By Jarek

One of our most cherished beliefs is that, through Jesus Christ, we can be together as a family forever no matter what trials we go through in this life. This belief is like a little flame inside us that never goes out, bringing peace, joy, hope and comfort even in the hard times. Because it means so much to us, Kaylee and I try to collect the phrase “families are forever” as art in the local language everywhere we go. This gives us beautiful, unique art with deep meaning, and there’s almost always a great story to go with. We’re quite proud of our burgeoning collection, so we’ll share it here!

This is the centerpiece of our collection. The mother of a good friend from our congregation in Virginia does beautiful calligraphy, and generously offered several facsimiles of her stylized “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” through a give-away at church. We were delighted to receive one, personalized with our names added in. Now that we have finally got it framed (thank you, China!), we can proudly display it. The Proclamation was put before the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1995, and declares truths and principles that make for happy families, simple as that. We try to build our family on it, and it works! To read the text in full, click here.

France… /Saudi Arabia

• 

• 

This is the one that started it all. Right after high school, I took a summer class on Arabic and fell in love with the incredible calligraphy used as art in Islam. Three years later, as a missionary in Toulouse, France, most days we would go talk to people in the city’s main square, La Place du Capitole. On one of the side streets leading away, I frequently noticed an older Arabic man sitting at a little table, selling calligraphy he painted right then and there. I finally worked up the courage to talk to him, explained what I wanted, asked him to translate the phrase “Families are Forever” into Arabic, and asked him his price. He readily agreed, and we had a nice little conversation on the meaning of the phrase, as he wanted to make sure and translate it properly. I got to learn some of his story, too–he was originally from Saudi Arabia and did the art just for fun. A few minutes and 20 euros later, I walked away the proud owner of the writing you can see on the left. I was satisfied, though I did think a little wistfully that my favorite Arabic calligraphy was when the artists formed the words into shapes, sometimes even representing the meaning of the word they spelled out.

Well, a few days later, we were back at La Place du Capitole, and my new friend called me over to his table. Before I could say anything, he handed me the art you see on the right, and said, “I’ve been thinking, and the one I did for you the other day was no good. I can do better. Please, take this one instead.” I was immediately thrilled by the new, flame calligraphy, and offered to pay him again. He refused.

His generosity is an example of exactly why I love collecting this phrase. He was Muslim; I’m a Christian. We were both far from our native countries, both speaking a second language. But we connected over beautiful art and a beautiful hope. I’ll never forget him!

China: Xi’an

This scroll was the first piece of our collection that Kaylee and I acquired together. We knew we wanted to get one during our year in Xi’an, and luckily we made friends with a local calligrapher who was happy to make one for us. The center characters read from left to right, “yongheng” (eternal) “de” (type) “jia” (family). The small characters on the right have our two Chinese names. The small characters on the left have year it was made, the traditional name of Xi’an (Chang’an), and the artist’s name. The red stamps are his marks. We were able to get it put on the beautiful scroll for cheap in Chengdu in 2018.

This is a companion to the horizontal Chinese scroll above. When we told our calligraphy teacher at our Chinese university about our adventure buying the horizontal one, he said (in his almost-impossible to understand heavy northern accent), “Ah, heck! You should have told me! I’ll give you one for free!” And he whipped out a piece of paper and made this beautiful piece in just a few minutes. You’ll notice that it’s a different style of calligraphy. As I understand it, it’s older, more like how characters would be carved in wood or stone. Again, it has our names at right and the year, location (Northwest University), and artist’s name at left. Also put on a scroll in Chengdu, 2018.

Paraguay

Ok, so no, we haven’t been to Paraguay, but that’s where my sister served her mission. Apparently beautifully detailed leatherworking is a thing there, so she acquired all sorts of neat treasures. She was kind enough to get this one for us (without even knowing that we were collecting this phrase!), which displays the Salt Lake Temple, where we were married. Now we just need to go to Paraguay ourselves!

Thailand

We found this ink drawing in northern Thailand while exploring a night market. It was just the drawing of the hand, but we asked the artist to add in the words, which he did at the top (a friend translated it for us… I’m still not sure how to say it). When he understood what we wanted, he was super sweet and actually gave us a discount on the whole thing, when we expected to pay extra for the extra work. The medium is a thick ink from a fountain pen, on a rough piece of cloth.

Cambodia

This one is cut leather, purchased outside of Pre Rup temple near Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The cutout is of a Buddhist tree of life, which we felt was highly appropriate. We provided the text (again translated by a friend… hopefully it’s alright!), and the artist pounded it out with a hammer and chisel right there on a tree stump in the shade. While he worked we talked with his sister, who spoke some English (she interfaced with her brother for us). She shared a few of the hardships her family has known, working every day to try and sell anything they can to make a little money. She and her brother didn’t attend school–they’ve been selling to tourists outside that temple since she was 13. The people of Cambodia have gone through so much. It’s a reminder to me to not take anything for granted. The script is written from left to right, so in this case, since he wrote it with the tree sideways, from bottom to top.

Vietnam

This one is from Hanoi, Vietnam. Another translation by a friend, confirmed by missionaries we met in the city (talk about a difficult mission–they’re forbidden to talk about religion with people unless they’re already in the church building or the others bring it up first). I guess embroidery is a well-known local craft, so we found a picture we liked and asked to add in the words. Notice a pattern? This was our last stop on our Southeast Asia backpacking trip, so by now we had our system down. We had a harder time communicating with people in Vietnam, though, so were disappointed to not have much of a connection with the vendor.

China: Tibet

This is one of my favorites. Chengdu has a large “Tibet Town” with some 40,000 Tibetans. A local friend helped me translate the phrase and track down a Tibetan artist. This was one where I had no idea what I would get–I told the artist to use the phrase and do something that looked nice, and this is what happened. I was so pleased! I originally hoped to get it carved on stone, like you see at Tibetan temples, but because of the machining involved they told me I’d need to buy at least 100 stones for it to be worth it to them, so I opted out. This is more portable anyways! My friend explained that the translation was difficult because Tibetan has no word for “forever” or “eternal.” So if I remember right, it more literally says “family not temporary,” i.e. “family is permanent.” It reads right to left. The two straight lines on both sides, and the curly cues on the left, are not letters, they’re just for decoration. The period-like dots separate words.

China: Guangzhou

Well, since we’ve spent more time in China than anywhere else so far, it should be no wonder that we keep getting Chinese art. It doesn’t hurt that Chinese characters are beautiful, and used in so many distinct art forms. I’ve been interested in some sort of wooden one for a while, and when we visited an antique furniture market with the consulate community, the perfect opportunity presented itself. The store makes large wooden screens, intricately carved, that you could use for a door or other decoration. We got something a little smaller, adding the characters on top of a lotus pattern.

This is our most recent addition to date. Considering how many Chinese “Families are Forever” we already have, I probably should have resisted, but I couldn’t help it. In China, I’m always on the lookout for anything unique–most stores all sell the same little factory trinkets, with no discernible difference from Beijing to Guangzhou. So imagine my delight when I walked into a little “printing press” shop selling typeset characters, wooden stamps, and wax for making seals. I casually started browsing for those four characters–yongheng zhi jia–and when the attendant asked to help me locate them, I was sold… or, I guess, the typeset was. I haven’t yet figured out a good way to display it, but it’s so nifty we’ll have to think of something.

The Future

More to come! This post is an ongoing story–it will be updated as new additions join our collection.