Homesick

For this image, I needed to show a college student who was homesick and missing her family.

My good friend Caroline suggested I visit her niece Meka at BYU. The dorm was perfect--just what I remembered from dorm life--cinder-block walls! What says dorm room more than that? I had her resting on the top bunk of her roommate's bed. Meka was an excellent model, and I suggested she try a job as a model at BYU. We had a picture of her very large family, which we put on the wall as reference. I chose an image of a home with a forlorn, wistful sky to put next to Meka, trying to boost the mood of homesickness further. I heard that her father would be traveling from California to view the broadcast live! I hope they enjoyed it. Thanks so much, Meka!

"God Believes in Him"

I was asked to portray Tony Blair as a 10-year-old boy at school. He was worried about his father, who was serving in the war. His teacher suggested praying for him, but young Tony said, "I don't think my father believes in God."

"That's okay," his teacher said, "God believes in him."

I researched Tony Blair and learned that he went to school in a Choral School for Boys. I learned that most of those schools were converted old cathedrals, and the boys would spend a lot of time practicing singing--hence all the boys choirs with the high voices. I decided this would be best portrayed in a school uniform, however, rather than a choir uniform that looked like a high-collared nightgown.

Scott and his son Kaden were so sweet to do this for me! Kaden is a sensitive 10-year-old neighbor, and when I told him that his picture would be on TV, his eyes lit up and his jaw dropped! Getting him to act worried about his father while his father was standing right there was a little hard, though. Scott eventually achieved it by reminding Kaden of all the homework he still had left to do. That produced the sad face! Thanks a ton, Kaden and Scott!

Charles and Elaine

This is basically a love story about a couple who had been married for almost sixty years and still took care of each other and were devoted to each other. I was happy that John and Marion were willing to pose for me. I didn't make them get in a pool--we got around that by having them wear T-shirts and hide behind a kitchen bar. They were so sweet to rearrange their day, their furniture, dishes, and clothes for me. While I photographed them, they told me about their wedding day nearly seventy years ago! Thank you for the great visit, John and Marion.

Unspoken Prayers

This piece was a challenge--it was to show three different people who wanted something in life but were denied their wish, only to be rewarded with something better that they didn't expect. The first is a young man who didn't make the high school football team, but grew up to become a successful author. The second is a woman who didn't win the election, only to become a big humanitarian aid worker and helped thousands in need. The third is a man who didn't get the job he wanted, only to become fulfilled and successful in a different career. I decided on charcoal, and the original piece is 48" long! Thanks to Elaine Glenn and Nick, Lacie and Blake Pearson for modeling for me!

Wheelchair

The story here was about Don ____ who saw a woman crawling across a street like a snake when he visited a third-world country. It bothered him, and he pondered it, wondering why someone couldn't just build cheap wheelchairs for people who couldn't buy them. Eventually he invented them! He made a nonprofit foundation and gives them out to those who can't walk and can't afford a wheelchair. The first one he gave away was to a boy in India, whose mother said, "Thank you for this chariot." My favorite quote is from this episode: "It is not enough to be happy in life. We should be useful."

The Old High School

Thank you Ruthann and the people at PGHS for helping me out for this one. It's about a woman visiting her old high school, noticing how small everything is, (check out those short lockers!) and wishing she could go back and change some things, and how we should move forward and be better. They used to teach a preschool right down this hall, and my daughter recognized her old preschool just by looking at the row of lockers! I love painting beautiful people, and Ruthann is definitely one, and so sweet to model for me too. Thanks again!

Good Intentions

The boys I babysit are always sneaking toys in their pockets to play with at my house, despite their mother telling them not to. I'm sure most of them make it to school as well. These are usually Spider Man, Star Wars or Indiana Jones action figures, or legos or green army men. All very "boy." So when I was asked to paint this piece, I immediately thought of these boys.

The story goes that a little girl was sharing with her class at school that her grandmother had just died. She became overcome with emotion and had to sit at her desk, in tears. A little boy in the class got up and sat down by her. He reached into his pocket and gave her the toy he had smuggled into the classroom that day to make her feel better. It doesn't matter that it was a "boy" toy, that she wouldn't have cared about. It was special to him.

The day of the photo shoot, I just asked the boys, "What do you have in your pockets?" The oldest boy reached in and produced a little green army man. Perfect!

Thanks so much to Kira, Aidan, and their Kindergarten teacher for letting us photograph the classroom, and to my daughter for hiding in the background with her cast on.

Christmas Cards from Grandma

I had the privilege of photographing Elijah, one of my daughter's friends from Kindergarten, for this piece. He is such a happy soul! He was willing to help out, and couldn't stop smiling the entire time. I told him that I'd be painting a picture of him for TV, and he said, "Make sure you paint my skin brown!" I assured him I would. That was actually pretty tricky, since I'm so used to painting pinkish beige tones, and I'm afraid his skin got a little overworked, but I appreciated the challenge to paint brown skin, and hope to be able to do it a lot in the future.

Heimlich

What an unusual Thanksgiving painting! The story goes that this man stood up choking in an office lunch room, but nobody stepped forward to help him for a while. Then some man he didn't know came up from behind and performed a successful Heimlich maneuver and saved his life, for which he was very grateful. See how thanksgiving comes into play? Thanks so much to Matt and all his friends at Ancestry.com for helping me out! I'm thankful for your help!

Armistice Day

This is a painting of the end of fighting in WWI in France, on November 11, at 11 a.m., Armistice Day. They say the fighting intensified, then right at 11:00, it was like everything hit a wall, then was silent. A man ran out into no-man's-land to plant an American flag in a shell hole, and a soldier played music on a German trumpet. I had to research to get the helmets and uniforms from the right war.

By Hawking's Chair!

I felt it an honor and a privilege to paint Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant astronomers and mathematicians of our time. I was disheartened to learn that he was an atheist, but glad to know that he relies heavily on family. This was one of the first paintings I've done where the end product is almost exactly how I imagined it in my head!

Good Sports

The awesome young women in my ward modeled for this shot.  It's about how winners can be rude and isolated, or they can be friendly and encouraging to the losers.

Lewis and Clark

This illustrates the Corps of Discovery (the Lewis and Clark expedition) in 1805 when Captain Clark carved into a tree in Oregon in December 1805 to prove that they had been there.  Thank you to Summer and Bryant for being so willing to model for me on a time crunch, and to Anya and Kent for providing such excellent costumes.  I'll need to do a larger painting of Sacagawea some day with some other photos I took, just to do the costume justice!

Let it Go

This is a story about a man who kept a list of all the people he was angry with.  Years later, he realizes and regrets his mistake.  I loved the quote, "Holding a grudge is like taking poison and then waiting for the other person to die."

Mike and his father were so wonderful to pose for me--thank you so much!  They are in the theater business, so they were great models.

Bragging Rights

My sister and her friends volunteered to pose for me, and she and I squeezed some of our children into the shot.  I needed a scene at a ballpark, and my sis is always attending ball games for her children.  She's amazing.  Thanks for helping out!

Lincoln on a Train from Springfield

It was a gloomy day when Abraham Lincoln departed the station in Springfield, Illinois, headed for the nation's capital to become the 16th president.  Hundreds were gathered there, as he gave a memorable speech.

Panguitch Quilt Walk

The first group of pioneers came to Panguitch on March 16, 1864, from Parowan under the leadership of Jens Nielson. They followed the route over the rugged Bear Valley, a part of the Spanish Trail. Crops were planted, but the season was short and they did not mature. The winter of 1864 was extremely cold and the snow was deep. The closest supplies were either in Gunnison, 115 miles to the North, or Parowan, 40 miles to the west over the difficult Bear Valley Road.

Seven men, Alexander Matheson, William Talbot, Thomas Richards, Jesse Lowder, John Butler, Thomas Adair, and John Paul Smith left Panguitch to go to Parowan to get flour and food for the starving colony. They had two yoke of oxen and a light wagon which they had to abandon at the head of Bear Valley because of the deep snow; they then proceeded on foot. The only progress that could be made over this frozen, crusted snow, was to lay a quilt down, walk to the end of it, relay it and walk again. In that way they reached Parowan.

Alexander Matheson recorded in his journal,"We decided that if we had faith as big as a mustard seed, we could make if and bring flour to our starving families. So we began the quilt-laying in prayerful earnestness. The return trip was harder with the weight of the flour, but we finally made it to our wagon and oxen and on home with thankfulness to the Lord of His goodness. The whole settlement welcomed us, because we had been gone longer than expected. There had been prayers, tears, and fears which turned to rejoicing and cheers."

--The Panguitch Quilt Walk Marker

Steel Worker

Lloyd Newell's father worked in a steel mill for 40 years because he loved his family and wanted to provide for them. They were the thought that kept him going at work.Thank you Bryan for being my model--again--and doing this with such short notice!

No Swimming

Kenny, a fictional fourth-grader in Christopher Paul Curtis’s book The Watsons Go to Birmingham, learned this lesson well. On a hot summer day in Alabama, Kenny could not resist the temptation to go swimming, despite the No Swimming sign and warnings about a whirlpool. But Kenny could see no danger, so he decided to swim anyway. At first, he was only going to step in the water, but when he caught sight of a turtle, he decided to swim toward it. Before he knew it, he was caught in the vicious whirlpool.

Reflecting on his near-death experience, the boy said: “There’s one good thing about getting in trouble: It seems like you do it in steps. . . . It also seems like the worse the trouble is that you get into, the more steps it takes to get there. Sort of like you’re getting a bunch of little warnings on the way; sort of like if you really wanted to you could turn around.”

Thanks to Trilea's neighbor Mo for letting my son Braeden and I use their backyard pool. And thanks to my husband, who made sure I understood the physics of how a whirlpool really works.

Mother's Day

Here is an experienced mom comforting a younger mom who is stressed over raising her two little boys. “When children know they are loved, it covers a host of parenting mistakes.”

Thanks to Summer and her mom and kids for helping me on such very short notice!