We were lucky to catch up with Burl Norville recently and have shared our conversation below.
Burl, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I’ve thought a lot about what success as an artist means and through the years of making art and submitting, doing shows and selling work, it seems there are two main things that are very important for me to feel successful as a visual artist. I need to situate my life to be able to make whatever kind of art I want whenever I want to make it. That’s it. Selling work and getting attention is great and all but it isn’t necessary for me to feel successful as an artist and it can actually be distracting and take away from my art practice if I focus too heavily on it.
Burl, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have always, ever since a young age, dabbled with visual art and creating in some form. There are several members of my family that are talented artists and creative thinkers. I loved music and taught myself guitar in my later teen years and started to try, rather clumsily but obsessively, my hand at singing and songwriting. I loved learning to play any instrument I could get my hands on but I wouldn’t call myself an ex-musician because I was decent at a few but great at none of them. I was mostly concerned with songwriting though instead of becoming skilled at a particular instrument. The chords and lyrics and melody, I really enjoyed weaving all that together and after years of chipping away at it, ended up playing in bands and being very involved in the music scene in Houston, Texas back in the early and mid 90’s. My life changed drastically back in the 90’s though and it began when I noticed hearing loss in one ear and also started having dizziness, facial numbness, and balance problems. I was diagnosed with bilateral brain tumors on both of my balance nerves. Long, difficult story made short, I found myself profoundly deaf just 3 years after that diagnosis. It was devastating to lose being able to enjoy and create music and, on top of that, I lost normal function of my right side – my dominant hand. So I had to learn to use my left and be a forced southpaw. It was a slow and rather painful emotional transition but I traded music for visual art, and after over two decades of chipping away at it I seem to be at a place, finally, in my visual art practice where I feel like I was at with my songwriting back when I went deaf. When I say this, I’m not necessarily talking about how “good” I was at it, I just mean comfortable in the fact that what I’m creating is an honest representation of who I am as an artist. That’ is what is most important to me as a creative person. I am extremely thankful I have visual art in my life. It gives me so much and I don’t know where I would be without it.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I don’t know if I’m resilient, but I’m a little bit stubborn. I’ve found, if applied to life the right way, that can be a positive attribute. The right balance of being determined not to let things get the best of you and a healthy dose of gratitude can go a heck of a long way in life.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I feel most purposeful and liberated when I’m in the studio working. In a way, being an artist seems selfish but it isn’t that to me in the big picture. I feel a responsibility and I have to protect my hours to create, as it isn’t all fun and games and drifting on inspiration, it’s mostly just grinding the stuff out but art and music – these things have effected me profoundly and my time in the studio isn’t just a selfish endeavor, I’m trying to give back too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.burlnorville.com
- Instagram: https://burl.norville.art
Image Credits
Personal photo: credit Julie Read