The Veil is Beginning to Burst

Technique & Style

Figurative, Painting

Figures

Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother

Symbols

cloud, veil

Notes

Artist's statement: The title of this depiction of Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father, “The Veil is Beginning to Burst,” comes from a phrase in the hymn “The Spirit of God.” It seems only in recent years that Latter-Day Saints have felt comfortable having any kind of conversation on the existence of a Heavenly Mother, while it had been historically taboo to mention her existence. There had been scant mentions of a Heavenly Mother between second hand accounts of Joseph Smith’s teachings on the matter, Eliza R. Snow's hymn text of “O My Father” in 1845, and the Family Proclamation 1995, yet in the past couple of years there have been legitimate and more frequent mentions of Heavenly Parents by Apostles and Prophets in Conference talks and in the revision of the official Young Women Theme in 2019. There seems to be a cultural buzz about Heavenly Mother, a thirst for knowledge about Her. It seems that more scholars and Latter-day Saints alike seem to be researching and writing about Her. So in a very literal sense, “the veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst,” and “the knowledge [of Heavenly Mother is]... expanding.” (William W. Phelps, “The Spirit of God,” 1836.) When I think of my Heavenly Parents, I see them as a duo, equal in both glory and majesty. I imagined in this painting the moment when the veil of forgetfulness bursts asunder and we will remember both our heavenly home and our Heavenly Parents.

Church Name

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints