My Fairy Tale Ark Art In The Ark Encounter!

 About a couple weeks before the Ark Encounter opened to the public, I received an email from the Ark Encounter Art Department requesting a piece of artwork I had originally produced for an article I had written and illustrated for Answers Magazine in 2007. The art was to be used in an exhibit on the small, fairy tale Arks we see far too often in church nurseries, and children's books.( I've even produced a 50 minute presentation on this topic, a small part of which you can see here.) I could have just sent the art over to them, but I took a few extra minutes to add a secret touch that would be fun to tell others about ... later. 


I had hoped, later, would be during the first visit to see the Ark with my family. You see, the secret touch was the hidden addition of the names of my wife, Marcia, and daughter, Hannah into the artwork. But that's not quite how it happened. More on that later.

Lots of artists hide things in their artwork and in the past I’ve hidden Marcia’s name on covers of books I’ve illustrated.  See here. But this time I was excited for the opportunity to hide hide Hannah’s name too! 


When you look at my illustration of a fairy tale type Ark, find the elephants and the lions. The trunk of the female elephant is the location for Hannah’s name. And the jawline of the female lion is the location of Marcia’s name. Each of these animal's mates are looking at the hidden names. 

Can you see "Hannah" 
 in the  female elephant's trunk?

Can you see "Marcia" in the jawline of the female lion?

For all those reading this that are going, “AWWWWWWWWWW!” there’s a twist to this happy secret. You see, I didn’t see the actual print of my art in the exhibit until 6 weeks after the Ark Encounter opened. During that 6 weeks, I told a few friends and then eventually Marcia, Hannah, and a bunch of relatives on Marcia’s side of the family of the hidden names. All of them were excited to go to the Ark and see this special secret and I was happy to have them see it.

 Then in mid-August my family and I visited the Ark, and I saw the actual art as it was used in the exhibit and it wasn't quite what I expected. The exhibit was very nice, but the print of my art was too small for the details of the tiny hidden names to be seen! Nobody could see it.

Oh well, It’s still a fun bit of information to share with people even though I have to add the part about the fact that the names can’t be seen. :-)

Here they are! Really!