Julia Norton

About

American, b. 1985   —   Julia Norton is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and color material researcher. In her practice she works with natural materials, such as ochres and mineral pigments, as well as dyes and inks made from plants. She holds an MFA from SUNY Purchase and an Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has exhibited at galleries such as Lyles & King in New York, Albada Jelgersma Gallery in Amsterdam, and Dread Lounge in Los Angeles, California, and has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, SIM Residency in Reykjavik, Iceland, The Wassaic Project, Cooper Union, and Mass MoCA. She has worked as a museum and arts educator at New Museum, Pioneer Works, Swiss Institute, Abrons Art Center, Dia:Beacon, and Harvard Art Museums - the latter of which she conducted natural color material workshops in the Materials Lab - an education space that runs in conjunction with the Forbes Pigment collection. Artist Statement: The imagery in my paintings references themes such as dreams, memories, rituals, and ghosts, speaking to the human experience lived and imagined. My aim is to tell stories of regenerative life cycles of all kinds - human, geological, ecological, and spiritual. My paintings are rendered almost entirely with natural pigments and inks which I have foraged for in sites such as ochre or clay deposits, or extracted from plants such as sumac, buckthorn, and black walnut. Other materials I have collected from around the world, purchased from suppliers, or have been given to me as gifts. I consider painting with ochres, minerals, and natural inks as a form of time travel - of bringing together birth and death, old and new. I work with these materials because they are both transient and still, echoing my exploration of what time and materiality might mean within a greater awareness of the world around us.