Home Grown

Image Of the Painting "By"

Bill Whorrall, By, 2019, 12 in x 16 in, acrylic on canvas

Art Space Vincennes has the pleasure of bringing to Vincennes the work of Bill Whorrall, an artist from nearby Shoals, Indiana.  Whorrall grew up in Portage, an industrial town near Gary. His childhood memories of that area are bleak. Still, his family trips through the farmlands of the Indiana countryside on the way to Florida inspired a love for rural life with its “exotic” farm architecture and machines, and nature.

Whorrall attended Indiana University and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Art Education. He met his spouse, Karen, there. She’s a chemical engineer.   A job teaching and his wife Karen made his dream of rural life achievable. He has lived in his wooded country home for 40 years.

His art takes several directions: collage, assemblage, drawing, “postal art,” photography, and painting. He teaches elementary school in Shoals twice a week, pro bono, leaving the rest of the time for working in his studios.

In Bill Whorrall’s words:
“Creativity is a wonderful, joyful thing, a thing that requires work and caring…but it also asks that the creator do much more than replicate beauty. Nature presents beauty to us, but art asks for more, and so should the public.”

“…as humans, we all have the wonderful gifts of individuality and creativity. We can develop these gifts, or we can use art materials to repeat what others do over and over. It might also take a little courage here and there to make things even your friends won’t like, and you certainly will not sell. I am pretty sure we, as artists, are not supposed to scuttle around with frames and canvas for easy sales. Pretty damn sure.”

Home Grown, Recent Work by Bill Whorrall opens Friday, March 6 with Part I of a 2-part exhibition. The first part will feature painting. The April 3 opening will introduce Part 2 which will feature collage and assemblage.

The show ends just after Tax Day, so you can return to shake off those tax woes to find peace and humor before it closes on April 18.

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