eve?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a pretty great thing to go and see. I'm glad you took advantage of the opportunity!
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