My Submission to the LDS International Art Competition

"He, Too, 'Hath Not Where to Lay His Head"

Artist Edgar Payne writes: “We say a painting is beautiful because (the artist has painted)…deeper mysterious qualities that lie beyond the definition of man.” I believe this is true. In elementary school I hand-wrote and illustrated small comic books which I sold for ten-cents a copy. Building on these innate talents to write and illustrate, I became both a professional writer and an artist, twice blessed with a peculiar ability to hear, see and then translate. As a writer I often found it baffling to express in written word truths about the human experience that art so instantly and powerfully reveals in image.

With this painting, I wanted to express that the essential “story” of Jesus is love. For any person, in any path of life, the need to feel and express love is an innate need. I recently drove by the homeless mission area in an urban city and was deeply touched by how many elderly women I saw sitting alone on the sidewalk. It came to me that perhaps even in this situation, if women formed their own relief society, nurturing one another, each might share human contact they desire and the hope they so desperately need. I envisioned two such lonely, destitute women sharing the stories of Jesus, realizing as they did that even the son of God had no home on this earth to rest. Yet, His mission of love and His atoning sacrifice, transcends all earthly woes.