”On Joseph's Knee“ 24 X 24 Oil
As I went through the simple cabin home of Joseph's childhood in Palmyra, the missionary guide pointed out the small addition to the cabin that the family added after little Lucy was born. I began to consider Joseph's relationship with his siblings as they struggled to make a meager living on their small farm. At the time depicted in this painting, Joseph would have already been a young man of large stature. His sister, Lucy was much younger. Even as the eternal importance of Joseph's unique calling was already beginning to distill upon his thoughts, I elected here to illustrate a rare time when he could share a happy, care-free moment in a family setting.
Joseph liked to describe himself as a "rough stone rolling," a reference to his unpolished upbringing and apparent lack of refined preparation for his calling as the prophet of the last dispensation. His strong back and calloused hands, his common speech and meager education, all must have indicated to the casual observer a man of little consequence, a mere frontier fellow hard at work like so many others of his generation.
And yet, Joseph's tender heart, keen intellect, and love of his fellow man quickly won over honest skeptics. At Joseph's knee, the world has learned to love and cherish this unpolished prophet for he has shown us corners of heaven we have all longed to see. In a sense, all who believe that this young Joseph would grow to reveal such sublime heaven-stretching truths have come to know them "On Joseph'e Knee."