Stott-Art on a Clock

This is a piece of art i did for our living room clock...

Often times I feel art is so under appreciated and the things of this world seem to crowd out our minds. time, money, trivial pursuits. I'm often asked "How much you get for that piece", rather than "Wow, how beautiful. What does it mean to you?" I think, also, that people in a given room are more concerned about what time it is than the art on the walls in that room. this is a way that will remind us all that rather than always being distracted, and on the run we should take out the the time necessary for appreciating the beauty of life and how others express it. This is my statement to you all, and a reminder to take the TIME to appreciate the goodness of life.

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The Incomplete

In the sermon on the mount Jesus Christ refered to candles, and the flames therefrom, as a symbol of the truth of God. The number 7 is a (Hebrew) symbol of completion or godliness. This man has been given the truth of God but his head remains bowed and he resides in darkness. See the 6 lit candles that have been placed upon him, and have begun to melt over him. Notice that the one candle which is in his hand (or that which he has control over) and how is not lit. Though Christ has given him light and full access to completion he will never be complete without lighting that which is in his hands, or doing that which he has control over (the seventh candle). Continue Reading »

Cabbage Thieves

this is what some old men do when no one is looking- they steal our cabbages...and fly away with them...

This is a portrait of one of my good friends Bill. He was a neighbor of ours for about 13 years and for as long as I've known him he would walk around his yard in the middle of the night (and day), shirtless, and with a gun in his hands shooting pests-this is my most early memory of him. he would crouch around the yard, as though he were hunting in the forest, and give justice to the bats and birds that were apparently trespassing. OK really, for those who care what the artist has to say about this piece- read on...

(Note: "Cabbage Thieves" is a mask-title to preserve the telling of this story only to those who really want to know. His story deserves such an audience) ...I would recognize over time his untiring work ethic and sense of responsibility to take command of his own post and be the man who fixed up the place-the trees, the bushes, the lawn and home repairs. even into his eighties he'd just be mowing, clipping, fixing and, yes hunting away through their spacious acre farm lot until the task was complete. eventually he developed prostate cancer which didn't stop him from finishing his daily chores. in the midst of such a debilitating sickness, he fell, probably doing work around the yard, and the poor guy broke his hip.

His manliness and strength of character especially showed through to me when one day, as i drove by his house i noticed that he, with his old age, prostate cancer and broken hip was wheeling his way around a tree holding to a walker with one hand and trimming away (with a saw on a stick) the uneven dangling branches of a tree with the other hand. "Wow! this man is CRAZY!" i thought. "with such old-man-pride he is gonna work himself to death, digging his own grave on his way down perhaps." I just had to pull over and talk some sense in him. sensitive to his assumed pride i began lightly with flattering tones, "Hey Bill, man you LOVE to work..." to that, and whatever else i said after, he responded something like this, I'm sure while scratching his bare belly, "Yep I do that's what life's all about. Some people just pay for other people to do it for them but i never saw much sense in that..." Then through these next words of wisdom i learned a great life lesson which i shall never forget, he continued, "And if there's no work in heaven-I'M NOT INTERESTED!" in an instant my voice against such hard and resolute work lost all posture and i remained speechless, well, "I like that," escaped my lips a few times, but other than that I had nothing to fight with. And that was it, i would forever be a fan of my friend and neighbor Bill. He has since passed on as the cancer took over, but that man lived and died with at least one great virtue-one he appeared to master, and that is the virtue of work ethic and industry. I am sure that he is flying somewhere up in the farmlands of heaven working, tending to the crops in her fields alongside all the other old men who felt as he did about work and it's important role in life, and the life after.

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Rise of the Tree-Men

This one's different, usually I have at least part of the sky in my composition, but nope not here. It's facing strait down toward the ground as though the viewer is lodged in the trees- that's exactly the effect I wanted...

We are stepping back in time here to when I was 17 years old. I had a variety of ideas flowing into me, cramming their way around other ideas, and I could not help to express. image after image would present itself to me in all its peculiar glory and I found it self-betrayal to not let it live on, only to die with the fading of memory as it would have a lack of form. Most often I would have no idea what these surreal images meant to me, but given thought and time I would come to understand, as does any viewer of my art, what many of them meant. subconsciously our mind provides us with symbols for the thoughts and feelings we have and, like dreams, we can learn their significance. we just have to let them speak, giving them a voice to tell their strange, or perhaps familiar, story.

OK I got carried away... here's what this particular piece means to me:
Trees naturally reach upward toward the sun to receive of its light. But an interesting fact remains- they are also woven into the earth as thousands of roots dig their way around rocks and soil soaking up water making the trees heavier and more grounded. "Up or down?" they may question, or rather "Should I be content with the earth and all the life I gain through it, or should I stretch upward and receive of the sky and all its goodness?" Given time the weather changes, and each appendage grows cold and tired. Their leaves fall one by one, and then by the dozens as the chilled winds carry them away, also stretching and bending the trees spines in a most uncomfortable way. "Time is running out," they reason, "I am weak and dying and have not been content in either direction!" But as the seasons change again and again they understand that each time they loose leaves they eventually gain even more back. they realize, "I am not dying when the winter comes- I'm living!" and as they reach in every direction, becoming taller, stronger and deeper there comes a day that they realize, "because of my roots I am full, because of the wind i am strong and because of the sun I am young and green again and again and again -Now I am content reaching in every good direction" This process continues all our lives. May we begin to learn of its lessons early on. (the discomfort on their faces demonstraits the time in their lives before they realized these truths)

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The Grand Design - Detail

This is the detail of a very significant portion of the piece. The final judgement of the Father with the Christ as the mediator. Notice the flash of light in front of the face of the individual about to be judged (middle-left)...

He is about to pass through this light, which stands as a symbol of a veil which, when on one side of, blocks the heavenly realms from our view, and our memory of our life with God before we came to earth. As he passes through he will be able to see God sitting on his throne. Such a view will now be familiar to his mind, as his memory will be quickened, and he will recollect the complete history of all his triumph and all his guilt and as the archives of his personal dealings with both God and man, angels and demons, are opened he will understand his personal judgement with The Godhead in the fullness of its justice, mercy and love, and he will understand it to be a perfect judgement. All men pass through this same veil when entering this world in order to forget: 1.)their history with the family of God in the heavens, and 2.) The TRUTH which we must find and live (through our faith-without sight or memory of) while on earth.

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The Grand Design (The Plan of Salvation)

I find it appropriate that my first drawing introduced should give credit to where all credit is deserved. The Grand Design is about God, and the plan he has laid out for us, his children, to become like him. It is the truth of human progression and Mans ultimate potential . Through a series of symbols (sun, moon, stars, stairway), some being found in the scriptures, and by literal description (spheres of existence, traveling of spirits, light of God and Christ) also found in the scriptures, I set out to portray simply this plan...

Though the process depicted covers millions of years, I found it convenient, for the sake of understanding, to lay each step out before us simultaneously that we may better comprehend what we are all in the middle of. It answers where we came from, why we are here, and where we are to reside eternally- given our reception to the truth and the practiced love and faith in our hearts.

Just a note:

Though this site will not be devoted to doctorine of the LDS church, I wanted to express my faith along with all other thoughts and philosophies which, for me, would be ultimately unsatisfyingly hollow without my faith. I drew this piece in California while on my mission, for my good friend Jacob Schwartz.

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