by Maci McCall
Stepping into Joshua S. Brunet’s current exhibition is like crossing the threshold between the real and the imagined. Clouded skies, sculpted figures, and dreamlike landscapes cover the walls, made from a combination of sweeping narrative and Brunet’s careful hand. The show’s collection, titled “Fly” was inspired by the book series Peter and the Starcatchers, which are prequels to the well-known and loved story of Peter Pan, written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.
An art professor at OBU and professional illustrator, Brunet has been creating for as long as he can remember. He recalls how his parents and teachers encouraged him in his drawing interest as a kid growing up in Detroit, Michigan.
“I was never pushed,” Brunet said, “just always encouraged. And I loved it.”
This particular collection had an unexpected start after he had read the book series for the second time during COVID-19.
“Some of the pictures were just in my head,” he said. “And [Peter and the Starcatchers] just opens itself up for a lot of narrative paintings and interesting illustrations–things that I’m already drawn to anyway. It gives this wonderful, fantastical, magical quality. So as an artist, it’s really fun to want to paint those scenes.”
He saw his opportunity while teaching his class Painting I, where they were working on landscapes and he recalled a photo he’d taken that reminded him of the books. He described the scene where the characters were flying in a ship and trying to keep hidden, so they used the clouds as cover.
“I went on a mission trip to Miami with our church and we flew into Florida. There were a bunch of storms,” Brunet said. “So the whole time I was taking pictures of the clouds, and there was this really unique formation where the clouds almost had these pillars, and it looked like a sort of rock structure that a boat might naturally go into, but it was in the clouds. So when it became time to do the landscape, I thought, ‘That would be so much fun!’”
That was only the beginning of the many works inspired by the story that would follow, many initiated by projects he led in his own classes.
“When I got started with the one, it just seemed like every time a new project would come up in a classroom situation, I was like, ‘Oh, I could do another Peter Pan!’ And we do this sculpture in illustration class and it’s like, ‘Oh, I could do Tinker Bell as a sculpture!’ So, I just kept doing more and more things, and it just built up this body of work.”
It takes a lot of imagination, combined with elements from the real world in order to turn literary work into visual art, which is very similar to what Brunet describes the books accomplish.
Speaking about the Peter and the Starcatchers series, Brunet said that it “tries to take that fantastical story and give it bones in reality. As if maybe this could really happen. When I created my works, I wanted them to seem as real as possible, too. I wanted people to see fantastical work, but all the details are built into our reality, so the pictures seemed like maybe they could be real as well.”
In order to accomplish this, he used sources, such as his photos of the clouds. Similarly, he made clay models of Stonehenge and a miniature wooden version of a contraption the character Wendy flies in the fourth book. This allowed him to see these things in real life. He also talks about how he explored a ship in person to understand it better himself.
“I was able to go and actually get on board a real ship and see what an old tall sailing ship looked like,” Brunet said. “I got a better view of the rigging and just really experience what it feels like to go below decks and walk around and see the cannons. There’s a lot of experimental learning that happens when you’re painting.”
He would also use people as models for his characters, studying how shadows and light fell on their expressions and in the folds of their clothes. The sculpture of Tinker Bell he created with a mix of bird and human references, which fit the assignment for his illustration class.
“So, for Tinker Bell, if you’re in the story, they take this beautiful native bird from the island and they put a little bit of star stuff—like fairy dust, but it’s more powerful—with the bird, and it turns into a fairy,” Brunet said. “The whole series, she refers to herself as a bird woman, not as a fairy. So, there’s that animal-human quality. So, her outfit is made of feathers, and then her wings are bird wings based off of a particular bird.”
He used many different mediums, such as clay, ink, pencils, and paint. As a professional illustrator, however, he prefers to do mixed media, specializing in oil paint and colored pencil on Bristol board. One piece depicting a scene from the final book was done in this style.
“It’s a modern brother and sister in the 2000s, where they bring an antique desk from Europe home and they find this clue in it,” Brunet said about the book. “She starts to realize all the things in the clue are based off of the original book series, so they really find out that the books aren’t fictional, they’re actually true. So, I wanted to do something from that story. I did my style because I have the most control over it, and I wanted it to be really great.”
He spoke about how much joy he found in creating his pieces, and how there were so many more he wanted to do but couldn’t yet. But he also expressed how it was fun to see how others could watch and connect with his journey, having seen him working on the projects in his classes. “I just think about the students who got to watch from the beginning to end,” Brunet said. “Having some people connect with it from years ago and remember that I think that’s really cool.”
Brunet’s work not only reimagines a beautiful literary world, but also reveals the process of an artist, using imagination and real-world sources to give the impression that such a fantastical thing as this could still happen in our world. It tells not only the story of Peter and the Starcatchers, but it also tells the story of Joshua S. Brunet.
