artist talk: andrew norris

 

Artist, Andrew Norris

I really enjoyed listening to Andrew Norris' talk. He was well-spoken and honest. He didn't shy away from tough questions, and was open about his struggles with things like body image. It was refreshing and comforting to hear about someone else experiencing the same kinds of things a lot of us may feel. His art focuses on queer representation and breaking out of gender roles. 

Andrew had a unique art style. His paintings of celebrities were incredible to view. The likeness and variety of color in his paintings is really impressive and quite beautiful. His recreations of the old style portraiture of Blue Boy and Pinkie were really interesting, taking something portraying such strict gender roles and turning it on its head. I also liked his Friends of Dorothy series. 

Friends of Dorothy

He talked about his childhood and love of comic books growing up. Through comic books he taught himself how to draw. I love comics too, so that was just fun to hear about from a professional artist. Something I really appreciate about Andrew and his art is that he paints what he wants, not what he may be expected to as a painter. He works with comic books, celebrities, and flowers, all things that can oftentimes be frowned upon in the fine art world. However, he does it anyways and creates incredible paintings. 

Connecting Andrew Norris to Simulations, I think his paintings would be considered as masking the basic reality. Specifically his portrait work of celebrities, is a recreation of a real person. He keeps their likeness, but changes the theme and background. He turns them into Wizard of Oz characters or greek gods and goddesses. While part of it is real, the celebrities, with his changes it perverts this basic reality. Also the fact that he is creating reproductions of photographs taken of celebrities this becomes part of "the hyperreal...which is entirely simulation."