Artist: Rose Datoc Dall
About the Artist: D.C. native and Virginia raised artist Rose Datoc Dall is a Filipina-American contemporary figurative painter known for her bold, unconventional colors, unique compositions, and linear graphic quality. While all of her figurative work is metaphorical and spiritual in a general way, her most iconic works are her devotional pieces on the life of the Savior. She is an award-winning artist, including being a 3-time Purchase Award Winner of the International Art Competition held by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Several of her works are part of the permanent collection at the Church History Museum, Brigham Young University and Southern Virginia University. Her work graces church buildings and meetinghouses worldwide, church office buildings, including the Mesa Temple Visitors Center, as well as appearing in church publications, books and magazines.
Rose, raised in Virginia, earned her BFA in Art History and Fine Art Studio in 1990 from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Rose and her husband have four children, three grandchildren, and live in Woodland Hills, Utah.
Title: Anointing for Burial
Material: Oil on panel
Size: 30.5 x 17 inches
Price: $4,200 (This does not include applicable tax or shipping costs)
About the Artwork: Mary, the sister of Martha, is anointing Jesus’ head for burial in this image (Matt 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9). The most common depiction is this moment is Mary anointing Jesus’s feet & wiping them with hair (John 12:2-8). However, I chose to paint the former depiction rather than the latter. But I had an epiphany: when Mary interrupted a meal at Simon the Leper’s home where Jesus sat, she broke open an alabaster jar of Spikenard and anointed his head, body and feet. She was rebuked by the disciples for the apparent “waste” of such an expensive ointment, but Jesus, ever the defender of women & of a sincere act of devotion said, “why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me… she is come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying….Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world… that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” Those words were almost revolutionary in the face of the pervading cultural attitude toward women in Christ’s day. Jesus not only honored Mary’s act of devotion, but her womanhood, her relevance as a disciple, and indeed of all women disciples. But the epiphany for me was the ordinance-like act performed here, which reminded me of ordinances that women perform in the temple. I, therefore, focused on the intentional ordinance-like aspect of this moment, rather than the portrayal of a surreptitious occurrence.
