We recently connected with Rocky Norton and have shared our conversation below.

Rocky, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Self recognition

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up skateboarding. Skateboarding led to video and photo, I was kinda simultaneously thrown into custom residential landscape design and install. From the beginning I just ‘saw’ things and for some magical reason I was always put with a client who had no idea what they wanted. I’d just kinda just start talking about what I saw and where it should go. Then they would say yes and I would have to learn to do what I said… I sorta got thrown into it. I didn’t grow up doing what I thought was ‘art’. Anyway, along those lines and the ups and downs of life, I went through some intense personal stuff in my late 30’s and came out doing tons of creative things without much thought. Again there would be people asking for a chair or a bed or a painting of their dog who died and I just said ok and some low price I thought they wouldn’t say no too and that just progressed. But most importantly what progressed was my trust that I’m just supposed to do whatever the divine puts in front of me. I don’t conventionally ‘see’ things I just talk it out and I start with one piece in a composition and it all just follows. I’ve had ideas pop into my head for house I e never seen for people I’ve never met and when I pull up to the place or meet them, their nudges are almost exact to the ideas I had. It’s kinda like I work for yoda

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Well, I’ve delivered every painting I’ve sold except for one. I drove 2000 mile and met a guy in auburn hills Michigan and he drove from Toronto. It was 1500$ and I told myself that if it cost me 600 in gas, 150 in food and took a week, then I would make what a friend would make in 2 weeks of working a coffee shop or construction job. I was scared shitless of my van breaking down, but again, on the trust thing, I just had to say I would be fine. If my van did break down I would’ve left it on the road, painting included, and just surrendered it and taken a bus home. I knew I had to try and I knew my attitude was what I needed to cultivate. I had always been scared to follow through with things that felt so abstract, so scary

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

To let go

Contact Info:

• Website: rockynortonarts.com but I don’t think it’s live
• Instagram: @rockynorton

Image Credits

First photo Sean Ratliff