Gaylynn Ribeira, a senior majoring in illustration, was grappling over what to do for her final project for her major. She knew she wanted to tell stories through narrative portraiture but couldn't pin down an idea.

"I just hadn't found the right story," Ribeira said.

Then she had an idea. She had read a book about the spread of the gospel in Ghana, written by one of pioneering members there. Ribeira had even written a Ghanaian pen pal in Young Women's, another factor that motivated her decision to tell the story Latter-day Saints through the painting of narrative portraits.

After obtaining grants and training with the mentoring professor Richard Hull, Ribeira made the trek to Ghana -- joined by Angela Nelson, Jesse Bushnell and Emmalee Glauser, other art students -- to learn the stories of the Ghanaian saints.

The BYU group has completed an exhibit of the portraiture art that relates the tales of the Latter-day Saints they met and interviewed during their trip to Ghana. The exhibit, which began Oct. 2, will be on display in the Larson Gallery on the main floor of the Harris Fine Arts Center through the end of October. Each portrait has a write-up next to it with narrative about the subject of the portrait to help viewers understand the story behind the painting.

When the group arrived in Ghana, they had a list of people they wanted to meet and interview, but there was just one problem - they had no contacts. They weren't too worried, Ribeira said. Since it was a spiritually minded project, they felt like they could rely on divine direction. And in fact, it worked out.

"All the pieces of the puzzle came together," said Hull, the mentoring professor on the trip.

Darryl Pettersen, Ribeira's father, related one of the seemingly miraculous happenstances of the trip.

Ribeira went to the temple one day and was just sitting quietly when she was approached by a woman, he said.

"A lady sat down next to her and said 'My that's an unusual name. My daughter used to correspond with a girl named Gaylynn,'" Petterson said.

Ribeira realized this was the mother of her girlhood pen pal, Joselyn Djanie. Djanie ended up being a help to the group as they sought to find people to interview and was even the subject of one of the paintings displayed in the exhibit.

William Acquah was another subject of one of the paintings and was able to be in Provo for the opening reception because was already in Utah helping with the translation of church materials into Fanti. He said he was pleased with the art and the write-ups and how the artists had represented him and his people.

"They really captured the people, the life," he said. "They captured the feel. These are the people I know. It's fantastic."



Copyright Brigham Young University 9 Oct 2007