An artist struggle: Where to go for inspiration

Paintings is tough when you have no room. Ceramics is hard to accomplish without any clay. Art is hard to display if you have no where to hang it. Creations are hard to make if you have no time to do them. Ideas are hard to realize if you do not have the energy to accomplish them. Life as an artist is a wonderfully challenging thing.


me, my car, and the Guggenheim

A few weeks ago, I was standing in front of the Guggenheim in New York City. The Guggenheim Museum is one of a handful of museums I must see. We had very little time on our first short visit to New York and did not get to visit. I do remember standing for this picture wondering if my career as an artist was heading in the wrong direction. I have landed in Unity, Maine; a beautiful place to be inspired to create art. However, I have found myself in debt from the move and a few other unexpected losses (see the six armed cat blog post). Life has switched from following my passions, to paying my bills. While I still have time (like right now) to create new work and find inspiration I find myself without focus. My art room is overcrowded with boxes, my cats invade my smaller projects and my mind is easily distracted by other much less important things. Excuses. Yes.

I need to set myself some new goals. I was so ready to get here and conquer Maine. Sell art at galleries, join art groups, display my work, teach classes. Instead... I am trying to find a second job and I don't even feel like pulling out the sketchbook. So what has happened? Am I forever doomed to work terrible jobs and squeak by in life while never again doing the things I love to do. NOT A CHANCE.

Yet, any second wasted, is a second wasted. I am content with telling myself this is just an unexpected phase in which I need to make money my focus in order to re right the system; however I know this moment is just like any moment. I can take advantage of it, and find a way to do what I love to do, or I can miss it (and then regret it).

This blog post is for me, to set some new goals and reveal them to you in order to keep myself heading in the right direction on my personal quest as an artist. I have no interest in excuses nor regret, all I want to do is create:

Goals (to be completed in six months)

1. Create five large paintings (over 3 feet tall)

2. Find a place to show my work

3. Finish 200 new small works (bunnies) and other side projects

4. Finish one 10-24 page one-shot comic book

5. Find a group of artists in the area/ join a group or start a group with a focus on creating new work and talking about it

I feel that these are small goals, which should be easily accomplished in six months. I wanted to revisit each 5 goals every month and make sure I am on track to completing each one. In order to further inspire myself I am also making it a rule to myself that each goal I accomplish from the above list I must start a new goal to takes its place.

I appreciate each one of you that reads this blog because knowing you are there is helping to motivate me to be proactive and get things done. If you are interested I would love to hear 5 goals that you would like to accomplish within the next 6 months.

White Wall Growth

As an emerging artist, finding funds to accomplish large projects like WWgrowth is difficult. I create proposal pages to try to help raise money for the individual project, and at least putting the idea out there. You may be so keen on the idea you would want to fund the project yourself, or help in other ways. I look for funding from grants and fellowships, business sponsors and individual donations. If you click the link above you can see below how much money this project has raised so far, and how much I need before I can begin. The images below are the beginning in a an growing series of samples that I am using to help propose the idea to sponsors. Scroll down to read my brief description.




White Wall Growth

"WW growth" stands for white wall growth and is a sculptural art project by william hessian. During the future exhibition of "WW growth", the mundane white walls of the gallery will have started mutating and melting, oozing and growing out into the galleries. The typical art has left for safe ground, or been consumed by these massive sculptures that are extensions of the white walls they have grown from. Sculptures will be as large as 15 feet in the air, completely white and organic. The one sample, shows an organic growth pouring out of a white frame, however most of the works will be growing straight out of the walls, like a cancer, mutation or goiter. Other works will simply be a puddle on the base of the wall, or horn like structures growing like a colony of infestations.



To learn more details about this project see the official WWgrowth page.