The Great High Priest

I did this piece for the 10th International Church Art Competition,  I am happy to say that it made it into the show. It will be on display from September 29th, 2015 to August 15, 2016 downtown at the Church History Museum.

The painting was kind of daunting, the theme for the show was "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus," I wanted to paint Jesus but I had never tried before. This was my best shot, it was challenging but turned out pretty well I think.

The main idea behind this painting was Christ as the Great High Priest, Paul names Him as such in Hebrews 5. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go into the tabernacle or temple and into the Holy of Holies, he would sprinkle the blood of beasts onto the Ark of the Covenant (Mercy Seat) to redeem the sins of Israel. Christ acting as Great High Priest lays down His life and sheds His own blood, that we might be worthy to be brought back into Gods Presence.

There are a lot of other symbols of Christ in this painting, I would rather not explain them. I want the viewer to come up with their own explanations. I feel like its cheating if I give all the answers to the viewer without any work on their part.

Serious Cycling

I did this painting for a chiropractor who is obsessed with cycling. Its a 24 x 36, normally I don't paint that big, it was an enjoyable experience. The problem is I don't paint fast enough, so it takes me forever. The challenge was to make a painting that was inspirational, I have him coming from the city to the mountains, catching the first rays of sun. What could be more inspiring than that. I might be a cycler to if I could afford those sweet bikes and if I could wear those shorts.

Funny story, when I was a teenager, I cant remember the age but about mid teen. My brother Isaac, my friend Richard and I were biking around. We went up to the McDonalds that was near our house. We wanted to go play on the playplace there. We had no bike locks so we found a place in this dumpster area to hide our bikes while we went into the restaurant, after we got kicked out of the playplace for being too big we went back for our bikes. The bike I was riding which was my dads and my brothers bike which was actually my sisters were stolen. The only bike remaining was my friend Richards and his was the most expensive out of the three, it was a racing bike like the ones above.

Of Royal Birth

This is a crown I painted for my sister in law Amber. To show the young women that they are daughters of God, It was painted on a banner. It included 8 jewels for the 8 young women values, then I added my own symbolism. I wanted it to be a crown that a King or Queen of Israel would wear. Some of the symbols include the dove on top with the olive branch symbolizing the Holy Ghost or peace. The Royal Cross he is perched on symbol of the Cross of Christ.  The cherubim wings that come up both sides of the crown. Cherubim of course guarding the paradise or presence of God. I have the sego lily flowers that the pioneers subsisted on when they were starving (modern day manna). The beehives representing industry and community. The menorah in the middle, of course showing the tree of life. It is in circle and square or in other words heaven and earth uniting. On the sides I put the grapes with the vine. Representing the sacrament and Christ as the true vine and us the branches bringing forth fruit. It was fun.

Be a Monson Missionary

I did this project because I had an excuse to do it. A few years back, I was the ward mission leader, I proposed making I poster similar to this illustration for the benefit of our ward. The message is you don't need to change anything drastically in your life in order to be a member missionary. You just need to follow President Monson's example and go to the rescue, lift where you stand, follow the Spirit. The bishop in that ward wanted to get an ok on doing a caricature of the prophet. I left the ward soon after. Recently I had to teach Missionary Work in Gospel Principles class, so I made up these cards to hand out. (Its hard for an artist to forget about a art project he gets excited about doing)

In this picture, my process was a little different. I was pleased to see it turn out the way it did. I drew it all out, scanned it into the computer, printed the drawing out again with blue lines, inked the lines, scanned it in again, removed the blue lines in Photoshop. Printed a second light drawing out, painted it so it looked more like a watercolor, scanned it in and combined the lines with the painting and there it is.

Baptism of Christ, Baptism of Moses Pack

This is a picture I made for my nephew Moses's baptism, I just wanted to help him see the act he was performing in being baptized was in similitude of the Savior and he did a good job.
My mom wasn't a fan of the shirtless Jesus, probably because it looks very Catholic, but I thought this was a possibility back at his time. Sometimes we like to impose our understanding of the present on the past. Religious or cultural.

This illustration was done by drawing then inking the lines, then scanning in and coloring on the computer. I used to think that you couldn't make it in the art world if you only knew how to draw, I thought every artist needed to learn to paint to find success. I believe I was wrong.

Smarter Than A 6th Grader

I couldn't resist doing this picture of Senator Feinstein. She was so pompous and so absurd, when she started to lecture Ted Cruz who was telling her the Constitution prohibits gun control. She exclaimed, "I'm not a 6th grader." She believed she didn't need a review of the 2nd Amendment.

I would say a 6th grader would know what the Constitution says about gun control, she is probably as smart as a 2nd grader because she has no clue or she could care less about the Constitution she has sworn to uphold.

It was fun to do a political cartoon, kind of challenging making something using just values and line work to create interest. If I had more time I would do more political drawings. Maybe some wouldn't enjoy my bantering.

House of Light

I painted this picture for a friend, it was more like a trade. He has done a lot of car work for me, so I thought I needed to do something in return.
He wanted a picture of the temple he was married in. I have seen a lot of pictures of the temple and I wondered how I could do something different. So I brought all the buildings close together to make some good negative and positive space. The advantage of painting or creating a picture with your hands as opposed to shooting a picture with your camera. Temples usually stand by themselves as does the Salt Lake Temple, so that is why I had to pull these buildings in.
The other thing I wanted to convey was that the world is dark and lonely while the temple brings light and happiness. I know the buildings that are darker in this picture are church buildings but that's what I had to work with gathering all the light to the focus which is the temple.