Applying for and receiving both
government grants and matching loans, and with the
help of his parents in buying food, McKinney attended
college at Morehead State University. The atmosphere
of the Art Department during this time was jumping
with innovations and creativity, encompassing both
the students and the faculty. The instructors
were more like mentors, and McKinney was influenced
by their teaching-by-example style. All during
this time, he was exploring different religious writings,
taking in commissions, getting his teaching certification,
and working part time jobs on the side. One job
that was unique carried the title of “Trail Ranger,” where
McKinney was required to map topographically the ideal
route of what was to become the Jenny Wiley trail,
which stretches from Portsmouth to Prestonsburg. Once
he had acquired permission of the land owners, he had
to then lead a crew in cutting sixty-five miles of
trail, taking two years and connecting the towns of
Haldman and Crockett. As for Branscome’s point
that Appalachians who had acquired college educations
deserted the region, McKinney’s sense of place and
desire for quality of life was unflagging.
•••
Despite college, the Vietnam War
was still drafting, and McKinney received his classification. For
two months, he was ready to go. The draft by
this time, late in the War, was determined by a lottery
for every day of the year, and when his birthday came
around, his name wasn’t pulled before three hundred
others had been. He felt he had been very lucky. He
went on to receive his master’s degree at Morehead
State University, but as the national political climate
changed, the art department underwent changes, becoming
more conservative.
•••
In 1974, he had an offer to go
to Boston and continue his studies under Gary Hoover,
who had been a mentor to him in college, but he decided
that the culture of cities was oppressive after a short
period of time. “Mystery is callused in big groups
of people,” McKinney said, and that is why a culture
of mechanization and modernization will never replace
the love of nature. Wendell Berry eloquently
argued against the encroachment of industry into farmland
and Appalachian mountains, and this can be applied
as a metaphor for the objectification and devaluation
of the art as well: “We have increasingly wanted
a measurable skill. And the more quantifiable
skills became, the easier they were to replace with
machines. As machines replace skill, they disconnect
themselves from life; they come between us and life.” (Berry,91) |
