Mormon Artists Are Making a Name For Theirself With Some of the Music World’s Biggest Names

Mormon artists are making waves in the music world. From BYU Vocal Point to Hilary Weeks and others, Mormon musicians are making their mark in Billboard charts.

Artists incorporating historical styles are offering new interpretations of Mormon God. Santa Clara Pueblo Indian artist Kwani Povi Winder from Santa Clara Pueblo depicts Heavenly Mother wearing symbols of power from her culture, which offers yet another view.

Art in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Mormon art encompasses an expansive variety of visual media, from paintings and sculptures to quilting work and photography. While each piece may vary stylistically, its common thread lies within the themes and values shared by Latter-day Saints.

Art has long been an effective vehicle for communicating the Church’s message through visual art. Church leaders encouraged artists like Minerva Teichert – an LDS cattle rancher who studied art in Chicago and New York during President Grant’s Depression-era presidency–to create distinctive LDS art for meeting houses and temples; additionally they commissioned Arnold Freiberg and Harry Anderson to help clarify doctrine concepts further.

By the 1960s, when illustrated magazines became less profitable, artists who made their living from such assignments had less opportunity to pursue their art. Today, however, some emerging artists are making waves in this field; Canadian artist Heather Ruttan’s Equal in Might and Glory depicts Heavenly Father and Mother as exactly equal, filling a huge void among existing images of Mormon deities.

Symbolism in LDS Art

Church artists’ desire for art to symbolize its faith and values has resulted in an abundance of works. Iconic artwork decorate temple walls while artists travel abroad to broaden their abilities before returning home to create murals for sacred spaces within the Church.

The church promotes artistic experimentation, leading to a wide array of depictions depicting divine feminine. Instead of relying on traditional depictions that show Heavenly Mother as the perfect mother accompanied by her children, artists have created new depictions that show her as representing all forms of bodies and races.

Artists have also given us new images of God the Father by placing him in various landscapes and outfitting him in clothing specific to each culture. By making Him more inclusive in these new depictions of his divine body, these artists give viewers a fuller picture of his presence here on Earth.

Non-Representational Art in LDS Art

Artistic representations of Heavenly Mother have taken many different forms in response to popular demand and do not claim completeness or supremacy. This artistic exploration has paralleled the increase in official Church recognition of Heavenly Mother as well as increased interest from members to explore this doctrine further.

Artists have depicted Heavenly Mother with various body types, deviating from the usual depiction of a tall white male God wearing flowing robes with intricate detail. Additionally, many domestic scenes were used as scenes depicting her divinization by European Catholic artists who preferred depicting Mary deified.

Other works forgoing human form entirely, like Ben Crowder’s abstract work Their Work and Their Glory (fig. 2) does. Instead depicting either Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ directly, but rather depicts them together as one shape-fitted entity in partnership.

Heavenly Mother in LDS Art

As taboos around Heavenly Mother have faded, art has begun to portray her in various forms. Some artists have adopted a vernacular style of depicting Her in various races, ages, genders, nationalities, body types, roles or body sizes while others emphasize Her ineffability as deity.

Kwani Povi Winder of Santa Clara Pueblo Indian Artist fame has created Welcome Home (fig 4). Kwani’s Heavenly Mother wears traditional Pueblo symbolism with her headdress, representing motherhood, creation and divinity all at the same time.

As faith in a Heavenly Mother has emerged from Mormonism’s doctrinal shadows, many Latter-day Saints are longing to connect with Her. Artists provide a productive and meaningful platform through art for us all to contemplate and honor Her – helping us better comprehend Him who is Both Father and Mother; their work may inspire our own efforts in remembering and celebrating Her and her children.