Ep. 206 - Dr. Steven Neal - Visionary Artist

Latter Day Lives - Talking with Latter Day Saints

Dr. Steven Lloyd Neal is the visionary behind the Monument Of The Americas project. He a practicing facial plastic surgeon and artist who lives in Pendleton, Oregon where he and his wife Susan raised their six daughters. Dr. Neal is an artist first and foremost. It was his background in art that attracted him to pursue a career in facial plastic surgery. Noticing the strong similarities in both fields, Dr. Neal has fused them together to form his life‘s work. For over two decades Dr. Neal has instructed and taught sculpture classes to his fellow facial plastic surgeon colleagues to improve their aesthetic judgment—the most difficult aspect of plastic surgery. In the field of art, Neal is best known for his achievements and dedication to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints and his love of the Book of Mormon. When sculpting, Neal‘s favorite medium is oil-based clay. Despite his affinity to this medium, he has also learned to carve marble. Working among craftsmen, artists, and masters, Neal has spent time over consecutive summers in Pietrasanta, Italy, not far from the same marble quarry used by Michelangelo, and received invaluable training there. He has also been trained by other professional artists in New York. Some of Neal‘s best known sculptures are the marble “Other Sheep I Have” placed in the lobby of the Mission Training Center in Provo, and the colossal “Mormon Battalion Monument, Duty Calls” and “Duty Triumphs” found at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since his youth, Neal has been painting oil paintings. As he grew so did the size of his pieces. While still in surgical residency at University of California San Diego, Neal began painting his most famous work, “The Tree of Life“ or “Lehi‘s Dream”. “Lehi’s Dream”, which won the grand prize for the Church’s First International Art Contest, has been on display for 32 years at the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City Utah. Since then Neal also painted numerous other large pieces from scenes within the Book of Mormon. As an adult, he has received years of training in the style of the old European masters and continues to employ these techniques in his work. Neal graduated magna cum laude with high honors in Asian studies and Pre-med from Brigham Young University and graduated sixth in his medical school class from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He currently serves in the Church as the second counselor in the Walla Walla, Washington Stake Presidency. He and Susan are grandparents to 14 grandchildren.