Told in the words of Michael Wilkerson, who commissioned and directed the painting of “Brigham’s Dream - They Are All Good In Their Places”:
Nearly fifty years ago, following my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I worked for some years at a government job which involved extensive flying around the country and world. Finding I had many hours to read, I studied many church books - including multiple volumes in the Journal of Discourses.
During this time, I read a talk by President Brigham Young in a Sunday Meeting on June 23, 1874, wherein President Young related a dream he had been given about twenty five years earlier. The dream so impressed President Young that he talked of it several times over the years and was still speaking of it twenty-five years later.
The significant teaching point of this dream was: Though members of the Church will be of every background, nationality, ability, and spiritual preparedness and will come from and live in places all over the world - they will all be “good in their places.” This so impressed me that I re-read Brigham’s dream again and again. I then began a nearly fifty year odyssey of looking for a painting of his dream. After years of never finding one, I had the feeling that I needed to commission someone to paint my vision of Brigham's dream.
As the years passed, I served as either a counselor in a Bishopric or as a Bishop six different times. I only mention this because I often remarked to my wife that I needed the picture of Brigham's dream for the Bishop’s office and our home. Several years ago, I told my wife I felt strongly impressed that I needed to act upon getting my vision of the dream painted or the Lord would find someone else.
Shortly thereafter, my wife and I were driving through a small town in Wyoming and my wife said, “There is an art studio - maybe he will paint your picture.” As I looked back to see what she had noticed, I read the name “Hopkinson.” I knew of an artist years earlier by the name of Harold Hopkinson who lived in that town and knew he had painted a number of Church history paintings; however, I knew he had passed away. So when I arrived home, I searched the internet and found that Harold had a son by the name of Glen who had become an artist and also painted scenes from Church history.
After calling Glen and making arrangements to meet him at his studio, I informed him of my desire to commission an artist to paint my vision of Brigham’s dream. He told me he had never heard of President Young’s dream but said he would paint what I directed. Through several meetings, I provided Glen a copy of President Young’s talk, made some efforts at stick figure drawings in an attempt to lay out my vision of the painting, and explained how I envisioned it should look. We then contracted for the work to be done.
One might think that would be the end of the story. Not so. Glen painted for over a year with many visits and emails from me wherein he patiently and kindly accepted my multiple requests as to the placement, position, and action of the principal characters; these characters not only being the two prophets, but also the sheep and goats.
In fact, at one point, I informed Glen that the painting needed to be larger to provide for more sheep and goats, added scenery, and larger figures. We then re-contracted for the painting to be four feet high and five feet wide, and Glen started over. While Glen painted, I prayed many times that he would be given to understand what I wanted and envisioned for Brigham's dream. During one of our visits to Glen’s studio, Glen told my wife and other family members that he had repainted Brigham in different stances, expressions, positions, and beard and hairstyles numerous times.
Towards the end of Glen’s work, he told me that he had been able to talk to more people about the Gospel - as they asked about the painting - than any other painting he had ever worked on. I thought to myself that he had probably not had previous paintings in the front of his studio displayed and lighted both day and night for over a year.
Now having taken the painting and prints to framing shops and given a number of prints away, I have also found opportunities to use the painting as a discussion starter to talk about the Gospel, prophets, members coming into the Church, and the growth of the Church throughout the earth.
It took nearly fifty years to bring my vision and the impressions I received to life in the form of a painting. I've learned that when you have an inspiration to do something, it is good to act on it.
There is a place for all in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the prophet Joseph told the prophet Brigham in his dream - “they are all good in their places.”