ARTIST STATEMENTS
She Wrapped Him
In Luke 2 it reads, “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”
Jesus was born in meek conditions, in a low limestone cave being used as a stable in Bethlehem. Jesus was also baptized in the lowest body of fresh water on earth, the Jordan River, at 1,444 feet below sea level. “Jordan” in Hebrew means “to go down.” The connection I see in these two locations points to His condescension with humanity. “He descended below all things” though He was the highest. He came and allowed Himself to be judged even though He is the ultimate judge. He came and washed our feet even though we need to wash His with tears of gratitude. Jesus Christ honors our agency to believe by coming in humility rather than in great glory which would prove Himself to be God.
This Christmas cave points us forward to the Easter tomb. This sculpture expresses Christ’s journey between these two caves with a labyrinth that begins and ends at the bottom of this eight-sided frame. The number eight symbolizes new beginnings. This is the reason for the eight angles of the star of Bethlehem and the eight sides of the ancient European baptistries where we rise out of the water reborn. Both the star and these baptistries point to how Jesus Christ rose out of the tomb on the eighth day.
The fabric turns softly representing the loving tenderness of this devoted mortal mother. Again, in Luke 2 we read, “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” What did Mary ponder that day, and what did she know about His eventual sacrifice? The three beams above her head represent these thoughts and the future cross. The meek lamb here reminds us of how the past lamb sacrifices pointed us forward to His future sacrifice. How she wrapped Him in white linen and laid Him in a manger echo how in the future they wrapped Him in white linen and laid Him in a tomb.
Do we realize today how Jesus Christ has been there with us in the low caves of our lives?
Jacob Elton Dobson
Date: 2026
Medium: Plaster with Patina of Crushed Rocks
Size: 15 H x 10 W x 3 D in.
Price: Please contact me to get latest bronze price from foundry.
Eternal Family
The sculpture, Eternal Family, is my exploration of Michelangelo’s oval design for the square plaza Campidoglio with his diamond shapes indicating the meridians and parallels of the globe. He wanted to replicate the original oval stone Umbelicus Caput Mundi, the world’s midpoint or the Omphalos or navel center of the world in Rome.
The circular design or sunflower pattern suggests how this eternal family tree is bound and sealed together. The 12-pointed star represents to me Abraham’s study of the stars and how Abraham’s family spread throughout the globe because of his willingness to sacrifice Isaac.
In Genesis 22 it reads, “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven” Abraham’s sacrifice foreshadowed God the Father’s sacrifice.
John 3:16 it reads, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”
From these two paralleling sacrifices Jesus Christ has orchestrated salvation for both individuals and the human family. Russell M. Nelson said, “In God’s eternal plan, salvation is an individual matter; exaltation is a family matter.” Abraham’s experience and family is an echo of the larger plan of salvation. Because Father in Heaven was willing to sacrifice his son, Jesus, all individual and families will be blessed. In Genesis 12 it reads, “Because Father Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, in him “shall all families of the earth be blessed” Jesus is at the heart of the covenant for individual salvation at the sacrament table. Jesus is at the heart of the covenant for family exhalation at the altar of the temple.
Jacob Elton Dobson
Genesis 12:3 “Because Father Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, in him “shall all families of the earth be blessed”
Genesis 22:17 “I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven”
Malachi 4:6 “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
Date: 2025
Medium: Hydrocal Plaster with Patina of Crushed Rocks
Size: 14 H x 18 W x 1.25 D in.
Price: Please contact me to get latest bronze price from foundry.
Living Water
Before Jesus started His public ministry and while weary in His journey, He came to Jacob’s well and asked an unnamed Samaritan woman for a drink. She was amazed He asked since Jews did not talk with Samaritans. Jesus replied that if she knew of the living water He provided, she would be asking Him. Jesus revealed He knew of her past five husbands, so she detected He must be a prophet. She then mentioned she knew of the coming of a Messiah named Christ. He then revealed to her, “I that speak unto thee am He.” She then left her pot and went to the city and exclaimed to many her experience. Why did Jesus choose this woman to reveal for the first time that He was the Messiah and not the established church leaders and congregations? I believe this choice represents that Jesus came for individual relationships and not larger institutions. He desires to speak to us individually in mind and heart with His living water.
It took me 20 years to finish my sculpture of the woman at the well. I suppose she sat unfinished in my studio waiting for me to experience my own trenches. What did the woman ponder as she walked to and from the well? How do I express what it feels like to be rejuvenated with reassurance and guidance from my Savior’s living water? To reach out and drink from this well is to receive something powerful enough to cause me to leave “life’s pots” and to tell others.
Jacob’s Well and Jacob’s Ladder: Not too far from Jacob’s well is the place where Jacob dreamt of a “ladder” or staircase progressing between earth and heaven. When Jacob woke up, he made a covenant with God and named this place Bethel or “The House of God.” On the side of the base is this ladder or ten steps representing our eternal progression through the House of the Lord. The number ten signifies the completion of a divine cycle, fresh beginnings, and God’s law and order. The apostle Paul used the celestial bodies of the sun and the moon to describe our eternal progression and resurrection. When you look at the sculpture from above you see the shapes of the celestial sun and terrestrial moon. Christ invites us to pull from His well and drink the living water. Christ invites us to ascend on His ladder and partake of living covenants. Jacob’s well and ladder represent the covenantal life that chooses to “let God prevail” allowing us as individuals a relationship with Jesus Christ!
Jacob Elton Dobson
Revelation 12:1
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:” (Notice the sun clothed or wrapped around her and the feet on the moon.)
Date: 2025
Medium: Hydrocal Plaster or Bronze
Size: 16 H x 12 W x 12 D in.
Price: Please contact me to get latest bronze price from foundry.
Avoidance in the Boat, Surrender in the Whale
Jonah on the left here is sleeping in the ribs of a boat and then moments later, screaming in the ribs of a whale. The prophet Jonah had just abandoned the call from God to warn and lift others by boarding a ship and going below to sleep. As a result, God sent a violent storm, and Jonah asked the crew to throw him in the sea to save them.
Perhaps we are tempted to believe we can escape a divine agenda on a perilous sea of life without divine supervision. In ancient times a sea serpent or leviathan represented death and hell. Like Jonah we at times choose to face our unknown fears, like sea monsters, just to avoid our known fears, like a call from God to serve others. In our own “belly of the whale” we can choose to be humble, pray and receive inspiration. We find God when choosing to hike mountain tops or choosing to travail the more challenging deeper sea. The all-seeing eye of God will find us wherever we go. Even as we ride the ribs of a whale, we can create a sacred space where our willingness to commune intersects with the understanding of a loving God. I am grateful for second chances just like Jonah’s.
When Jesus was asked about a sign for his return, he referred to Jonah as a foreshadowing of His own death and resurrection as we read in Matthew chapters 12 & 16.
After Jonah sacrificed himself to save the crew, he was placed in a whale and came out on the third day.
After Jesus sacrificed himself to save humanity, he was placed in a tomb and came out on the third day.
Do you see the hands of God?
Jacob Elton Dobson
Interesting Points:
In 763 BC the eclipse of The Bur-Sagale occurred over the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh in the middle of the reign of Jeroboam II. Scholars have made the case that the eclipse could have been one of the deciding factors for the people of Nineveh humbling themselves when Jonah came to preach to them after the whale. See Jonah chapters 1 & 2. Do eclipses and other natural disasters have a similar humbling effect on us in our day and help us face what we see and hear in these last days?
Jonah in Hebrew means dove.
· A dove was present when Jesus came out of water symbolizing coming out of the grave and resurrection.
· A dove was present when Noah came out of the flood waters symbolizing salvation from the world’s destruction.
· After Jonah came out, he prophesied in 40 days Ninevah would be destroyed if they did not repent.
· After Jesus came out, he gave prophets in 40 days the keys and tools to help save the world from destruction.
Date: 2024
Medium: Bronze
Size: 28 H x 24 W x 7.5 D in.
Price: Please contact me to get latest bronze price from foundry.ell your story online can make all the difference.
Anguish-Plea-Light-Liberate
From Joseph Smith History it reads: “I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; ...I retired to the woods to make the attempt. ...It was the first time in my life that I had made such an ...attempt to pray vocally...”
This bas-relief sculpture depicts Joseph Smith at the age of fourteen in a sacred grove when he’s praying vocally for the first time amidst all his anxieties to know which church to join. This sculpture sequence begins at the bottom where Joseph at the start of his prayer is in anguish as a dark spirit seizes him, binds his tongue and dooms him with a feeling of destruction. While exerting all his powers to plea with God to liberate him out of the power of this unseen enemy, he sees a pillar of light, looks up and sees two personages—God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ, who is standing at the right, just as Steven described in his moment of destruction in the Bible. The sculpture has two sets of pillars that taper from two light sources. Here Joseph learns for himself that, “God created man in his own image,” exemplifying the point, “all are alike unto God.” This sculpture expresses the familiar anguish of youth that fades as the gaze follows the choice to look up toward the emerging light. This is an invitation for all of us to turn away from taxing negative energy and choose faith so we can partake of God’s goodness that gives perpetually. Joseph Smith is an example of someone many wouldn’t expect God to answer–a young, uneducated and insignificant New York farm boy. However, “He inviteth all,” even a farm boy! Joseph Smith’s experience is evidence of God’s desire to speak to all His children!
Jacob Elton Dobson
James 1:5-6 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Date: 2021
Medium: Hydrocal Plaster or Bronze
Size: 27 x 17 in. (Without Frame)
Price: Please contact me to get latest bronze price from foundry.
