- After two years artist Mark McKenna thought his painting, 'Heart Mountain Glory,' was forgotten.
- The Temple Art Committee required McKenna to first complete a smaller oil study he now cherishes.
- Some local residents had opposed the temple's location over views, traffic, steeple height and lighting.
This article is an excerpt from the weekly ChurchBeat newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Wednesday night.
Past controversies faded further into the past Monday when media members walked into the Cody Wyoming Temple for a tour.
In the temple’s foyer, on a wall perpendicular to a tender painting of Jesus Christ ministering to women, the journalists found a landscape an artist hopes will generate feelings of both peace and joy for a beloved Cody landmark.
Mark McKenna was overwhelmed to see his painting, “Heart Mountain Glory,” in that setting. Then he was asked to talk about it with the journalists on the tour by a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Heart Mountain rises from the floor of Bighorn Basin in northwestern Wyoming in striking view of Cody.
“I wanted more than anything to have a painting in the temple,” he said.
But McKenna almost didn’t get to put oil to canvas. The back story is a good one.
McKenna lived in the Cody area with his family for 15 years before recently moving to Idaho. Cody is where four of the family’s six children were born. McKenna was thrilled when President Russell M. Nelson announced the temple in 2021.
He contacted the liaison between artists and the church’s Temple Art Committee, which commissions two or three original paintings for each new temple. Usually, they are local landscapes that help regionalize the temple for those who live nearby and worship there.
The liaison was leaving her position. McKenna didn’t hear back for two years, and by then, the two slots for original artwork for the Cody Temple had been filled.
McKenna sent along the digital mockup he’d created anyway.
The subject he had in mind would prove helpful.
“Heart Mountain is the most beloved landmark in the region,” McKenna said. “Everybody loves Heart Mountain.”
The new liaison petitioned the art committee and it commissioned the painting.
First, though, the committee asked McKenna, a wildlife artist who specializes in portraits of animals, to make a smaller oil study of the painting.
“They wanted to see I could execute it,” he said.
That study, which was 20 inches by 30 inches, now sits above the fireplace in the family’s new home in Idaho.
“It’s a wonderful blessing to have, especially since we just moved away,” McKenna said. “It’s in the most prominent place in our home.”
The painting in the temple is 40 inches by 60 inches, and McKenna said he was surprised by how much larger it looked on the wall than he thought it would.
“It was just an incredible, fortuitous event,” he said. “It felt like it came together as a tender mercy, like God was aware of my desire.
“I wouldn’t care if the painting was mounted in a closet as long as it was in the temple, but the fact that it’s one of the first you see when you walk in is humbling and overwhelming.”
Some local residents opposed the temple’s location with concerns about views, traffic, the height of the steeple and lighting. Some Latter-day Saints struggled under the weight of criticism.
“I think my best hope for the painting is it provides peace and comfort,” McKenna told the Deseret News. “I hope it brings joy and peace and hope to people and is uplifting and edifying as they worship.”
That’s exactly what the temple does for the McKennas.
“My wife and I and our family love the temple,” he said. “We love going to the temple and serving in the temple. It’s a significant part of how we worship.”
The public open house runs daily except Sundays through Sept. 12. No reservations are required.
Elder Clark G. Gilbert will dedicate the Cody Wyoming Temple on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026.
My Recent Stories
BYU restructures athletic department; school vice president will oversee football program (Aug. 27)
Church says trademark lawsuit is about eliminating confusion caused by podcaster (Aug. 20)
About the church
President D. Todd Christofferson rededicated the San Diego California Temple. Read his dedicatory prayer here.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Elder Neil L. Andersen ministered in Spokane after the devastating wildfires.
Salt Lake Temple open house reservations are opening soon. Here’s how to get tickets.
Five steps on how to maintain relationships with loved ones who leave the faith.
Three tips for preparing financially to serve a senior mission.
Church leaders expressed solidarity with those suffering after deadly floods in Nepal and China.
There’s a lot of temple news: In addition to the Cody public open house that is underway, Guatemala’s fourth temple opened for tours. Construction began on two other temples in the United States and Canada. And milestones were announced for the first temples in Austria and American Samoa.
What I’m reading
How can you not read this? It takes years to handwrite the Bible, but more and more people are picking up the pen.
President Trump is shifting billions in foreign aid to faith-based groups. What could change?
Opinion: Maybe we’re not so different from Harry, Meghan and Charles after all?
Former BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe, now the President Holmoe of the California Oakland/San Francisco Mission, loved the news that this fall’s BYU football team has 64 returned missionaries.
The guy who sacks more NFL quarterbacks than anyone else said this returned missionary’s tackling form at the airport was top flight:
One person commented that she got off her flight like the sack leader, Myles Garrett.
My Boston Red Sox have followed up the season’s longest winning streak by another stretch where they have the best record in baseball. So, in their honor, a fun story:
Behind the Scenes
No commentary. Just a video look inside the temple set to music: