Mormon Artists – Growing in Confidence and Self-Awareness

Mormon art covers an expansive spectrum, from historical accounts of its founding to religious themes and styles spanning traditional to modern.

Artists have also gone further in depicting Heavenly Mother, depicting her with items and settings familiar to their culture and thus broadening Church understanding of her divine femininity.

History

Mormon art is an enduring and diverse legacy dating back to its roots, reflecting both its development and membership changes over time.

Early Mormon artists were painters whose paintings depicted historical events from its early years. Notable examples include Danquart Weggeland (1827-1818), Carl Christensen and George M. Ottinger who each had minimal formal art training but used personal experience to bring to life stories of church founding and Book of Mormon narratives through paintings.

Joseph Smith’s portrayals while translating the Book of Mormon were an integral part of early Mormon culture, yet images depicting him wearing his face under his hat evoked images that suggested illness or illicit activity, neither an image faithful Mormons wanted to project. By contrast, searchers for new interpretations of Heavenly Mother have come up with various depictions depicting her from various races, ages, genders, body types, roles and more – an image faithful Mormons prefer as their religious leader.

Style

Mormon art refers to visual artwork created with Latter-day Saint teachings and values in mind. Artists use various media including painting, sculpture, quilt work photography and graphic art in creating works with religious significance.

Mormon art varies significantly as is characteristic of any diverse religion with such a young history. With church membership growth during the 20th century correlated to increased artistic and cultural freedom; consequently, Mormon art can range from highly realistic representations of historical events to personal interpretations.

Minerva Teichert, Arnold Friberg and LeConte Stewart all excelled at depicting scenes from the Book of Mormon and American West landscapes, creating an influential legacy which continues to shape Mormon art today.

Themes

Mormon art varies significantly in visual styles and genres, yet all share an aesthetic theme inspired by Latter-day Saint teachings. These can include depictions of historical events or personal interpretations; religious imagery or simply an underpinning theme such as spirituality.

Due to the church’s missionary focus, artists frequently create artwork based on Book of Mormon stories. These paintings often portray either scenes from these stories or prophets portrayed therein; historically these artistic depictions are typically realistic in style.

Artists are beginning to rethink the wineskins for their work and move away from relying on realistic renderings exclusively. This shift is most visible in art about Heavenly Mother, where artists are adding more diverse body types into their depictions of this figure – Courtney Vander Veur Matz’s Mother Divine and Eliza Crofts’ Sophia both feature figures with varied heights and body types; Kwani Povi Winder’s Welcome Home features figures with unique facial features dressed in various forms of Pueblo Indian attire (fig 5).

Artists

Mormon artists are emerging with increasing confidence. Their artwork reveals familiar motifs but their execution is new and satisfying, providing evidence that Mormons are increasing in self-awareness and building their sense of pride and independence. This growth of fine art indicates a shift towards greater confidence and self-awareness among their members.

Up until recently, churches generally did not permit depictions of deity through art. Artists like Brian Kershisnik-whose paintings capture nature’s raw beauty-have been pushing the limits with more sophisticated depictions.

Michal Luch Onyon and Nnadmi Okonkwo, two prominent Mormon artists who use color to explore spirituality through their works, employ this technique in their art as well. Musicians such as Ben Howington’s incredible guitar talent or GENTRI, an a cappella group comprised of Mormon culture artists have found ways to use music to uphold and inspire in powerful ways; their influence can be felt across cultural divides in Mormon communities worldwide.