View International Art Competition Winners Now Online at LDS.org

There is a story behind the lace Tree of Life, now viewable with the rest of the pieces from the Seventh International Art Competition: “Our Heritage of Faith” exhibit online at www.lds.org/museum.

For the artist, a Merit Award recipient, the piece represents not only the heritage of the Book of Mormon but her own heritage as well, tracing back to her youth in Syria.

Melva Hindoian-Emrazian, born in Syria 81 years ago, learned lace making at age 14 from her mother, who learned the craft in an orphanage as a child. Sister Emrazian now teaches her daughter and granddaughter the technique.

Members worldwide have the opportunity to see her award-winning work online if they do not have the opportunity to visit the Museum of Church History and Art in downtown Salt Lake City—at least for the next few months.

Like the other 25 Merit Award recipients announced in March at the opening of the exhibit, Sister Emrazian’s work will be showcased and then returned. Curator Robert Davis explains that funds allowed the museum to bestow 15 Purchase Awards to acquire the pieces for the Church’s permanent collection of art.

Artists and guests filled the Assembly Hall on Temple Square for the awards ceremony on March 27, 2006. To be included in the 235 pieces displayed—out of more than 900 submissions in all—is an honor.

That’s nearly 200 more submissions than the previous competition, which is held every three years. The increase in submissions is a milestone in the effort to stimulate the production of Latter-day Saint art around the world. The competition was initially designed to help develop the museum’s collection of art but has yielded an ever-increasing response each year. A number of the pieces will be featured in the Ensign and Liahona magazines to touch the lives of members throughout the world.

The purchased pieces represent a variety of media and subjects. One in particular, a still oil painting done by Rebecca Wetzel Wagstaff, is unique in Brother Davis’s eyes. “The Church very seldom buys pieces like this,” he said, commenting on its content. The still, Emblems, depicts a vase of flowers and various objects, such as two tickets and a picture of the Nauvoo Temple hanging in the background—nothing overtly religious, Brother Davis adds. And yet he favors it. “It shows the flow of life,” he says.

Richard G. Oman, senior curator at the museum and a judge in the competition, explained their selection process.

“What makes LDS art unified?” Brother Oman asked. “The gospel of Jesus Christ. The challenge we have is to put art in the context it comes from,” he said of the process of placing the style in its indigenous part of the world. Then comes the second evaluation—how well the artist conveyed the theme.

For Sister Emrazian, the theme “Our Heritage of Faith” aligned with the teachings of her grandfather.

“He had a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, and he made sure we knew it,” she said. Her grandfather joined the Church in Turkey in 1893, shortly after the first missionaries arrived in the country. “He was eager to share it with his family,” she said. “When Lehi ate the fruit from the tree of life, it was so delicious he wanted to share it with his family. With my Tree of Life, I pay tribute to my family. I like to keep the heritage alive.”

Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy, Executive Director of the Family and Church History Department, thanked the artists at the awards ceremony.

“This provides a way for art across the world to show reverence for Heavenly Father and His will,” he said. “It deepens our appreciation of each other.”

Detail of A Child’s Prayer by Dan Burr, which received a Purchase Award.

Allegory of the Olive Tree by Brad Teare received a Purchase Award.

The Five Wise Virgins by Louise Parker received a Purchase Award.