Joy Prior
REL A 304
Section 003
Proposal
I chose to do the creative project option, and I have decided that I would like to do an origami piece that I hope represents the sprit of the Holy Ghost, and how I come closer to the Spirit of Prophecy by doing the small and simple things. As soon as there was the option to do a creative project I jumped on it. Initially I wanted to do a sketch, but I did not feel confident enough in my abilities. Then I thought about doing a collage, and gluing hundreds of pictures on a design, but I had a hard time settling on a design that I thought would look good and still portray the feeling I get when I read Isaiah. After thinking about paper so much I felt like I had to do something that involved paper… origami. I realized that it would only take me a few tries to learn how to fold a pattern, and so I did not feel like a single origami object would stretch my abilities enough to learn from this project. Then I went to my friends single ward’s talent show. One of the girls there had an origami presentation, and I feel in love with all of her pieces. She used a method of origami that uses hundreds of triangle pieces and combines them to make three dimensional designs. I was fascinated, and consequently I decided that my project should be a triangle-origami-figuring. It is a strenuous style of origami that involves combining hundreds of paper triangles into a patter to create a three dimensional figuring.
After I settled on making a triangle-origami-figure I had to think of what type of figure I wanted to create. I focused on my audience. I wanted my audiance to be small: my professor, close friends, and my family. It was important to me that what ever my triangle-origami-figure was it told my family, friends, and professor what I learned while studying Isaiah. From there I started to brain storm of things that I wanted to tell my family. If there was just one thing that I could tell them what would it be.
I asked myself “What did I learn from studying the words of Isaiah?” and I brainstormed such ideas as: Isaiah was poetic, some prophesies are duel prophetic, and the majestic manner he portrays Jesus Christ. I tossed around the idea of pre-mortal life, and after turning that idea down I considered trying to do something that would depict the grace of God. The problem with all of these was that I could not think of something I could create out of paper that would be able to symbolize them. I just could not think of something I considered artistic that could represent duel prophetic. I asked my self over and over, “What have you learned from studying Isaiah?” and each time I thought of more things that I had learned while studying Isaiah, but nothing that I wanted to turn into a figuring. The question “What I learned from studying Isaiah?” was not really getting me any were further in my project.
I went back to my original question of what I wanted to tell my friends and family about Isaiah. If my older brother Caleb were standing in front of me what would I want him to know about Isaiah… I would want him to know how it filled me with emptiness. Not the kind of emptiness that describes the bowl after you finish the last spoonful of ice-cream, but the kind of emptiness that fills up spaces. The kind of emptiness that fills up the space between the ground and the clouds, the emptiness that fills up a meadow with sunlight, and a beach with salty air. When I feel the Holy Ghost the places were my organs should be is filled up with this specific type of emptiness; I guess a better word for it would be clean. There does not seem to be anything dirty inside of me, and so in away I guess that makes me fill empty from sin and simultaneously filled by some invisible-yet undeniable strong. I call it the full-emptiness-feeling. It seemed more important to me that my brother -Caleb- knows that Isaiah fills me with the Holy Ghost, because I know that if he reads the words of Isaiah the Holy Ghost can testify to him all of the truths that I could attempt to explain from what I learned this semester while reading Isaiah. My creative project needed to represent the sprit of the Holy Ghost. It made me smile when I finally thought of it; the origami figuring I am going to make will be a dove. I think that an origami dove would depict the Holy Ghost (the spirit I am filled with when I read the words of Isaiah) perfectly.
The life lesson that I took away from Isaiah is that the Spirit of Prophecy does not come to the well educated, rich, well versed, or detruncated, but the Spirit of Prophecy or the Holy Ghost comes by doing the small and simple things such as daily scripture study, morning prayers, and going to church. These are the types of things that will bring my closer to my God, and better able to feel His spirit and understand His impressions. This is what helps me to understand Isaiah. I admit full heartedly that I don’t understand everything about Isaiah; I hardly dear to claim I understand the surface of Isaiah. Yet, I can recognize the presence of the Holy Ghost when I read his words. The style of origami I am using is based on hundreds of small triangle pieces stuck together to form a single figure. I hope that this style of origami will depict how small and simple things develop my personal connection with the Holy Ghost.
Finally, I wanted to title my origami. When ever I see a piece of art work I look at it for a moment, and then I like to read the title of the piece. I feel like all good symbolic art has a good title that acts as a key to the symbolism for the on looker. I want to title this origami sculpture The Spirit of Prophecy.