Journey Book

Journey Book  -  Esther McCune  

For my Journey Book I wanted to create a sketch of my life through my art work.  I started drawing at very young age and for some reason I've kept a lot of the work.  Over years I have bought more sketch books than I can count and only used the first half, then they get thrown in a box or a drawer never to be used again.  For the J.B. I think I finally finished one.  The image on the cover is a drawing of me at age 7 done by my first art teacher Amy Hiebert.

In the fall of 2008 I started my BFA at MU.  The color images in the J.B. are of my Post MU work and the drawings and transfers are Pre MU.  I find it interesting to see the growth and similarities in my work over the last 20 some years.  The work that I did in high school, I was so proud of at the time, is vastly different from what I am capable of now.   

 

my father and my roommate.  Pastel on Sandpaper

The first place I go when beginning any piece of art it what is happening in my life at the time.  Family is always at the forefront of my life.  I may not always have the time and money it takes to be with my family but everything I do in school aids in my journey to get back home.  I moved to Columbia in '06 to go to school. It has definitely taken longer than I thought it would but I'm still trying to move forward and someday I will get there.

The image of the bridge is a pen and ink drawing in did in Italy '07, at the end of a month long study abroad with the A&S Department.  Life changing.  I changed my major to Art six months later

I spent two and a half years working with this image.  Originally drawn out as a commemorative tattoo for my sister, brother-in-law, cousin and best friend who have all died in car crashes. 

Another series of images of family done with printmaking.  My roommate for three years moved to Missouri because I asked her to.  She had never even been outside New England before she moved.  Even though she is not blood family she is my sister and part of who I am today.

Since moving here she meet and married her husband

 Again my roommate provided the inspiration for my work by asking me to do pieces about Maine.  From there I found Edna St. Vincent Millay and with her poetry about the countryside New England I did this series of Illustrations.

 Illustration was another identity shaping course taken at MU.  With out Illustration I would never have discovered how much I love to work in Ink.  In high school I detested it.  Having to draw still life after still life in ink was the bane of my existence back then. 

the Car Crash was a self portrait done in ceramics which took a closer look at the two crashes that changed my life.

Color, I will never be able to get away from color

Fibers work of the last year.  I'm not sure I will ever be the same after taking fibers.

Some of the first self portraits I ever did of myself

 

the Journey Book is not finished, I have more to put in it throughout my Educational tutelage.

  

Side Note!  I am very sorry to have taken so long to get this info on the cite.  I lost my log in email, password, and account information back in September when I reformatted my hard drive I only found where I had written it down in November.    I am not a computer savvy person and without a computer that works at home it makes it much more complicated to figure out how everything works.  I HATE BLOGGING WITH A FIERY PASSION!  I have had to start and restart and re-restart working on this numerous times.  People usually think you're crazy when they see you yelling at the computer screen in a lab.  On the other hand it is right before finals so maybe no one would notice.