Temple Artwork Spotlight: Anchorage Alaska Temple

The Anchorage Alaska Temple is a part 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 include hidden spiritual images in his artwork. 

Hidden Imagery

 

The Temple is located on stake center grounds close to the major Seward Highway, and is nestled in a grove of trees in a residential area of the city. The Chugach Mountain range is found on the east, and the Cook Inlet is southwest of this area. Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, and the North Star mark the west side of the Temple as symbols used for the Last Frontier State. Chad subtly placed them among both the distant mountains and trees in this painting. Prominent in the northern sky, they serve as navigational aids, guiding many safely to their destinations. Hence, on the Temple these reflect the great guiding influence of Jesus Christ and His work for mankind.

 

Additional Imagery

 

Chad has also sketched an image of the Savior, Jesus Christ, kneeling in prayer in the tall trees and grass on the right of the temple. President Howard W. Hunter counseled, “Let us truly be a temple-attending and temple-loving people. We should hasten to the temple as frequently, yet prudently, as our personal circumstances allow…As we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ensign, February 1995, p. 5).

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