Lacquer Works
Lacquer art goes back many centuries to Asia, particularly China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. These paintings have alternating layers of traditional oil paints and lacquer in varying amounts and number - some with over 50 layers total per piece. Each piece and layer is sanded and painted, dozens of variations are repeated until the desired depth and feel is accomplished. Several pieces also incorporate gold and silver leaf. This is a modern western painters new interpretation - with similar thinking as the “Color Field” artists such as Rothko experimented with - using fields of color and adding a variation of a modified old lacquer technique.
The sanding is done with several tools and by hand, enabling “painting” by removing layers and exposing multiple sublevel colors. Most is controlled but, similar to repurposing trash from a vacant lot in his “constructions,” there is a good degree of serendipity to this aspect of the art.
Norm’s lacquer paintings are created as visual mediative pieces. In fact, each time you look at these paintings you are bound to see an entirely different painting, discovering, like the use of a mandala in meditation, new spaces, formations, details and layers while your mind drifts away to a serene state. These paintings lend themselves to meditation and relaxation - because they draw you in and let your mind travel with all the depths colors and textures. Sit next to one for a few minutes and see if you don’t feel calmer just being next to one.
