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The Snowflake Arizona 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.
Since the march of the Mormon Battalion in 1847, Latter-day Saints have had a presence in this region of Arizona. In the spring of 1876, members endured hardships as they built a fort, dug canals and constructed dams. To honor the men and women who pioneered new homes and settlements in the Arizona wilderness, Chad has hidden a wagon wheel among the trees in the temple’s foreground.
In the temple, members are taught more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the purpose of life. To remind one of the importance of Christ’s atonement in temple work, Chad has rendered the Savior’s image kneeling in prayer across the surface of the temple and landscape in the left half of the drawing.
