It was Christmas 2000 and I was excitedly dialing San Diego, California. ”Hello, is this Elfred Lee? ”, I asked. Artist Elfred Lee was the perfect choice for the project that would properly stretch me and test my potential ability to bring a museum to fruition. My desire to see Biblical stories and concepts depicted in an intelligent, realistic and interesting way led to Elfred as he was not only an artist but also an explorer who had searched the Middle East for Noah’s Ark. He would bring realism and depth to The Invitation – a painting of Noah pleading with people to enter the ark. I knew he would perfectly accomplish my goal of having projects done so well that they not only added credibility to the Bible but would attract non-Christians as well.

On March 15, 2001 Elfred Lee and I signed a contract to begin this magnificent painting that would cost in the 5 figures after the artist and reproduction expenses were figured in. It would take 3 years to complete this 4 x 8 ft. masterpiece but Elfred always tells people 40 years because it was the fruit of a lifetime of research and exploration.

Elfred’s credentials were fundamentally important to this painting. From 1969 to 1985 Elfred had been on 4 separate expeditions up Mount Ararat, the biblical resting place of the Ark. During that time he was also introduced to 2 actual eyewitnesses who had claimed seeing the ark. Separately these men recounted their unique experiences and like a crime scene artist, Elfred sketched both the shape and position of the ark. Though these men had never met nor spoken to each other, the resulting sketches matched completely and became the basis for the ark design used in The Invitation.

In our next blog we stop in and see the painting’s progress as we pick out a name for the company and begin to narrow our focus.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Lost World Museum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.