Jeff Norman

Starting Now

I am a senior in Studio Art at Florida State University, and I will be entering graduate school for Art Education in Spring of 2021. I transferred from Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL where I got my Associates in Art Education. A lot of my work addresses the human condition. The world seems to ask what a person is and how they will contribute to the well-being of society. I’m more concerned about where a person is and what they will do in response to it. It’s not easy being an artist, all evidence to the contrary. Artists grow an affinity to noticing the nuances, which keeps them intimate with depression. So, artists have a job to do: Artists have to use broken things to make beautiful things. I like to draw with charcoal, but I feel obligated to experiment. So, I usually end up using a mixed media palette. I love to remind myself that there really aren’t any rules in art. All I have to do is make someone else care about what I produce.

This painting, Starting Now, honors the very day a person is finally able to move on from an ended relationship. There are so many personal, mundane tragedies in almost every single life and most people are never asked to share them. But small things on a global scale like breakups, family disconnections, or ceased friendships can be catastrophic to an individual. I find it important to notice personal things that happen between just a couple of people.