Christ With Wheat and Tare

"Christ With Wheat and Tare"

oil on canvas

In this painting, Christ is portrayed holding both a strand of wheat and a tare.  We learn from the scriptures, that before He comes again, He will allow the wheat and the tares to grow together before He gathers them.  I wanted this to show our Savior's tender love for both the wheat and the tare.  The wheat is straight and close to the savior, while the tare is bent away from Him, toward the darkness.  His hands represent our Savior's love for us. The wheat and tare can represent each of us at times in our lives.  By our choices, we either come unto Christ, or distance ourselves from Him. Yet His love is always there for us, and through His Atonement we can turn toward Him again and find security and peace.

All That She Had

"All That She Had"

24"x 28"  oil

In Mark 12:41-44, Jesus sits over the treasury and sees many rich people cast in much. Then He sees a poor old widow throws in 2 mites. Then He calls His disciples over and tells them that the widow cast in more than all the others. The others cast in of their abundance but she cast in all that she had, even all her living.

I wanted this painting to depict Jesus with the 2 mites in His hand looking down at them, pleased with the widow's sacrifice of all that she had, however small it is. The same can be for us as we choose to offer all that we have for the Lord and His work, however much or little that is.

Sarah and I




Sarah and Nathan
oil


This painting is from a picture Sarah took of us at Snow Canyon near St. George, Utah.
We had done a few hikes and then ended with playing on the sand dunes. Then Sarah decided
to randomly take a picture of us and it turned out to be the best one of the day! We both really
like the picture and so in November, 2010 started the painting of it in hopes to be done by
Christmas to surprise Sarah. But it only took me about 8 hours over two days to finish it.


And just so you know, we're now ENGAGED!!  It all happened New Years Eve.  Sarah wrote her
side of the story on her blog but I suppose it won't hurt to write mine:)  I went over to Sarah's
in the afternoon in hopes we'd play games for a while and hopefully make it over to the
party at the Provo Towne Center Mall.  During the games I just tried to keep my cool,
not act nervous. And Sarah honestly was, like she said, being sorta bratty to her dad
and just kinda seemed bored at first but I was determined to go through with my
plans. The games were fun and lightened her up a bit and after some discussion we
agreed to go to the party.  I told her we first needed to drop by my place to pick up
some noise maker horns. She was fine with it and didn't seem suspicious or anything.
So I picked up the noise makers, AND the RING!!! The box was too bulky and noticeable so
I put the ring in a small ziploc bag with air in it and put it in my jacket pocket and zipped it up.


The party was a blast! Bands were playing, facepainting, petting reptiles, photo booths, lasertag, etc etc.
My mom and two of her friends "happened" to be there too and we saw them occasionally especially
as we danced to the big band music. So much fun.  It was a surreal and exciting feeling to be dancing
with the girl I was about to propose to! Not sure what she was thinking. When it got closer to midnight
everyone in the mall-thousands of people-all went outside. They had a smaller light up ball, like the one
in New York and fireworks.  With all the excitement going on boy I sure had a bad case of the
BUTTERFLIES!!!!  The countdown went from 5 minutes to 1 minute and I knew my moment was coming
up!  I asked Sarah "Do you wanna kiss through the countdown?" She gave me that look like "DUH!"
There were tons of people, and almost seemed to form a bubble around us. Finally I heard "10!..9! 8! 7!6! and when it got to 5!! I turned to Sarah and said "Sarah, I have a surprise for you!" then I got down on my knee and with a huge grin I asked her to marry me! Even though I didn't exactly hear her say yes at the time. She immediately started crying and kissing me so I took that as a big YES!!:) 
For a while it felt like wealone together, deaf to the noise around us or the ball dropping or the fireworks.  A few minutes later we suddenly realized there were tons of people around us. Lots of people cheering for us and one guy even up and said "I love you man" and gave me a big hug, it was funny.  Later I also found my mom got it all on video on her camera phone. Goooood times.