Art Update: Go Deo Muintir (Forever Family)

(pronounced Guh Dyo Min-cher; Irish Gaelic)

“The family relationships we have here on this earth are important, but they are much more important for their effect on our families for generations in mortality and throughout all eternity...

...The plan of the Father is that family love and companionship will continue into the eternities. Being one in a family carries a great responsibility of caring, loving, lifting, and strengthening each member of the family so that all can righteously endure to the end in mortality and dwell together throughout eternity.” Robert D. Hales, Oct 1996, The Eternal Family

This piece was specially commissioned for the Henderson (Neill) family. As a reminder of the temple and their ancestry the image is taken from a portion of the frieze along the upper architecture of the Mesa Temple. The frieze represents a grand parade of converts leaving their old homes and gathering to Zion.

The portion below shows an emigrant ship arriving in America. The figure at the rear is a Scotsman in kilt and tam o’shanter; the other three are Irish converts and are gathering their belongings aboard ship.  (Learn more HERE.)

In the background is a carved Irish eternity knot, shaped like an eternal family tree. The knot was carved from a single piece of wood, truly having no beginning nor end. It has eight points referencing the eight immediate family members of the Henderson family.

Kristal Coles art trivia: I messed up my own signature on this piece, making the "E" in Coles larger than I normally do!  Maybe someday that tidbit of trivia will make someone lots of money...