Description

The Salt Lake Temple is one of a series of detailed pencil drawings and paintings created by the artist Chad S. Hawkins. In 1989, at the age of seventeen, Chad started this unique temple series, becoming the original LDS artist to involve hidden spiritual images in his artwork.

Seven years after construction began, the temple’s original foundation of limestone was replaced with granite, thus ensuring President Young’s desire that the temple be built in a manner that will endure through the Millennium. “In creating this picture,” explains the artist, “I hoped to remind the viewer that as the temple is built upon a solid foundation of granite, we should build our lives upon the solid foundation of the Lord’s teachings. Depicting this, I outlined the right hand of the Lord supporting the entire foundation of the Salt Lake Temple.”

“For I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and we shall see it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my people, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Amen.” (D&C 84:119-20)

Chad Hawkins began creating a series of temple prints in 1989, at the age of seventeen, to support his two-year mission in the Germany Frankfurt Mission. After graduating from Weber State University with a bachelor of fine arts degree, he pursued an art career that has taken him to six continents and over 100 temple locations. He has sold over a million works of art and written and illustrated seven publications. He enjoys outdoor recreation, including cycling and running. His favorite place to be is anywhere with his wife and family.