Upcoming Artist
Sarah Norman
June’s exhibit at Boxcar Books, “Surprise Ending” celebrates Sarah Norman’s creativity. An IU graduate, Norman is going to enroll in the Art Therapy Program at IUPUI this fall. Norman loves painting with acrylics, but she also enjoys drawing, photography, and clay mediums. She has a mad passion for art history, DIY projects (she made her own wedding cake toppers!), and write often about art on her blog, Tipsy Laundry . She’s happily married and has two cats.
“A lot of my work starts with the statement “Wouldn’t it be funny if…” Strange ideas encouraged by dreams, books, and late night discussions fill my head, and I do my best to express them. It is my intention to confront my audience with my ideas like a slap in the face. I want the visuals to be just as exciting as the idea itself. Whether I’m using bright, vibrant colors or stark, contrasting black and white, I like for my work to really “pop”. In the end, I’m happy to know that my art caused a stir, and I love hearing everyone’s interpretation of what they think each piece means. I also have work that is more about my own observations recorded from life, in which the intent is to simply share what I see when I look through these purple glasses of mine.”
Sarah Norman
Interview with Sarah Norman
Crisia: How have you discovered art in the first place? Or was art that discovered you?
Sarah: I've always enjoyed drawing, as is evidenced by the numerous doodles and comics I drew during class in high school (what can I say? Economics is boring). I became more involved with art in college, especially when I took my first painting class. I totally fell in love with art history; while my classmates struggled to stay awake during lectures about prehistoric sculptures and art nouveau, I eagerly absorbed all the stories and culture connected with art.
Crisia: What are you currently expressing through your art?
Sarah: I really just like taking an idea and running with it. I recently painted a self portrait using only red, yellow, and orange. When I was getting ready to add my glasses, I decided to make them the focal point by painting them blue, which contrasts beautifully with orange. If my work is attention grabbing, thought provoking, and a little weird, I have accomplished my goal.
Crisia: Your art works cover a very wide range of mediums – from acrylics to clay, graphics and DIY projects. What’s the common ground that is behind of all these forms of expression?
Sarah: I have a great fondness for surrealism, most of my work contains some element of this. I draw inspiration from my environment: dreams, literature, nature, family, job, and so on. Then I just let my imagination take the wheel after I've gotten started.
Crisia: What means art for you? Job, passion, hobby, a way of living?
Sarah: Art is a way to appreciate life. I would call it my passion.
Crisia: What was the most unusual reaction that you art works received?
Sarah: When I was creating sketches for my print "Bedroomize", I consulted my friend Ashley about one of them. I asked her, "Does this guy's nose look phallic to you?" She responded, "Looks like a dick if you ask me." She apparently didn't know what phallic meant, but gave me the answer I needed anyway!
Crisia: You have an amazing blog. How would you describe it within Indiana’s blogosphere?
Sarah: Thanks! I wouldn't say that I identify myself as an Indiana blogger- more like a blogger who lives in Indiana. I write posts about artists I enjoy, personal projects I'm working on, fun handmade or vintage goodies from Etsy, and a few other odds and ends. I am a member of Smaller Indiana, and sometimes I will post entries from my blog on their site.
Sarah Norman' "Surprise Ending” will be on display at Boxcar Books through Wednesday, June 30, 2010.
Boxcar Books hosted an opening reception for the exhibit on Friday, June the 4th, 2010, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Megan Hart
July’s exhibit, “Humanimals”, at Boxcar Books features Megan Hart’s art works. Hart graduated from Indiana University in December after student teaching on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. The good state of Indiana has recently decided they would print her a teaching certificate and release her into the amazing world of children’s art. With any luck, she will be creating and giggling with students in the near future. Hart have made art her whole life but only truly found her groove around sophomore year of college when she purchased a small but ultimately life changing blue notebook covered in pink ponies. This is her first time to show her work and she is enthused and grateful.
“My work is full of subconscious images embedded in my conscious interests or experiences. I isolate objects (which hold personal importance to me) from their context in order to make a single, seemingly inconsequential part of the universe into a universe of its own, worthy of particular consideration.I show the complication and exquisite beauty of the inner and outer workings of the living through graphic, simplified representations of actual and imagined texture through line and pattern. I love lines. Black lines. Often these lines speak so clearly themselves I leave them alone. I only incorporate color when I believe it will enhance, not distract.
The subject matter of my current work is derived from major life events. The removal of an organ begets an obsession with the unseen things we carry in us every day and what it means to lose a piece of your physical self. A change in moral values reminds me of the beauty in species we so easily discard and what it means for them to lose every piece of their physical self to humans. My artwork comes from seemingly disparate places but leads me to these connections.”
Megan Hart
Megan Hart' "Humanimals” will be on display at Boxcar Books through Wednesday, August 4, 2010.
Boxcar Books hosted an opening reception for the exhibit on Friday, July the 2nd, 2010, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
