Breathtaking Painting about the Sanctity of Motherhood Goes Viral on Social Media

[Third Hour]

A recent painting by Utah artist Katie Garner has gone viral on social media with its breathtaking portrayal of an infant's journey from the spirit world, crossing through the veil into mortality. The painting, entitled "Mother to Mother," has received a great deal of attention, striking a chord with mothers in a variety of ways. Utah-based artist, Katie Garner (Courtesy Katie Garner) In a YouTube video about the message behind the painting, Garner admits that even she did not realize the full significance of the piece at first. However, after a period of time, she came to the conclusion that it could easily be interpreted two ways.  She says the image can be seen "like the baby is being passed to earth, or like the baby is being passed to heaven."  As a result, the painting has been a source of comfort for mothers who have lost children during infancy. Other women have indicated that the artwork also reminds them of the adoption process, with the birth mother placing the...

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[Emmanuel Goldstein]

Don't misunderstand my comment, but this is not accurate in a doctrinal sense. Our spirits are not in baby form before birth they look like adults.

[anatess2]

1 hour ago, Emmanuel Goldstein said:

Don't misunderstand my comment, but this is not accurate in a doctrinal sense. Our spirits are not in baby form before birth they look like adults.

If you're talking about the painting itself (and not the article's description of the painting), the baby would be the spirit in a mortal infant's body, not a spirit in its spirit body.  It is a mortal infant's body because a mortal mother only becomes one after the mortal infant is formed in her womb.  Now, whether we have a "spirit mother" or Heavenly Mother passing a spirit to a mortal mother, could be a doctrinal issue, but it's one of those "we don't really know how that happens" kind of thing.

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

13 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

If you're talking about the painting itself (and not the article's description of the painting), the baby would be the spirit in a mortal infant's body, not a spirit in its spirit body.  It is a mortal infant's body because a mortal mother only becomes one after the mortal infant is formed in her womb.  Now, whether we have a "spirit mother" or Heavenly Mother passing a spirit to a mortal mother, could be a doctrinal issue, but it's one of those "we don't really know how that happens" kind of thing.

What I see in the painting as a celestial woman giving a mortal woman a baby spirit. If that is not the intended message then I guess I just missed the point.

[Just_A_Guy]

I’m no art critic; but this strikes me as an interesting case of a painting conveying an idea that is quite distinct from the physicality of what is portrayed; and it is the power of the (generally correct) idea that invokes such a visceral response even though the actual event portrayed is factually misleading.  

It reminds me of all those paintings of Joseph Smith translating the gold plates that, we are now told, are inaccurate (or at least incomplete).  

 

 

TL:DR:  “Fake, but accurate.”

[anatess2]

2 hours ago, Emmanuel Goldstein said:

What I see in the painting as a celestial woman giving a mortal woman a baby spirit. If that is not the intended message then I guess I just missed the point.

Yep.  You missed the point.  A mortal woman bears a mortal baby with a spirit.  Not a "baby spirit body".

Edited November 26, 2018 by anatess2

[anatess2]

1 hour ago, Just_A_Guy said:

 even though the actual event portrayed is factually misleading.  

I just want to understand what you're talking about.  Which event is factually misleading?  Are you talking about the article's interpretations rather than just the picture itself?

 

[Just_A_Guy]

2 hours ago, anatess2 said:

I just want to understand what you're talking about.  Which event is factually misleading?  Are you talking about the article's interpretations rather than just the picture itself?

 

What the picture shows is a corporeal woman handing a corporeal infant to another corporeal woman.  We are to presume that one of those women is Heavenly Mother.

—In a physical sense we are pretty darned sure that this is factually misleading because Heavenly Mother neither hands, nor receives, physical babies to/from any mortal woman.  Therefore, the picture is visually misleading.

—In a spiritual sense we know that the spirits Heavenly Mother sends to mortality are not, cognitively or developmentally, “infants” at all.  Therefore, again, the picture is visually misleading.

—But the picture does convey a deeper truth that get that Heavenly Mother entrusts mortal women with something small and helpless—and that sometimes, mortal women have to return those small, helpless beings to Her.  Therefore, the picture conveys a powerful truth about our theology and the human condition.  

[anatess2]

5 hours ago, Just_A_Guy said:

What the picture shows is a corporeal woman handing a corporeal infant to another corporeal woman.  We are to presume that one of those women is Heavenly Mother.

—In a physical sense we are pretty darned sure that this is factually misleading because Heavenly Mother neither hands, nor receives, physical babies to/from any mortal woman.  Therefore, the picture is visually misleading.

—In a spiritual sense we know that the spirits Heavenly Mother sends to mortality are not, cognitively or developmentally, “infants” at all.  Therefore, again, the picture is visually misleading.

—But the picture does convey a deeper truth that get that Heavenly Mother entrusts mortal women with something small and helpless—and that sometimes, mortal women have to return those small, helpless beings to Her.  Therefore, the picture conveys a powerful truth about our theology and the human condition.  

Ok, this is ART.  ART is not always physical copies of real life.  The error of the common belief that angels have wings because renaissance painters put wings on angels to represent a descriptor of a spiritual being is not due to the picture being misleading, but due to the viewer interpreting it as such.  The same renaissance painters depict a Saint with a halo over their heads to illustrate a descriptor yet the same viewers who think angels physically have wings don’t believe saints physically have halos.  It is all in the manner it is interpreted.

Therefore, your first 2 bullet points is your interpretation of the painting and not necessarily a visual mislead.  At least I didn’t interpret it as such.