RN- No, not to me. Maybe it should be.. but absolutely not...It's not something that I consciously set out to do. It just comes through me.

v5- But there is a consistent level of investigation.

RN- Yes! It just kind of tells me when it's done. Do you know when you're done?

v5- Humm! I think in architecture you see things as a body of work and I think many times in architecture people sort of take the project away from us (laughing). At a certain point...

RN- Oh! Ok right!

Interview with

Rene Norman

page 2

v5- They'll say OK your done, but I always wonder with artist you don't
have that sort of blockade, "We have to build it now" (laughing) you know...

RN- Yes that's true. I guess I just feel a fast furious sentiment that kind of stops. You know I have never gone back to a canvas once. I've never gone back to the abstract pieces. Once that it is done, that was the moment.

But these blockheads... I can keep building on them. I carved it. I did layers on the canvas with a thick paste. Then when it is dry and I mix colors into that. I take my chisel to it and then I carve it and then I fill it in the groves, so I can always keep adding something to that. I can put another layer on and really built that out. I just keep building.

v5- So you your “seeing” an image ahead... building dimension that way.

RN- I'm always thinking twelve layers of paint ahead, twelve colors go down and and I am thinking “What is the final color? What do you want it to end up with?”

v5- And there is a translucency to those layers. You begin to get some reading of the early color.

RN- Yes.

v5- So it's not completely taken away from the viewer.

RN- Right! Right! That's the trick, how much paint to put on a brush and
how much water you mix. What stays and what is taken away.

v5- What are you working on now?

RN- I have just been working on the blockheads. I've got about 30
characters in my head that I have illustrated and with them hopefully one
day it will be a book. I have a wealth of characters already laid out with
their text. All I need to do is start getting canvases and putting them
on there.

I haven't done anything abstract since I have been working on the blockheads
because you know like I said "It's a whole other approach", so I'll work on that until I extinguish the juice.

v5- Your abstract work is very strong.

RN- Thank you. I really feel like a child when I'm painting the abstract work.

v5- Have you done any work that's exhibited in public? In public spaces?

RN- No, not yet. Oh but I would love to do that. Do something big, big and bold that would be great fun! I think it would be a great challenge and there is a lot of potential for discovery at that scale.

volume5

Works