Q: What is the theme of the painting?

A: The most expansive element in the painting is the sky. The coloration of the clouds could be a sunrise or a sunset. It is impossible to discern which. Prayer is important at all times, but particularly so when it is difficult to tell whether one is looking at an imminent dawn or darkness.

The image expresses hopefulness. The figure is in the tops of the mountains, at the highest elevation of anything in the painting. That is where prayer puts a person. And, as far as the fact that the figure is kneeling on a promontory, he has nowhere else to go.

The figure is kneeling, which is what the soul does when reaching for the hope that fills the heavens. Even if the figure were standing it would be impossible to reach the clouds, let alone the sun or moon or stars, but through the meekness and humility that are part of genuine prayer, God reaches down His hand and makes up the difference.

Q: Why did you choose this subject for Enos?

A: One of the things I like about the story of Enos is that it involves a perfect setting for meditation and prayer.

Q: How so?

A: Enos is alone in the midst of nature; in a setting close to the way the heavens and the earth came from the hand of The Creator.

Q: What is the significance of the composition with relation to the theme or message of the painting?

A: Anciently, Zion flourished upon the high places. In our individual lives, prayer takes us to the summits of opportunity to touch the hand of God. The proportion of the composition dedicated to sky, as opposed to what’s dedicated to land and vegetation, presents the expansiveness of any person’s life, in which prayer is a constant, daily reality.

The land is dark and thick with trees. It is a precipitous terrain--if the rock on which Enos kneels is any indication--and without the light of prayer that terrain is choked with constant impediment and peril.

Enos is also kneeling on an outcropping of rock. The view from that rock, of both heaven and earth, is unobstructed. Such is the view provided by prayer, which of course is possible only because of The Rock of Eternity.

Q: You mention hunting. Tell me about the weaponry depicted in the painting.

A: Nephi was an uncle to Enos. There appears to have been a very strong inclination toward, as well as a commensurate facility with, craftsmanship and artistry not only in Nephi’s life, but among his people. Nephi taught them not only metalwork, but they constructed a replica of Solomon’s temple. There had to be more than one gifted craftsman among them. Whatever else they may have been, I like to think of the Nephites as a people to whom artistry and craftsmanship mattered a great deal. The material culture of such a people would have been splendid.

The bow is a large one, capable of bringing down just about anything Enos might have encountered. It is not merely functional, but is ornamented because there is profound utility in beauty. I like to think that such a culture would have understood that fact. The arrows are also decorated, and such a cloak would have been a treasure of craftsmanship in any age.

Just because Enos is hunting with bow and arrow; just because he is in a wilderness; just because he lived a long time ago does not mean that he and his tools and his thoughts and feelings were primitive.