Umbilicus
Lisa DeLong
- Medium
Born United States; Residing United Kingdom
ca. 2019
Oil on canvas
48 × 30 in.
Church History Museum Collection- Purchase Award
- Purchase Award
This painting was inspired by Lucy Mack Smith’s description of the Urim and Thummim as “two smooth three-cornered diamonds.” Taking Smith’s description as a starting point, DeLong “imagined this mysterious tool in geometric form as triangles—one striving heavenward, the other reaching earthward—until a bridge of light was formed.” While DeLong’s design clearly has roots in traditional Islamic pattern, her “process of discovering a new pattern feels . . . very much like the process of revelation.”