We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Onzie Norman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Onzie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have to start with learning carpentry in high school this skill would go on to play an important role in my artistic development, after high school I joined the carpenter’s union and after 13 years I became a licensed builder which led to entrepreneurship. At age 33 I had vision that I was an artist, and I began my creative journey practicing relentlessly to find my voice as a creative. Fast forward 10 years later I create mixed media paintings and sculptures applying all my knowledge as a carpenter into the craft.

Knowing what I know now timing was just right for my learning process, by the time I became an artist I already had work ethic, skillset and determination.

Working with wood and geometry was the most essential to my craft as I create on hand crafted wood canvases and work with different shapes and sizes.

I believe the biggest obstacle was not having a mentor to help me through the process but at the same time being self-taught made me a better artist and allowed things to develop more organically.

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’m a self-taught mixed media painter and wood sculptor from Detroit Michigan. I started in the field of carpentry in high school and later graduated from the Detroit Carpenters Apprenticeship School in 2003. This craft would play an important role in my artistic development. After a vision in 2013 I begin to draw, this led to experimenting with painting on wood. I construct my own canvas out of wood and use acrylic, enamel, spray paint, paper, wood and resin to create one-of-a-kind artworks.
I have an energetic approach to interpreting various aspects of life. I manipulate and re-imagine ideas with mixed media materials, using paper, collage, paint and wood to create distinctive bodies of work. The majority of my artwork is created on a handcrafted wood canvas which allows me to construct different shapes and sizes. My focus is to use art to address history, heroes, music, architecture, still life and ethnicity especially through abstracted portraiture.

I’m most proud of finally developing into the artist I always wanted to be, I have a unique style that people always seem to connect with, my art has been exhibited in galleries, museums, public places and my artwork is in multiple private collections.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

what’s most rewarding to me is watching a potential client engage with one of my pieces and tell me how the artwork speaks to them, I love to hear their perspective versus my actual story for the artwork. Secondly, I’m still fascinated by having the ability to think of an idea in my head and then watching it organically manifest on canvas.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think society should embrace visual artists just like musicians, actors and athletes, my experience has revealed if you don’t expose people to the arts early in life, they won’t value it later on. Creatives need more opportunities to build lasting careers, most artists will never reach their full potential because of lack of opportunities and politics in the art world. We need a path for young artists to be able to follow to reach their dreams, most parents don’t want to hear a child say I want to be an artist when I grow up simply because they don’t know any full-time artists thriving in their careers, all society knows is most artists are starving and the museums are full of deceased artists. We need creatives to be included in major events, sporting events and cross branding with corporations, museums need to set aside funding for local artist to be included in their permanent collections and we need more major prestige’s art events to engage the major art collectors and to build new ones.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.onzienorman.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/carpentry_iz_art
• Facebook: Onzie Deandre Norman

Image Credits
Ed Gordon Doris Norman Makela Norman Janiya Norman