ARTIST CASSANDRA BARNEY

Visiting museums is one of our favorite things to do together. When Alex returns, we'll have a long list of places to see! The Springville, Utah Art Museum is currently exhibiting the works of Cassandra Barney, a Utah-based artist -- visit if you can -- it's remarkable. A couple of her paintings that really affected me are below along with her inspiration.

Atonement by Cassandra Barney

“I was listening to a talk in church about atonement. It's something I've heard about my entire life, but never really tried to understand. As used in the scriptures, ‘to atone’ is to suffer the penalty for sins, thereby removing the effects of sin from the repentant sinner and allowing him or her to be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ was the only one capable of carrying out the Atonement for all mankind and did so. I had a moment of clarity and while I thought, I drew in my sketchbook. I did a sketch of pure white petals falling from the sky like a gift. The petals are mallow which is a symbol of gentleness. As they touched the figure they took away her impurities, leaving her clean and perfect. The red petals symbolize the blood that Christ spilt for us ... and all the figure had to do was look up and accept the gift.”

Three Graces by Cassandra Barney

"This trio of figures represents Faith, Hope and Charity. Faith has a sprout rising up from her heart like the line in a song, “Faith is like a little seed, if planted, it will grow,” relates artist Cassandra Barney. In the center, Pandora’s box rests at Hope’s feet. If you remember the story, after evil was released from the box all that remained inside was hope. Lastly, Charity stands to the right, apron on and ready to get to work."