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The Seattle 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. In this temple drawing, Chad has sketched a reenactment of Joseph Smith’s first vision in the grove of trees on the left.
“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. . . . When the light rested upon me, I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by my name and said, pointing to the other—‘This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him!’” (Joseph Smith—History 1:16–17).
The Seattle Temple is located on a beautiful forested hill in Seattle, Washington. High-relief sculptures of shafts of wheat that appear to be growing out of the ground decorate the temple walls to symbolize that Christ is the “bread of life” (John 6:35). The vertical wheat shafts are emphasized by the repetition of vertical windows and columns that are high and pointed.
