The Joy of Doodling 2022: The Man Behind The Doodles

Yeah this was part of a class like they just had giant sheets of metal and they're cutting holes in them with these... plasma cutters And it's just [blast sound] It makes a sound and the sparks are going and it's just wonderful. Hey, I'm Steven White. I'm the Virginia Tech Daily Doodler. Why art? Yeah, that's a great question. There are cave paintings that buffalo that people have found in France. And I'm sure they asked the same thing. Why are you drawing on the walls? I think art works, right? I mean, it's just another way that people communicate. And instead of words or listening and watching video or reading thousands of words, people like to look at a single panel. So I think that's why art. I think art matters. I think art is important. For me, I hope I can make people laugh or smile or consider our community. There's some smarminess to it. I love editorial cartoons too. And even though I can't do a lot of that just because of the nature of daily doodles, I do love to laugh. And I love to make people smile. And I think that's a really important part of why why I do what I do. And I love the community So this is how I give back. It's how I contribute to my alma mater and I don't know, it feels really good. I really love that part of what I do. I can reflect on and show the community. I can show where we are in a point in time, like during COVID or during the ACC championships or in the summertime when things get really slow, It's a really fun to show people like how this place works even in the summertime. I've been around for awhile. So it's been really refreshing and rewarding to see art become more and more integrated into who we are as a community. That's what I love about what I do and what I can bring to this job too is just like, where can I find the next nugget of information or the really exciting part of who we are as Hokies. Can you talk to us about that a little bit? Sure. It be might be good to... Why don't you grab the therapy dog? It's like the third or fourth one down here. Yeah. Yeah. All the the physical media, the stuff that I carry a notebook and then I will tape off the tops and the bottoms, sometimes I tape off all four sides. It depends on the aspect ratio I want, but I tape off my physical media and then when you remove it, you get these really solid edges, right? So it creates clean, really clean edges. Then I take the tape that I peel off and I put them on my tape ball. I've been doing this. It'll be three years in the fall, I guess. What are your goals with this tape ball? It's going to be the world's largest tape ball. I mean, of course, what else would I do with it? Oh, it's like the first four weeks where like it was getting really big and I was like, whoa, what am I gonna do with this after like, well, let's do this for ten years. Like what happens at year ten? I'll have to worry about how I get it out of wherever it is. I'll need a forklift. I hope I need a forklift. Let's put it that way. I mean, I feel like... this is my tape ball It didn't feel weird until now. Why are you keeping all your old tape? You never know when you need it. Where do you see yourself in ten years? Where do you see your legacy? I don't know that. I just hope I'm lucky enough to keep doing this, but I just love doing hard work. Being deliberate about how I work in, in this case, with doodles just reflecting the community and how incredibly lucky we are as Hokies to have each other It's a wonderful place. And I love to showcase all the things that we do as, as alumni, students and faculty and staff. It's just a huge opportunity, so I don't want to wake up, pinch me. I want to keep doing that if I can. I feel terribly lucky. That's the bottom line is. I'm fortunate to have a chance to do what I do.