The Gila Valley Temple Motif

My latest completion is The Gila Valley Temple. The Gila Valley Temple is located in Southeast Arizona near Thatcher/Safford. It's technically located in the town of Central. 

Of the three temples that are currently open in Arizona, it is sadly the one I haven't personally seen as of yet.

However, I have been to the area multiple times (pre-temple); the last time being in 2003.

(But I was in St. David/Tombstone/Bisbee last October. It is just located along a different highway system than The Gila Valley, so I still didn't make it passed this temple).  

Actually, I have roots there as well - especially in the nearby Pomerene area.  My grandmother (Ruth Western Rogers Burson) grew up there before moving to the Phoenix area, and her father died there not too long ago!  When I was a kid, a family reunion of her mother's side of the family (my great-grandmother) was held near The Gila Valley. I think that trip was when I became deathly carsick on the road up Mt. Graham, so I'll stop talking about that. I also remember becoming deathly carsick on the road between Placerville California and Lake Tahoe, but there is no point bringing that up since it has nothing to do with temples or The Gila Valley.

Please excuse the quality of the photograph of the artwork. It was taken with a webcam as our good camera is back in the shop. Grrrrrr. I am going to send the artwork to with Chris to work next week to capture a good image of it on the large scanner he has at the office!

"The" Gila Valley
This image does not show that the word 'The' was added to the Gila Valley title, as it was brought to my attention after I took the above photo that The Gila Valley Temple was named that way because President Kimball always said that there is only one valley and that's "The Gila Valley".It is only one of two temples that has the word "the" in its title.

Therefore, the "the" has been added over the small "a' in Gila and next to the "V" in Valley.  It's just not shown in the picture above.   But I already said that.

I found a humorous blog entry from someone I don't know, but that I could very well be related to, in reference to the, I mean, The Gila Valley Temple who live in the area:  None of Your Beeswax - The Gila Valley Temple. 

I also wanted to share a few beautiful paintings of The Gila Valley Temple from an artist, KB Stanger, who I think lives in that area: (Click here)  I don't have permission to show the paintings (okay, I didn't even ask. I figured I'd just provide the link).

Again, I don't know the artist, but hey, I could be related to this artist, as I've already mentioned that I'm related to just about everyone from that part of the state.  I loved the paintings by this artist of The Gila Valley Temple as portrayed with the cotton fields.

Looking at the paintings, they inspired me to use the scriptural reference "The Field is White, Ready to Harvest" in The Gila Valley Motif above.

If I could sell more artwork, then maybe I could afford to purchase that painting!  lol

Edited to add (9/9/12): This is now available on my Etsy site. Please click here.