The Springville Arts Museum, Indeed a Sanctuary

Arvard Fairbanks sculpted this Mother and Child which you'll find at the Springville Arts Museum, crafted during the Great Depression for the Work Projects Administration (WPA).

During a time of deep despair, I was led to this Santa Fe style building, filled with all the great regional artists, I had learned to love: LeConte Stewart, John Hafen, Maharoni Young and Maynard Dixon.

I felt at peace there, and went frequently. Then, I learned that in his dedicatory prayer, David O. McKay, an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, set the museum aside as a sanctuary.

I had found it to be so for me.

I particularly saw this sculpture beautiful in the extreme. The gentle press of the mother's hand against her breast, the enchanting lines of her torso and thigh as she cradles the child in her arms, reminded me of my own children in the arms of their loving mother.

It was, at that time, such a gentle reminder of where I came from, after the divorce, and to where I longed someday again to be.

Older, I am struck at how young the mother's face looks now, for once we were contemporaries, and her youth was mine.

But now I see that she is ageless.