Moats and Boats and Waterfalls

For this Home Wednesday I thought I would round up a few images from my own home of little things that bring me join in my place. These are all taken from my Instagram. Follow me @WhitneyGoller.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. - Oliver Wendell Holmes 

Art Monday: My Art Lately

I have a lot going on with my art right now. It's a given that when taking a lot of classes for your major, you are going to have a lot going on in that direction . . . but I mean that I have A LOT going on with my art right now.

The most important contributions being made to my portfolio though are the works I am creating in my printmaking course and in my independent study. In printmaking I am continuing to work on an idea I came up with last year: my native girls.

Here is my girl from last year:

I showed her a little while back in a post about my floating head tendencies, found here. My latest linoleum block is just about ready for final prints, with my first pulls looking like this:

But these aren't the only floating heads I have worked on recently. I also finished a painting before Winter Break:

So I am definitely making head way . . . pun intended? But then I also have the final drawing of my three part series I started last year also. You may remember the first two girls from the post Progress Shall Be Made! Well the third girl is proving quite interesting thus far. This lady is being drawn to supposedly fit in between the other two. Here she is:

Nothing on this is really finished yet, but I thought I would give you a glimpse. I also have another print I'm about to make along the tribal girl lines, a few collages to be converted in to paintings, and even more collages to create. Whew. One. Project. At. A. Time.

What do you think? You should pick up a pencil yourself and get to sketching.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. - Thomas A. Edison 

Progress Shall Be Made!

A busy busy bee I have been of late. There are only two more weeks in the  semester, so it's crack-down time. Then finals week. Moral of the story being: don't expect too much from me for a little while, but after the semester is over I have a few amazing things to share with y'all . . . when I have time to write them up.

However, I needed to make this post for two reasons:

1. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. All work and no play make . . . Whatever.

2. I am really super excited about this piece of art I am working on.

So, I wanted to give you a quick glance at the progress I made just yesterday. Then, hopefully, I can update you when it is finished in the next two weeks and you will know part of the process and have some insight!

This work is part of a series, the first of which I have already completed.

The first of the Pattern Girl Series

There will be one more work after the current one, which I am hoping to complete before portfolios are due for graduate school.

Hand to the right

I began with the above completion yesterday. I had blocked in the right hand but hadn't filled it in yet, though the fingers are finished.

Hand to the right.

The right hand is now darkened to my liking, so it's time to start on the left arm.

Left arm.

More blocking in. I find it really important to map out my values before I begin darkening up a section.

Left forearm.

Now the upper and forearm are darkened to my liking. Notice that part of the forearm blends in with the upper arm. This may look strange, but it's really important to keep parts like these as you see them to allows the work to maintain believability.

Left rope and hand.

The rope around the left hand is completed and the left hand is now blocked in. Home stretch!

Left hand.

I did a little more after this point last night but this is a wonderful place to leave off. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse in to my work. Check out my newly updated portfolio, I would love your feedback on it: http://whitneygoller.wix.com/portfolio. 

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad. - Salvador Dali 

To Practice Any Art . . .

In the past 9 or 10 months I have been working on combining flat space with 3-Dimensional space in my art work, which has pushed me to work on developing abstract pieces and works with strong repetition of form. As you saw from my post On To the Bedroom! I recently created a large abstract painting to go in my bedroom. I combined a lot of elements and different applications of the paint to come up with a work that I really enjoy.

Just this past week I completed another abstract work in which I added the element of symbols (in this case: words). I used a line from a poem of mine and translated it into 4 different languages, rewriting the line over and over. I would tell what it says, but, well as I was told recently after receiving a message in Spanish (that utterly confused Google Translate) just enjoy the text for what it is: symbols. Maybe that isn't how that person actually meant it, but what matters more is how I took it (and ran with it, and eventually came to the idea for this piece I am showing you today).

This leads me to my final point before the painting reveal. Let things in your world inspire you. I feel that so many of my peers get caught up in using their internal eye only, putting down only their deep, personal thoughts. Be inspired and stirred up by what is around you! I don't mean making hundreds of propaganda posters for whichever presidential candidate you will vote for this upcoming election . . . but I do believe that when you let the world around you soak in a bit more, that internal eye sees a lot more. It's like stirring up the debris at the bottom of water: maybe you can't see as far down any longer but you can see a lot more that was hidden in that water now. 

I'm actually reminded of a verse, Proverbs 18:4 The words of a man's mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. I honestly have no idea what that means and have been pondering it for some time, but was repeating it over and over to myself as I wrote this post. So do what you will with it, and enjoy my painting:

all taped off before the final touches! 

Thought on Inspiration: Do one thing everyday that scares you. ― Eleanor Roosevelt