Photos by Mickie Winters

On a photo excursion back in November, making album art for Bradley Hathaway’s recently released album “A Mouth Full of Dust,” Mickie and I routed Salvation Mountain into our trip. We saw the very good movie “Into the Wild” last summer, which briefly features Leonard Knight at his painted adobe mountain, and I put meeting him on my list of things to do before I die.

I didn’t know what to expect. I was worried that he might be another wildly capable - but a tad crazed and sort of angry - outsider artist like Jim Bishop, whose hand-built Bishop's Castle is one of America’s coolest places to visit. Honestly I had kind of gotten my hopes up already. We’d traveled literally across the whole US to see this place. We pulled up and Leonard was wondering around, moving paint buckets or something. He greeted us very warmly. “I’d like to show you a few things,” he said - a complete sweetheart.

After talking with him for about an hour, we came away completely charmed by this simple man who has dedicated his life to the mission of spreading the message that “God is Love” by building a mountain out of mud and hay, and painting that mountain with all the colors of the rainbow.

I keep thinking about the experience, and Leonard Knight’s dedication to a grand but simple idea.  His personal mission was so clear and concise.

He gave us a few DVD copies of a documentary that someone made about him. You can borrow a copy from the Visual Arts Lab on the third floor.

DAMIEN HIRST
Aubade
Crown of Glory, 2006
Butterflies and household gloss on canvas
115-7/8 x 96-1/8 inches

Contemporary art has so many entry points for thinking and talking about faith, despite what you'd gather from reading a lot of the Christianity and art books. One of contemporary art's most infamous artists is also one of the quickest to bring up issues of religion. His work is not coming from a Christian perspective, but as Christians we can see there are many redemptive (and many problematic) qualities to his work.

The mass media has made Hirst's formaldehyde animals the most familiar of his art, the shark suspended in formaldehyde titled "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" being the primary example. 

His exhibit titled Superstition at the Gagosian Gallery in 2007 introduced a new look for Hirst that I've just recently become familiar with. Many Christians dismiss contemporary art because they can't make sense of an art world where beauty is no longer the guiding value. But what about these butterfly pieces? They are undeniably and remarkably beautiful. 

Of course, they are still also about Hirst's major theme – death. The butterflies seen here are real butterflies sealed to canvas under household gloss.