Innocence and Finger Puppets

Sophmore year, spring 2010: Innocence was the inspiration piece for my entire book project. We had a free assignment to do anything we wanted with (complete freedom is actually sometimes the hardest of all) and I had just had a dream about a monster and a little girl. Sometimes my dreams are so vivid and snapshots of them stay with me for a long time, so drawing or writing about them helps to get them out of my head. Innocence was done in colored pencil and acrylic.

One other thing I wanted to add tonight was my finger puppets from a final presentation. I haven't made finger puppets since I was in elementary school and we used to put on improv shows from behind our living room couch. Gotta love art school!

Say hello to Peter and Squawk, respectively.

Oh Frabjous Day!

Calloo! Callay! It's finally the end of finals! For an end of the year post, here's my working artist statement. I'll see you at the beach (well, in a month or two).

Artist Statement

Mallory Torola

For as long as I can remember, I have had an intense drive deep within me to make art, one that won’t let me rest until I obey it. My true self is one that is evaluating the world in an artistic or aesthetic sense, stewing over a new idea or thought, creating or working on a piece. Lately I have been exploring close relationships in my life and the inner self that these souls contain. At the same time, I have been eliminating the aspect of personal identity, and by the elimination trying to explore what is really meant by those two words ‘personal identity’. I struggle with the meaning of my own personal identity every day: constantly questioning who I am in relation to myself, other people, and the world. Who defines these things, and how can I make my own voice stronger against the noise of many other voices?

I have been trying to work in a fast, loose, and vivid way with strokes and lines that speak in their own right. I’ve learned that if try to maintain too much control, I work much more slowly and overthink things. When I let go I get to a better place, where my hand and heart flow together.

Some of my biggest influences are the Impressionists. They have taught me many things about the use of light, optical blending of colors, and the effects one can achieve with different atmospheres and lighting on a similar subject. From them I learned that light doesn’t always have to be logical, and it was there I first saw how well light and color can be used to create different emotions in a piece. I experienced in the work of the Impressionists a spiritual feeling that I wanted to emulate in the quality or atmosphere of my pieces; whether it be comfort in a Divine presence, struggling or wrestling with God, rebelling against a religious identity, or a scream into the vastness of the Universe.

Explorations of Sunflowers

People have been asking when I'm going to start to upload some of my more current work, so let me reassure you it will be soon! I'm almost through the first half of my college career (well, the postable work anyway) and the semester is finally almost over (two more days alleluja!) These two paintings are from sophomore year, when I took my first class in oils. I studied Impressionism for most of the semester, and learned a lot about using light and creating color palettes. And it was just this year my art history class took a trip to Chicago and I got to see my first Monet in person... along with many other paintings I'd only seen in books.
Words do not describe.
So anyway, above is Sunflowers for Monet, oil on canvas, and below is Green Room Still Life, oil on wood, both from 2009.

End of the Line

I know I haven't posted anything in a little while, but I've been busy getting my other blog, documenting my yearlong sketch-a-day challenge, up and running... check it out at 365drawerings.blogspot.com! This piece, End of the Line, is a good pick for today, as it coincides well with real life - it's literally the last week of the semester starting tomorrow and finals are looming. I really do feel as though I am slogging through the wilderness, trying to get somewhere, anywhere!
Anyways, this was done in colored pencil and collage and was entered into the Juried Exhibition of 2010.

Crescent moon

This piece came from a workshop that visiting local artists Margo McCafferty and Tom Rudd put on in our studio in the spring of 2010. Cresent moon, a color reduction relief print, is not my first block print ever but definitely my best! Margo and Tom were great and taught a lot about the printing process - tips and tricks and whatnot. We started with a block of linoleum and before printing each new color carved away the areas we wanted to remain the previous color, lightest to darkest. We could only use 5 colors so the planning in that area was one of my biggest challenges - but I believe my final piece is very successful.

Loon landing on a lake is one of my previous block printing efforts. It was done with a slightly different method - here I started by laying down a watercolor wash for the background color, and then printed the image from the block with a single layer of black ink over it.

One last thing... I am embarking on a year long, drawing a day journey that will begin to be uploaded very soon - either here on Power/Batt or on a sister blog (not quite sure about the details yet). I'll keep you posted! Over 'n' out.

Stressed to the Max

Okay, it happens every semester but with only two weeks left until Finals I am completely freaking out! So I thought I would do a simple post of something soothing, like these orange flowers. Unfortunately, I do not know what kind they are, but that's a bit superfluous anyway. I think I will just stare at their flaming orange loveliness and when I need a break, the coolness of the background.

Oh, this was done completely in colored pencils in Drawing Foundations class.

Color and Comp work

The above piece and the one following both hail from Color and Composition class from my very first semester at Finlandia. Above is Everything You Can Imagine Is Real - mixed media: collage, tempera paint, fabric, and sharpie on cardboard. The quote is from Picasso (we had to choose one for a starting point), and inspiration for the piece comes from both Picasso and Romare Bearden. We were studying Bearden at the time and I tried to capture the way he creates visual rhythm through the placement of different elements in his collages (as well as creepy large hands).

This piece is titled Scream, also mixed media: collage and colored pencil on paper. Scream was from an assignment where the point was to evoke strong emotion from a dream, memory, or song. We also had to try several different color palettes before we decided on the most successful for the final piece. I tried both analogous and monotone palettes before deciding to go with a visually loud primary one. Scream speaks of a childhood fear of spiders, one existing more in my imagination than real life.

No Elephants

No Elephants is one of my favorite pieces from Freshman year, done with pen and colored pencil. We were each given a random fact to illustrate; mine was "Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump." The cavorting animals in the bounce house are so carefree, and blissfully unaware of the poor elephant's plight.

Good vs. evil

 

Still posting work from Freshman year (2008-2009). These two pieces were a part of an assignment where the objective was to develop a 'good' and a 'bad' character, and then create two separate scenes illustrating these elements in them. My good character isn't based on but unfortunately ended up looking a lot like me (tall blond girl), and inspiration for part of my evil character came from a comment from Bunchy, my little brother. I love to bring the artwork around the family and feed off of their casual but always direct criticism. "He looks like an evil chef!" said Bunch. "Hmmmm..." I said. And the Evil Chef was born!

Another assignment I did in conjunction with this was a collaborative one with the entire class. We formed a team and using the concept, "Crash!" as well as our good/evil characters, made individual artworks that we combined into a book. We also worked with the book layout and cover. I was involved with the concept for the cover as well as the shading/pen work and coloring of it. Unfortunately I don't have a copy anymore. Luckily, I still have my own version of "Crash!" 

Crash was done with pen and black and white colored pencil. The pen and white colored pencil, when combined, made for some gorgeous bluer tones that I wasn't expecting. Happy accident! 

Oh, please let me know which you prefer... good or evil.