Wednesday, January 25, 2012

A Penitent and Humble Seeker

A Penitent and Humble Seeker
"Now was not this exceeding joy?  Behold, this is joy which none recieveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness."
Alma 27:18

This is my painting for the Ninth International Art Competition at the LDS Church History and Art Museum. The theme is "Make Known His Wonderful Works."

I painted this right after Ewan was born and purged a lot of intense and personal feeling into it.  The narrative is about the journey, spanning almost a year, I went on to bring my sweet baby boy into the world.  When I feel like my words are trite and far too simple, that they don't catch the depth of meaning that the image does, I want to put my words in verse.  I asked my dad to read over my poem to help me and all I got from him was that, although beautiful in its sentimentality, it was terrible poetry.  So, the wind out of my sails, but with the desire of a painter to shed meaning on a painting for the viewer's deeper understanding, I am sharing my not-so-great, interminably-unfinished poem.


The Penitent and Humble Seeker

Let me tell you a tale of a mother of three
Her family was as happy as they could be
Though, with kids growing, she dreamed of going
To her studio to paint with time and clarity

In a year her youngest would go to school
The things she will create will be so cool
Oh to perform, take the world by storm
Her life will be so wonderful and full

In two minutes it all came to a halt
Go ahead, lock ambition in the vault
Tears were shed, she stayed in bed
It was all this anonymous zygote's fault

Now this tale turns to a lesson learned
Even though her righteous desires burned
The Lord did know, she needed to grow
A tender softening of heart would be earned

Her daughters bursting with enthusiasm
Sent her heavy heart into a humble spasm
"I'm not being fair," she said with despair
So she prayed light into her spiritual chasm

God gave her light, he filled her mind
With wonderful works line upon line
Ours is a likeness to his kindness
He's teaching us how to be divine

It's a sacred gift to be the one
They trust like the warmth of the sun
To comfort when sad, to forgive when bad
Unconditional love can't be undone

Slipping into the world the boy roared
Up past heavenly heights her joy soared
She fell in love with the gift from above
Happiness only humility can afford




4 comments:

pamela said...

emily, it IS beautiful. i love the message.

Morgen said...

Totally amazing! And your poem makes me feel better about being a mom when I'd rather be painting. Thank you.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hey Emily, I wrote a blog post about your new exhibit that includes this painting at the Springville Museum of Art. I linked back to this blog post. I hope that's ok. :) Thanks for sharing your talent and insights with us. Here's the link:

http://www.wildflowerindependence.com/christensenmcphie/