Q: What is the subject for this painting of Alma the Younger?

A: The painting is set during Alma’s departure for Mulek, when he blessed the earth for the sake of the righteous, and was taken to heaven by the Lord before the end of his journey. As far as the subject is concerned, the painting has to do with any number of things, one of which would be the influence that one person can have on the world. The painting is also concerned with the nature of this existence, and where a person is caught in this worlds divided by the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness. It has to do with prayer—with the importance of prayer. It has to do with the importance of the word of the Lord, and, given the story of Alma’s life, it has to do with how acceptable repentance is to the Lord.

Q: How do you feel the image reflects the importance of the word of the Lord?

A: The staff he’s holding anchors the figure. It rises out of the darkness where we assume it’s planted on firm ground. That staff, capped by the handle of a scroll round which a vine is climbing, represents the Word of God. That Word is the Rock of Eternity, the Lamb of God who descended below all things and who has risen above all things to provide a straight and narrow path back to the presence of the Lord from whence we came.

Q: Does the vine carved on the staff have any related significance?

A: It can be thought of as a representation of the true vine (John 15:1). Alma is, after all, the person from whom we have the invitation to think of the word as a “seed” (Alma 32:28).

Q: You mention that one of the meanings within the painting is the influence one individual can have on the world. How do you feel the composition of the painting shows this?

A: He’s alone. And what he did prior to departing for Melek might have been done alone or in a small group. In any case, these isolated events occurred more than 2000 years ago and the world has never been the same since, nor will it ever cease to be influenced by Alma’s ministry. The good things we do when no one is watching have a way of enduring, showing up later, and being infinitely more widely known than we ever supposed.

Alma is the man who wanted to do something a whole lot more exciting than stay in Zarahemla and its environs and preach to people who remembered what a reprehensible character he had been as a youth. We know he had big dreams because he yearned to be an angel in order to be able to proclaim the gospel throughout the world (Alma 29). Compared to the breadth of his dreams, he led a very narrow life; nevertheless, to the ending of the world, the Book of Mormon will carry Alma’s witness of the Savior to every people in every land.

Q: You also mentioned the principle of repentance and the way in which it relates to Alma’s story. How does the composition demonstrate this?

A: A margin between light and darkness runs down the middle of the painting. Alma is just inside the light, and I like to think that that shows how anxious the Lord is to accept every genuine effort to reach toward the light; and, in accepting our efforts, pulls us toward Him.

Q: Do you see this related to Alma’s description of himself as being “snatched” by the Lord?

A: Everyone is snatched. We live in a fallen world. In coming to it, we fall from the presence of the Lord—a kind of free-fall from which the only hope of salvation is to be snatched. So, from a certain point of view, this isn’t just a painting of Alma the Younger, it’s a painting of everyone.

Q: What would you like to say about the color scheme of this painting?

A: There’s infinitely more nobility about any human being than any of us might guess. That nobility or goodness isn’t evident until our lives turn toward the Light. Alma’s entire robe, which is of magnificent design, craftsmanship, and proportion, is entirely purple—a stridently regal purple.

The more light that bathes the figure, the more the figure’s noble stature is evident. This is the case with every child of God—every human being. The Lord knows each of us and knows that there’s a great deal more about us than we can see in this dark world.

Q: Is there significance in the way in which the light source illuminates the top of the staff and Alma’s face, rather than the rest of the figure?

A: The painting depicts the incident on the road to Melek when Alma was taken back to the presence of the Lord. Not all of the light in the painting represents natural light for there is an element of light, presented in the composition, that represents the light of Heaven, that cannot be seen with the natural eye. That is the light breaking upon the figure and the staff as the Hand of the Lord reaches toward a beloved and faithful servant.

Something else about the light on the figure might be remarked: The light falling on the right side of the robe ends in a straight, horizontal line. That’s because the figure was lit by light pouring through one of the tall eastern windows in the studio.

I decided to keep this idiosyncrasy, associated with the figure, as a representation of the windows of Heaven, which have a way of opening up where windows aren’t even expected. After all, Alma was taken to Heaven en route to Melek. Something like a window or a threshold opened up on his journey.

That’s also the way it is with doing good: We embark, as Alma may have done, thinking we’re going somewhere we’ve gone before, to do there whatever good the Lord might have us do. Yet whenever we’re on His errand, Heaven opens up along the way and neither our life nor the world is ever the same again.