You want to start with your name?
My name is Xavier Norris. I’m a studio art major and I’m a senior.
How was finals going for you. How is your graduation process at the moment?
I’m not in the graduation process. I won’t be graduating until December, but finals have been so busy that I have pulled all nighters every night for the past 2 weeks, so I have the worst sleep schedule right now. Last night was the first night in 2 weeks I’ve slept like 8 hours.
The 3 pictures that you sent to me. Is that for your class. Or is that your drawing style?
I sent you the 2 of the comic book cover and the one of them in space. So those are my style now. I’ve always loved comic books and wanted to create comic book media. When I got to Texas State I was wondering, how I was going to do that within the fine Arts program since there’s no classes like that here. It’s the only class at Texas State that’s illustration, and I fell in love with it. It really helped me broaden my horizons about storytelling. It changed the way I do paintings. I’ve been doing the paintings ever since. So it’s a little bit of both, it’s for class and also presenting a professional thesis. I love doing them for the first time ever. This is what I want to create, and I feel the passion of creating work I’ve never felt before.
What mediums do you use in majority of your art?
I’d say, the majority of my art is oil paint. I want to try to get back into acrylic because I did acrylic a lot in high school, but I think I’m just lazy, and oil painting is a lot easier for me. At least it’s a lot easier to blend and like.
When we were talking about comics, and how you, you’re aiming towards comic inspired pieces. What is your favorite comics?
I would say, my favorite comics? Oh, that’s a hard question. I really love Superman, he’s, my favorite. For storytelling, my favorite comics are the justice league. Those are the comics I’ve really looked at for drawing, storytelling, and building a universe. They’ve really helped me with my projects this semester. I’ve reread invincible 6 times, it’s crazy.
So what inspires you to make art?
I’m inspired by my experiences, and identity based artwork. I like to draw on my experiences. You know, being Puerto Rican, black and being heavier set. I try to focus in on that type of stuff in my work. I create this larger-than-life character version of myself and I put them in scenarios that mirror the stuff I’ve been through. That is kind of what inspires me to do my work just trying to communicate trauma or my body. I like to use it as a vessel to talk about the type of stuff. The comic book Medium is such a nuanced thing and there’s so many aspects of the comic book world that are in our everyday life that people notice, but don’t take seriously because it’s comic books. I think that’s something I try to take advantage of in my work as breaking the ice. I don’t want people to say, “Oh, my God! This is a really depressing piece,” I want people to look at the bright colors and the word bubbles, and then understand the deeper meeting behind it.
That goes into my next question. So I see you in a lot of your pieces are deep and heavy. As an artist would you consider your work process as an external or internal process.
I would say it’s more of an internal process. At first, I didn’t take it seriously, because I wasn’t liking this stuff I was making. The first time I did a painting that I took seriously was a painting that was deep and intentional. It was about my body and body dysmorphia, it’s the painting of me stepping over a crowd as a giant. I feel very out of place in this world sometimes because I’m so tall. It’s just a very big internal struggle of mine, and the first time I made a painting that was genuine. Presenting it to class was hard and very emotional for me but it’s gotten a lot easier. While presenting I thought, “this is very terrifying to be this vulnerable with a room full of strangers.” I would say, it’s an internal process that I think of when I want to create. I think of what I want to say in my work then I build the story around that.
How would you describe your professor and peers response to your art work?
Professor’s response. I’ve gotten pretty good feedback from my work I think there is an atmosphere of respect around it which is extremely fun to see. When I wasn’t caring about my work the responses I got were okay. Although, I think my professors can see how much I genuinely care about what I’m doing and the hours that I’ve spent, they respect it pretty well. I’ve gotten very, very good feedback about it. My peers though, it’s a bit split. I always say that there are people in the art building who treat you as an artist, or they treat you as a person, but there’s very few that are both. All in all, I think I’ve gotten pretty good responses to my work.
How old were you when you started making Art?
I realized I wanted to pursue it when I was 10.
Hmm.
I’ve probably been making art my entire life. We just put on a show, called A Letter to My Younger Self, and it’s about comparing the creative sparks that you have as a little kid to your work now, and how it’s a timeline journal of your work. I found this little comic book I made my mom before she went on a business trip. I was 7, and it was nice to see it right next to my comic with painting. I’ve been doing this my entire life, and I’ve just always loved it.
Oh that’s cool, that’s a good concept.
Thank you.
How would you describe your relationship with art?
I think it’s a happier relationship. I like to work based on motivation before action, and I feel like a lot of people again in the art program. I feel as if it should be action and motivation that you should be pumping out. That’s how you get inspired. You sit down. You force yourself to paint. I’m the opposite, if I have a deadline, but I’m not inspired, I will wait until the day before until I get inspired it to start. If I’m trying to sit down and force myself to paint when I’m not inspired, I won’t like the finished product. I like to take a lot of breaks with my drawings that I don’t like to focus heavy, heavy all the time. I make myself take breaks between paintings, or I wait until I’m inspired before I start painting. I have a really good relationship now that I have created that boundary.
Technology has developed over the years with AI, where do you see art in 5 years?
Firstly, the AI stuff is terrifying. This is very stupid, but I’ve straight up unfollowed people who have posted them. I felt as if the AI is stealing work from other artists. The AI is cool, and people are really interested in the capabilities of it. When it comes to art at the end of the day, people are always going to want the personal touch to it, but only we as artist can do that. It is scary to me, the idea of it, but I’m also not a 100% worried about it. I’m more worried about it as it pertains to us socially and how it’s going to change politics. That stuff freaks me out. But as it pertains to my career as an artist, I’m not too afraid of it.
So you don’t really see as a threat.
Yeah, okay.
That’s all my questions. Was this your first interview?
I think this is my second, but the first one was 3 weeks ago. So, it’s still very new to me and kind of cool. I was thinking “Oh, my God! Do people care about the stuff I create? That’s kind of cool.”