Support Your Local Mormon Artist: Kent L. Turner

There have been a lot of posts recently regarding Mormon Artists. I just happen to be related to Kent L. Turner (my wife's brother) who was recently awarded an Artists Choice Award at ebay. You can view some of his stuff here and here. He is a very talented guy. Feel free to leave comments for him here if you like. He is aware of my blog, but has never commented yet. Or better yet bid on some of his art.

He has expressed his approach to art and I am going to cut and paste it for your enjoyment.

The Art of K. L. Turner


I am an active artist whose mediums include, but are not limited to, oil and acrylic painting, pencil, pen and ink, oil pastel and sculpture. My chosen genres are very broad, from fantasy and abstract to landscape, impressionism, and nature.

My ID reflects the many different genres of art that I like to create. Although most artists by necessity develop a single style that their clients can look forward to seeing from them, or even have different "periods" where their style evolves over time, I choose to express all of my creativity and not chain it to a single genre or style. I create whatever the mood strikes me to create- sometimes it is light and inspiring, sometimes it is dark and disturbing and sometimes it is just plain whimsy. Although the genres and mediums vary widely, to the observant viewer there are subtle yet powerful cohesive elements to all of my works. Hopefully at least one person will appreciate each piece I have to offer.

How can I create art that covers such a wide range of emotion and style? In order for me to answer this, consider first this quandary:
There is a perception in the art world that an artist must specialize in a style or genre of art in order to portray it well. How can an artist really represent truly beautiful, inspirational pieces if they also offer dark and disturbing work? Is it possible for them to really know beauty if they have such darkness in their soul?

Human experience is a lesson in pain, pleasure, joy, agony, peace, and strife. We cannot experience gain without first having loss. I would further submit that nobody can truly appreciate joy without knowing the feeling of grief.

Therefore it is not a hindrance, but actually a requirement for an artist to understand calm in order to accurately represent vitality, darkness for light, chaos for order, death for life and grief for joy. My works represent the broad range of experiences that I have learned and grown from. If I were to limit my artistic creations only to the light or only to the dark, then my work as a whole would suffer.

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Africa and Temples

I noticed that the church has announced the completion of a temple in Finland here. The article mentions that there are 5,000 members in Finland. 5,000. Pretty impressive huh? The article also mentions that there are now 10 temples in Europe. Countries like Norway, Belgium, Denmark, and similar countries have memberships about the same as Finland - 5,000 or so.

With my new curiosity regarding Kenya following my parents' mission call, I couldn't help but notice that Kenya has 6,000 members, and that the nearest temple is in South Africa. With the number of years we have been sending missionaries to Scandinavian and European countries, one would think that there would be more than about 5,000 members in these countries, and that there would be fewer missionaries and temples given the lack of converts and numbers.

Does it not make just as much sense in terms of numbers and geography to have a temple in Kenya as it does to have a temple in Finland? What am I missing?

I make a similar case for missionaries at Blogger of Jared here.

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John and Sharon Nielson to Serve Mission

I just got word of this today, and I am leaving on vacation today as well. I have no time and will probably not see comments for a week. But I wanted to get this out now.

My parents put in mission papers a couple of weeks ago, and received their call to the Kenya, Nairobi, East Africa Mission. I do not know any other details than that. There experience in the peace corps and knowledge of Swahili may have been a factor in the call. Who knows?

Congratulations Mom and Dad!!!!

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A Father's Lullaby

There have been several baby announcements on the bloggernacle in recent weeks. I congratulate all of these families and wish them the best.

I have had four children of my own, and have spent several late nights, pacing the floor, with a screaming baby. On one of these nights I composed a poem that I have come to call 'A Father's Lullaby'. I think it captures much of the feeling of a tender parent during such nights. I hope you enjoy this poem, and that some of you parents might sing it to your lovely infants as you attempt to comfort them. I am pleased to share this with you.



A Father's Lullaby

by Eric Nielson



Go to sleep,
You little creep!



The End.

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I Have a Gun, in Fact I Have Six, But That's OK...

Those of you who stop by Unofficial Manifesto once in a while like I do will recognize my title here as a slight modification to the subtitle for their blog. I don't know quite how to take their subtitle. Are they gun owners who love God, or are they mocking those who own guns and claim to love God? I'm not quite sure which it is.

But I have a gun, in fact six. And I love God. On my own I probably would not have purchased these guns. My father in law was a gun enthusiast who had dozens, if not hundreds of guns. He made sure each of his children had an assortment as part of his will. But, after having them for a while I now quite like them. I am glad we have them. I have shot most of them at a local conservation club. There is something about the kick of a gun, the sound of the shot, the smell of the gunpowder that gets to me in a pleasant way. We have taken the young men from our ward out to shoot a few times, and even brought the young women out once.

My father in law was a bit of a lecturer, and I think I have an understanding about why he had so many guns from conversations we had. These reasons include:

Self Defense

I am always surprised about how seldom this comes up in gun control debates I have heard and read. It seems to me that law abiding people who live in a free country should have the right to reasonable self defense. My wife grew up near a large city and happened to live close to a prison. Her father took personal and family self defense very seriously. I find it a compelling reason to allow people to own a gun if they choose.

Self Reliance

My wife's father would hunt occasionally. It can be a potential way of 'obtaining food' for your family in times of need. If it were not for political correctness, I would imagine that many would recommend a firearm as part of emergency preparedness.

Conspiracy Theories

Yes, I think my father in law went in for some of this stuff. Seriously though, he felt that society was not on as firm a foundation as many others believe. He believed that it would not take much for a terrorist attack to happen (well before 9/11), or that government and law enforcement could become corrupt. He felt that a potentially armed citizenry was an important check on government and that gun ownership was part of responsible citizenship.

Enjoyment

My father in law shot often and well. He competed in state and national marksmanship events. There was something about the kick of a gun, the sound of the shot, the smell of the gunpowder that got to him in a pleasant way.

So I have some guns, and I am okay with that.

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Baby Shower Expert

My wife is quite a woman. I wish you could meet her. Chances are that if you did meet her you might go away thinking that you found your new best friend. She has that effect on a lot of people. She seems to have a special talent for helping those who might otherwise not have any friends.

One of the unexpected results of this is that if there is someone in our ward who ought to have a baby shower, but probably won't get one, my wife either steps in and does it or gets asked to do it. Over the years my wife has become a bit of an expert on baby showers.

A few years ago she created a web site called showers deluxe. It is a free site with ideas for games, gifts, recipes, etiquette, etc. It has had nearly half a million visits so far. It is not exactly a blog, but does have a guest book.

Anyway, she created this web site using html code with some help from a brother of hers. Yes, I am bragging a bit, but not about myself.

So if you ever need to host a baby shower and would like some ideas this would be a good place to go. My wife's name is Becky, and she does read my blog sometimes. Partly to humor me. Feel free to leave her a comment. She will get it eventually but may not respond. Hope somebody enjoys the site and finds it useful.

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