Megan
Geilman
Photography
San Clemente
California
USA

Megan Geilman, Adam's Dilemma (2 Nephi 2:22), Installation and Digital Photograph taken in San Diego, CA.

American, b. 1986, playing from San Clemente, CA, USA

Megan Geilman was born in San Diego, CA. She has always been an artist and received her bachelor's in Art Education from Brigham Young University. She's experimented in a lot of mediums and feels that her art and her Mormonism have always been deeply intertwined. She is currently a wife, mother, business owner, and freelance graphic designer. You can see some of her design work at: http://www.simplepressdesign.com

Thoughts on the Telephone process

I had already had an idea about doing a photograph about the Fall of Adam and Eve in exploring the dilemma Adam had in partaking of the fruit. When I got my assigned artwork that was to inspire my piece, I knew it would totally mesh with my Adam and Eve with some changes that didn't take away from my original vision. It was a poem by an artist from London about transcendence, personal journey, and had obvious use of chiasmus.

I had a month to complete the artwork. I spent most of the month taking a little time here and there to research and flesh out my ideas in order to communicate them. You'll see influences of Mormon theology and cultural ideas, traditional Adam and Eve narratives, the Arnolfini Wedding, the Smithsonian George Washington Statue, and Ka Statues of Ancient Egypt. I scheduled with my models and my photographer. I made lists of everything I would need to borrow or buy or collect to have in the photo. I tried to plan out everything so the day of would go smoothly. Art for me is a sort of problem to solve or puzzle to piece, and doing these sorts of photographs gives me a lot of satisfaction in completing and getting as close to what I have in my head as possible out in the physical world.

Some of my thoughts I tried to convey in this piece are summed up in a few verses from the Book of Mormon:

And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.

And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." -- 2 Nephi 2:22-25

Thank you so much for this opportunity and the chance to continue creating art for the sake of art!

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