An artist's vision for By Mark Gudmundsen
For Mormon Times
Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009
I was a member of the bishopric sitting on the stand at church when a member of the stake presidency came and announced to the ward that a Mormon temple was going to be built right next to our stake center in
After the meeting, President Boswell of the stake presidency came up to me and asked if he could speak to me privately. He told me that the stake president had been in close contact with the temple committee and that they wanted me to consecrate my talent and do a painting for the new temple. I told him that I already knew and related the experience I had when he announced the temple.
I spent some time thinking about the painting before executing it. One thought that came into my mind was to do a vineyard in the countryside, as our welfare project is a vineyard for raisins. But the original concept of
One morning I got up early and drove out to the Tunnel View to
take a look. When I got there, I had the feeling that view was not right. It was not what I had pictured in my mind.
I had this feeling, a very gentle and calm feeling that I should go in a certain direction. It was almost as if something were gently pulling me in that direction. I went with the feeling, which took me in the opposite direction of the Tunnel View. I climbed the rocks and went a little distance back, never looking back so see what, if any, view there was.
I came to a spot where I had the feeling to turn around and look. When I turned around, I saw a view that closely resembled the vision of that I had before in the sacrament meeting. I took some pictures of it, and working from the pictures, as well as the feelings that I had about it, I painted the pictures. I spent two months, on and off, with the painting before I was satisfied with it.
Today, the painting hangs near the recommend desk. Interestingly, there is a second landscape in the temple painted by a member of our stake. It is of a vineyard.
Mark Gudmundsen lives in the
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