Mormon Art, Etc.

[_Juggler Vain]

Hi everybody. I haven't posted here often in the past, but it's been an entertaining place to lurk. I figure maybe I should give back a little, so I'm starting this thread to post some alternative Mormon artwork. In the past, I've been involved in a project called Images of the Restoration, which is a small online gallery that attempts to provide Mormon art that is historically accurate, and will revise its images in response to legitimate criticism of their accuracy. That venue is not really a place to post other types of art and commentary, so I'll do that here.

Feel free, of course, to contribute your own stuff too.

-JV

[_Juggler Vain]

Some time ago, somebody decided to create and sell prints of digital images under the brand "Real Hero Posters." These artworks are meant to glorify figures from Mormon history and mythology (which include, apparently, the American Founding Fathers). The name "Real Hero Posters" implies that these people are real, and the things depicted on the posters are real too. Strangely, nearly every poster I've studied seems to feature non-real, inaccurate, or downright disturbing elements. Just to soothe my own mind, I've set about to right some of the wrongs in these posters.

Note: My images are non-commercial comments and criticisms of existing copyrighted works, and are therefore permitted as a fair use under U.S. Copyright Law.

I put this one in an earlier thread, but this is a better place for it.

Original Image: http://ldsengine.com/heroposters/index. ... duct_id=76
Original Image Text:

Joseph Smith history:
59 At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates...having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off...

60 ...For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me... The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand.

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I am intrigued that Joseph Smith—an unschooled young man in rural America—could have translated [the Golden Plates'] Semitic language mix into the English language. That unlikely scenario relates to Isaiah’s remarkable prophecy:

“I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder.” (Isa. 29:14.)

***

The details of [Joseph's] miraculous method of translation are still not fully known. Yet we do have a few precious insights. David Whitmer wrote:

“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.” (David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, Mo.: n.p., 1887, p. 12.)

Emma Smith, who acted as an earlier scribe for Joseph, gave this account in 1856:

“When my husband was translating the Book of Mormon, I wrote a part of it, as he dictated each sentence, word for word, and when he came to proper names he could not pronounce, or long words, he spelled them out, and while I was writing them, if I made any mistake in spelling, he would stop me and correct my spelling although it was impossible for him to see how I was writing them down at the time. Even the word Sarah he could not pronounce at first, but had to spell it, and I would pronounce it for him. (Edmund C. Briggs, “A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856,” Journal of History, Jan. 1916, p. 454.)

--Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” Ensign, July 1993, 61

[_Juggler Vain]

Another Real Hero Poster: Nephi

Original Image: http://ldsengine.com/heroposters/index. ... duct_id=55
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Nephi's Sorrow

1 Nephi 4:9-11

10 And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him.
11 And the Spirit said unto me again: Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life; yea, and he would not hearken unto the commandments of the Lord; and he also had taken away our property.
12 And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me again: Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands;
13 Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief.


592 B.C.

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[_Juggler Vain]

Another Real Hero Poster: Captain Moroni

Original Image: http://ldsengine.com/heroposters/index. ... duct_id=56
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Captain Moroni

Alma 60: 36

Behold, I am Moroni, your chief captain. I seek not for power, but to pull it down. I seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of my God, and the freedom and welfare of my country.


Alma 46: 12

And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

62 B.C.

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[_Juggler Vain]

Another Real Hero Poster: Emma Smith [and Lucinda Harris]

Original Image: http://ldsengine.com/heroposters/index. ... duct_id=77
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For Emma Smith, the months after Joseph’s arrest and imprisonment at Liberty Jail were especially difficult. In February of 1839, she packed her meager belongings and her four children and journeyed to Quincy, Illinois with the other Saints that were being forced to leave Missouri by Governor Boggs with the issue of the extermination order. She traveled nearly 200 miles in winter weather conditions, including crossing the frozen Missouri River.
Emma’s horrific flight from Missouri to Quincy, Illinois, only intensified her feelings of separation from her husband, Joseph. Her patient suffering, her unremitting anxiety, her fears for the future, and her irrepressible love for Joseph found voice in the long letter she wrote when she reached safety in Quincy. 1 “The walls, bars, and bolts, rolling rivers, running streams, rising hills, sinking valleys, and spreading prairies that separate us and the cruel injustice that first cast you into prison and still holds you there, with many other considerations, places my feelings far beyond description . . . No one but God knows the reflections of my mind and the feelings of my heart when I left our house and home and almost all of everything that we possessed excepting our little children and took my journey out of the state of Missouri, leaving you shut up in that lonesome prison. But the reflection is more than human nature ought to bear, and if God does not record our sufferings and avenge our wrongs on them that are guilty, I shall be sadly mistaken . . . I shall live and am yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind heaven that I should for your sake… I am ever yours affectionately. Emma Smith.

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"[W]hen Joseph and Emma arrived at Far West [Missouri] on March 14[, 1838], Smith wrote: 'We were immediately received under the hospitable roof of George W. Harris who treated us with all kindness possible. here we refreshed ourselves with much satisfaction after our long and tedious journey.' They stayed with the Harrises for some two months, then moved to their own house.

There is no firm date for Smith's marriage to [George's wife,] Lucinda, but these two months are a good possibility. He often married women while he was living in the same house with them." (Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, SLC, UT : 1997, p. 49.)

By November, 1838, Joseph was imprisoned at Liberty Jail. For Emma Smith, the months after Joseph’s arrest and imprisonment were especially difficult. In February of 1839, she packed her meager belongings and her four children and journeyed to Quincy, Illinois with the other Saints that were being forced to leave Missouri by Governor Boggs with the issue of the extermination order. She traveled nearly 200 miles in winter weather conditions, including crossing the frozen Missouri River.

[_Juggler Vain]

Another Real Hero Poster: Daughters in the Wilderness

Original Image: http://ldsengine.com/heroposters/index. ... duct_id=57
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Daughters in the Wilderness

1 Nephi 17:1-3

1 ... And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.
2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.
3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

592 B.C.

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[_zeezrom]

Not all Mormon artists, but sort of Mormon related.


Albert Bierstadt, Mormon Boy, Salt Lake City, 1863


Minerva Teichert, Esther



Cassandra Barney


Kirk Hays



Emilie McPhie


Brian Kershisnik

[_Buffalo]

This is excellent work. I especially loved the tapir!

[_Juggler Vain]

Not all Mormon artists, but sort of Mormon related.

Albert Bierstadt, Mormon Boy, Salt Lake City, 1863

Minerva Teichert, Esther

Cassandra Barney

Kirk Hays

Emilie McPhie

Brian Kershisnik

I like these, especially McPhie and Teichert. It's interesting to me that none of the images deals with specifically Mormon topics or concepts. I know Teichert made an effort, over the course of her life, to deal upfront with Mormon topics in her art. Everybody else in your list who is Mormon works in deep, safe metaphors, or doesn't go there at all. I don't blame them.

-JV

[_zeezrom]

I like these, especially McPhie and Teichert. It's interesting to me that none of the images deals with specifically Mormon topics or concepts. I know Teichert made an effort, over the course of her life, to deal upfront with Mormon topics in her art. Everybody else in your list who is Mormon works in deep, safe metaphors, or doesn't go there at all. I don't blame them.

-JV

What do you think of the framed picture on the wall in the Kershisnik painting?