Artist: Amberlea Erekson Smoot
Title:
I Will Show You All These | Abraham 3:12
Medium: Oil on Wood Panel
Unframed Dimensions: 30 x 20 x 1.65 inches
Framed Dimensions: 35 x 25 x 2 inches
Price: $6,765
Artist Statement: I Will Show You All These reimagines Joseph Smith within the visual world of the Book of Abraham facsimiles. Inspired by Hugh Nibley’s 1968 Dialogue essay on the Joseph Smith Papyri, the painting presents Joseph not merely as an interpreter of ancient texts, but as a seer, revelator, and witness. Clothed in white, he occupies the enthroned position of Figure 7 from Facsimile 2, with a flagellum, long associated with kingship and divine rule, raised in his hand. The wedjat-eye rests in his open palm, and the dove of the Holy Ghost alights before him. The title comes from Abraham 3:12, where the Lord promises Abraham, “I will show you all these,” before revealing a vision of the stars, intelligences, and the organization of creation. Rather than focusing on the mechanics of translation, the painting contemplates the world the Book of Abraham reveals. The scrolls at Joseph’s feet represent the Book of Abraham, while the temple walls around him gather the full visual program of all three facsimiles: the astronomical figures of Facsimile 2, the altar and gods of Facsimile 1, and the royal court of Facsimile 3. He is seated before an Egyptian false door, a sacred threshold between the mortal and divine realms. Overhead, an astronomical ceiling and a winged solar disk place the temple inside the cosmos itself, held up by pillars that stand in for the pillars of heaven. Joseph is depicted not as a man deciphering a foreign language, but as a witness. Occupying the place of the enthroned figure, he is shown what Abraham was shown and commissioned to bear that witness to the world.
Artist Bio: Amberlea Erekson Smoot is an oil painter whose work explores the meeting place of heaven and earth through sacred history, scripture, and the covenant relationship between God and His children. Drawing upon chiasmus, symbolic landscapes, and layered visual narratives, her paintings make visible the eternal realities accessible only through covenant eyes. She spent nearly a decade in administrative and project management roles at FamilySearch. A BYU–Idaho History graduate, Amberlea studied at the BYU Jerusalem Center, served a mission in Eastern Ukraine, and worked as a sketch artist on archaeological excavations in Egypt alongside her Egyptologist husband, experiences that have profoundly shaped both her faith and artistic vision. She now consecrates her time to raising her family and creating works that declare, in paint, that Jesus is the Christ.
