DiaBLOGue

Running the (Selected) Gamut of Missionary Experiences | Mike Laughead and Theric Jepsen, eds., Served: A Missionary Comics Anthology

February 13, 2019

Served: A Missionary Comics Anthology features short graphic vignettes about the contributors’ experiences as LDS missionaries. It is the culmination of author Mike Laughead’s and editor Theric Jepsen’s Kickstarter campaign, which received $24,902 from 419 backers in thirty days. When backers receive their copies they will encounter a variety of short graphic narratives that are simultaneously varied in their visual approaches and bound together by major themes. 

What is an LDS Artist? | Glen Nelson, Joseph Paul Vorst

February 13, 2019

“Joseph Paul Vorst was arguably the most culturally significant Latter-day Saint painter of his time.”So, starts the Church History Museum’s video for the exhibition on the life and works of Joseph Paul Vorst (1897–1947). The video and the exhibition is a joint collaboration between the museum’s curator, Laura Allred Hurtado, and the independent writer Glen Nelson, who authored a catalogue detailing the life and known works of the German-American artist. Both exhibition and catalogue seek to rehabilitate the reputation of an artist that has largely been overlooked. Vorst’s life is beautifully evoked and contextualized on every page by Nelson, who raises questions about conventional definitions of what it means to be a Mormon artist. 

Well-Red

February 13, 2019

In my father’s small apartment in Salt Lake stood a bookshelf that nearly scraped the ceiling. Titles like The God Particle and The Story of Civilization rested next to each other, packed more than arranged,…

Heavenly Mother: The Mother of All Women

February 13, 2019

Dialogue 51.4 (Winter 2018): 171-174
Heavenly Mother is a cherished doctrine among many Latter-day Saints.
Her unique esthetic of feminine deity offers Latter-day Saint women a
trajectory for godhood—the ultimate goal of Mormon theology.

Placenta

February 13, 2019

I picture it, a milky glass teardrop 
Just large enough to fill my cupped hand. 
It floats in an almost-dark cave; 
It lights the cave but slightly, casting 
Wan shadows, a vessel of music and logic 
Unknown among us. 

Dream Psalm

February 13, 2019

You wake me to the all and the every, 
You breathe me to your shattering stillness, 
Walk me to the brink of the dream 
That jerks alert. You, the nurturing darkness 

Walking Back to the ‘70s

February 13, 2019

Remember, it’s a Covenant Path. 
On our way we must keep hearts 
and minds—as Brigham said— 
“riveted on the cross of Christ.” 

Talitha koum

February 13, 2019

Your body disrupts the narrative:  
Jairus—unaccustomed to want— 
calls Jesus to pull his daughter 
from death. Jesus comes, touches 
the girl; she rises. Just like Jairus  
rehearsed it.