Friend to Friend with President and Sister Oaks

 When Jody from the Church Office Building called me, she asked if I would be interested in illustrating a story for President Oaks that would be in the Friend to Friend broadcast. How could I say no to that? 

I was given pictures of President Oaks' great grandmother Chasty, with her siblings. The story is that they were playing in a river bed when the spirit told Chasty to get them all out. When she finally listened, a big flash flood came by that would have drowned them!

Jody and John asked me to sketch something by Tuesday to show President Oaks. It was Thanksgiving weekend, and my future son-in-law was visiting from out of town. We had wedding dress shopping and wedding plans to plan, but I was able to line up some models in my ward--thank you Ashlynn, Brooks, Bryce, Junie, and Susan!

After turning in sketches of Ashlynn, who posed as Chasty, John called me and asked if I were sitting down. He said Dallin H. Oaks wanted to meet with me IN PERSON in his office in Salt Lake City! That was a surreal experience, and such an honor. President Oaks shook my hand, and I was struck both by his spiritual power and his physical frailty. He is very businesslike, and we sat right down at his desk to discuss his vision for this project. He told me about his great grandmother Chasty, and how she brought the whole family together for generations at family reunions. He really wanted me to portray this riverbed as he sees it in his memory, even though he doesn't have any pictures of it. He sketched the general shape of it in my sketchbook, which I will keep forever. He also said that he wanted my style to be sketchy and black and white, and to see the children from behind, or far away, so you couldn't really make out their faces.

I was able to finish these sketches, and a painting of Chasty, just after Christmas. However, on January 1st, our deadline, I was told that after looking at the finished sketches, which he had asked for, President Oaks said that he changed his mind and wanted the sketches to be in color. So, at the last minute, I had to add color to these pencil sketches by using digital methods on my computer. Thus, these colorized drawings are vastly different from my usual style. But, if the future president of the Church and prophet asks you to do things a certain way, you obey.

(This is the actual photo of Chasty. I will add the painting I did to this blog once I get access to our other computer.)

It was an amazing experience. This was the second time I had made artwork for President Oaks, and I treasure each experience. 

The Friend to Friend broadcast can be watched here, with the segment with this story starting at time stamp 15:55: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWcuXXxcbAk