ASHBURN, Va. — Rose Datoc Dall, an artist and one of the spotlighted Mormons in the LDS Church's new ad campaign, was thrilled when she would Google "Mormon" and the re-launch of Mormon.org would be one of the top results.
"It's so, so cool," Dall, 42, said. "It's amazingly inspired. Sometimes you do a search and really negative stuff comes up. But now it's a lot of profiles and testimonies."
Dall grew up in northern Virginia. She joined the church at age 19 — the only member of her family to do so. An LDS friend she had growing up set a powerful example for her.
"Ever since I was five I knew about the church because of my friend," she said. "But it wasn't until I was 19 and off at college that some of those spiritual things began to have meaning for me. I actively wanted to find the true church."
And she did. Now she and her husband, Timothy, have four children and enjoy a home filled with her artwork — much of which is religious-themed.
"I reassessed who I was," she said of her artistic style. "I was willing to put my paints away and focus on my family. Then it kind of hit me that I don't think the Lord wants us not to use our talents."
When Dall would try to paint in a more "secular" fashion, she said she would hit a wall. But she would open the scriptures and suddenly be inspired to create.
"It's such a part of my wiring now," she said, "religion with my art. I can't separate them."
Dall said they approached her about the new Mormon.org campaign because they were going to be filming her neighbor, Chris Carlson, a director for the Library of Congress, who had suggested she fit their criteria.
"I said, 'Sure, if it's for the church, of course!'" she said.
The camera crew came to Dall's home and asked her and her family to give concise and honest answers to the questions.
"Instead of using 'Mormon lingo' that some people might not understand, they told me to just be myself. They wanted my comments to flow and be genuine," she said, sharing that she was overall pleased with how her particular ad spot turned out.
There's a moment at the beginning of her ad where Dall's cell phone unexpectedly goes off and she begins laughing.
"Including that was kind of fun and clever," she said. "That was really more me, busting up like that. In a way it's an ice breaker right off the bat for whoever's watching."
Dall said it didn't occur to her that the ads would be a big deal. She found out later that the footage would be shown on TV, that billboards would be made, that she would find herself in the spotlight.
"I honestly thought, 'Oh, great, five people might see my video,'" she said. "Just randomly stumble upon it or something. I didn't really have my head wrapped around the entire vision."
One day, Dall decided to check her blog stats. She had to do a double take.
"My blog went from a handful of people visiting that were people that knew me to thousands," she said. "It was really strange. It keeps going up, getting views from all over the world. I feel so humbled."
e-mail: eschmuhl@desnews.com