The Stokes County Arts Council is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit of original art by Hillary Norman in the Apple Gallery. A reception is scheduled for Sunday, August 25 from 3:30pm-5:00pm in the Apple Gallery of the Stokes County Arts Council 500 Main Street Danbury, NC.

Norman works primarily in oils and water-soluble oils and occasionally in acrylics. She explained that she loves the extended blending time that is afforded by oil-based media in general, as well as the depth of color and translucent layering. Traditional oils give longer time to dry and glaze beautifully in translucent layers whereas water soluble oils dry a little faster which allows her to keep with the momentum she can get when she starts a new piece.
  
Norman is a Self-taught painter. She studied Art History and Economics at Duke University and Furniture
Design and Industrial Design at S.C.A.D.

Norman described her work in this exhibit as VIBRANT | ELEMENTAL | SURREAL | INTRICATE | EXISTENTIAL |FUTURE FORWARD. She shared: “We descend from generations who lived in a world in which people changed faster than the world.  Individuals were the agents of change.  Now we live in a world in which change happens faster in the world than it can in most individuals.  We must learn a new kind of personal evolution to survive.  What breaks down our norms and beliefs about self is merely creating raw materials for the future self to use in our collective remaking.”

Norman said that she feels, both individually and collectively, that we are experiencing a paradigm shift in the world.  The small changes in her own life parallel the large changes in the zeitgeist.  “This Aquarian Age disruption will either break you or teach you.  I choose to learn, to shift, to reinvent,” Norman explained.

Norman described that her art is always shifting lenses, from macro to micro: zooming in and out on reality in an attempt to find beauty in the weird, the real, and the unreal. 

Norman stated: “Art takes me places outside my mind. It is a reservoir of my own psyche: each piece takes on the tone of my shifting mind states.  Inspired heavily by surrealism, cubism, and abstract expressionism, I aim to bring the subconscious world to light in my art.  Half process-oriented, half experimental, my work has a lot of range.  However, the underlying thread is my desire to tease apart the seams of reality and reveal a deeper truth of being in painted form.

Norman is a freelance CRO consultant by day; she works in the space of optimizing e-commerce websites when she is not painting, making jewelry, writing, running or practicing Muay Thai.

This exhibit will be on display August 16-September 30, 2024 in the Apple Gallery. The Stokes County Arts Council is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9:00am-6:00pm, Saturday, 10:00a.m.-6:00p.m. and Sunday 12:00pm-6:00pm. For additional information about the exhibit, please contact the Stokes County Arts Council at (336) 593-8159.