I Wander Whithersoever I Can

by Al Young

The Story in the Artwork

Following His resurrection in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in the Americas to descendents of Joseph, the son of Jacob. Those descendents of ancient Israel accepted the teachings and the presence of the Savior. For two centuries they were taught from On High and dwelt in peace and beauty. Nevertheless, they fell into darkness, and in the 3rd century anno Domini, the people divided themselves so that the true followers of Christ were eventually compelled to take up arms to defend their religion, their freedom, their peace, their wives, and their children.

War and wickedness engulfed the land until a great and terrible battle swept the fallen remnants of the Lord’s disciples entirely from the earth in the 4th century; all, that is, save one, who lived to write the story’s end. For more than 30 years that solitary and faithful disciple was hunted by those who had destroyed his people, killed his kindred and his prophet father, and sworn to destroy every splinter of the light that once had bathed the land. His name was Moroni, and this image is an image of his enduring devotion.

Symbolism in the Print

Q: What would you like to say about the composition of this print?

A: I like to think that it shows how interested, how anxious, and how active Heaven is in our lives, particularly when circumstances combine against us. In the image, there is a great deal more sky, watching over the loneliness of the figure, than there is earth. And the outstretched hand of the sun is drawing back the veil of clouds.

Q: Is the setting real or imaginary?

A: It’s as real as we choose to make it.

Like all these images of Moroni, this one is a picture of believing, of enduring, of loving the Lord with one’s whole soul. The subject might appear to be Moroni, but as we do not see his face, the person in the cloak might just as well be anyone—particularly the viewer.

Q: What about the mountain?

A: A mountain can be a great place to hide, a great place in which to get close to Heaven.

Q: You’ve put a lot of mountains in your artwork, and you write about them, too. Tell us about you and mountains.

A: I was born in the shadows of the mountains east of Albuquerque. I’ve lived most of my life at the feet of the Wasatch Mountains here in Utah. And from the desert Southwest where Spaniards searched for the seven cities of gold to the glaciers of the Columbia ice fields where the pale twilight of the midnight sun lingers over the peaks, I’ve traveled and made friends with whatever it is about this folded and broken landscape that makes me sigh and sends my gaze out over the horizon and up into the mountains of the clouds.

I’m not a mountain climber. I do like looking at the world and at the sky from their shoulders, and I do feel tucked in as though the outstretched hand of the earth were holding onto me, but exactly what it is that makes me feel content in the midst of mountains I can only try to say, which is probably why I draw them, paint them, write about them, and live among them.

Q: Is there anything else about this print you’d like to day?

A: Here on this earth we are clothed in clay, much like the figure in the print is cloaked. And like the cloak that hides the figure, the clay does not allow us to see each other, or even ourselves, as who and what we really are. We come here from the presence of our Heavenly Father, and the secret of our identity and heritage remains with Him. Yet if, like the figure in this print, we seek to have more of Heaven in our lives than the darkness of this fallen world, Heaven will tell us who and what we really are.

I Wander Whithersoever I Can

by Al Young

The Story in the Artwork

Symbolism in the Print

Related Painting

from the Manti Project