First Sight of the Desert: Discovering the Art of Ella Peacock is her first book. Through personal essay, excerpts from First Sight of the Desert: Discovering the Art of Ella Peacock, and a documentary of Peacock as an artist (approximately 15 minutes on DVD), I’ll present a woman who, like the Saints, moved from the East to the Utah desert, where she reinvented herself as an artist. There, she became an unusual Mormon woman who met Church expectations on her own terms. This presentation, a blend of memoir and biography, traces Peacock’s influence on me and on my decisions about my place in the Church.

Kathryn Abajian