Inspired by Ether 6.
Artist statement from Sierra Newbold (Illustration major):
“They got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.” (Ether 6:4)
I sketched the original version of this painting on the flight to my mission. As most new missionaries are, I felt an odd mixture of overwhelming excitement and extreme anxiety for the adventure ahead of me. I’d been reading the first chapters of Ether early that morning, so it was on my mind. Our flight was running late and we would miss our layover to Nashville, so I started praying that the wind would push our plane towards the East like how God had pushed the Jaredite’s barges through the ocean. I started drawing something like this to remind me that everything would be okay. We made our layover on time with an extra 30 minutes to spare, and made it to Nashville safely.
The original ink sketch changed meaning for me throughout my mission. Most of the time, I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt like I was stuck in barges, being pushed around through deep waters, swimming past monsters of the sea. And yet I’d always end up on top of the waters. I felt often like those little Jaredites, praising God for His higher plans, even though I was often confused by them.
This ink illustration is like a record of an ancient piece of Sumerian art. Obviously we don’t have any of the art the Jaredites made, but the Jaredites came from Babylon, and I imagine they could have made art like this. I felt like an archeologist illustrator making this, taking note of something much older and ancient than the rest of the Book of Mormon. The text in the middle is a rough Sumerian translation Ether 6. I feel grateful that God trusts us with their story, and wants us to know who these people are. I’d like to see what kind of art they would make of themselves.