Andrew Norris Artist Talk

 

Andrew Norris’ honest talk gave me great insight into both his work and my work. Andrew Norris is an artist who has primarily painted celebrity figures and their relationship to their representation of queerness. Norris talks about how he used to see old paintings of Pinky and Blueboy and how many things in the media are gendered. Some examples may be the color blue being associated with men and pink being a woman's color. Being a queer man, Norris could not really understand this and began to create work that represents himself. He would paint himself in superhero costumes, and idols he looked up to. What he realized however is that he also didn't look like these figures. What he thought was his ideal representation was more so what he wanted to be like. But being human and not cartoon characters, it was impossible to truly achieve this fictional physique. As time passed, he began to value and love the difference in how different members of the Queer community present themselves and has painted figures such as Lil Nas X, Janelle Monae, and more becoming his Fantastic Four. This honest talk about his process and how he has evolved his work made me realize things about my own personal work. When I create my characters, I don't go into each one thinking “how can I make one look like me.” I usually begin by thinking about what looks cool. Little did I realize that a lot of my characters are idealized versions of my own values and beliefs just played in a fantastical world. Andrew Norris’ talk took me through my own art making process and made me realize more about myself and how and why I create the work that I do.

Andrew Norris’ position of being a rather young artist, a few years older than me, was also interesting to see as I got to see what an artist may be doing post-graduation. In Andrew Norris’ case, he went to grad school. There he was able to develop his ideas from undergrad further and created his main set of works. What interested me the most however is what happened post-graduation. He had a lot of massive changes in life, and it was also decided in his artwork. His style changed significantly, primarily painting celebrity figures to flowers and prints. He mentioned how he had set Graduate School as his Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz, and now that he was done with it, he felt kind of lost. Hearing this gives me insight into what I should do after graduate school/undergrad. I want to make goals such as “go to grad school” but also some longer-term goals for the future. I like having a path to follow in life, so hearing what Andrew Norris went though was very helpful.

Overall, I really loved Andrew Norris’ talk. His openness to the more personal aspects of his work, and him being an artist who is closer in age to myself made it very enjoyable and educational. I learned a lot about myself and what I should look forward to and look out for in my future.