Posts tagged ‘norm’

Jan 5

Norm Profile: Robot Norm

Following on from my previous posts last year profiling some of my old Norm portraits, that is those painted in 2005-6, the last to feature (it was a limited collection) is Robot Norm. It somehow seems appropriate to profile this Norm now, futuristic as he is, at the same time as we are all heralding in a New Year full of possibilities, new advances, inventions and more and more things and places to explore, and in my case, to paint and photograph. Robot Norm was sold when it was first exhibited back in 2006 at my solo exhibition, Between Me and My Reflection. I believe he is now hanging somewhere in Southampton, and hope that he is very happy there.

Robot Norm (2006, Acrylic on canvas, © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Robot Norm follows the same, illustrative style of my original Norms collection. In common with all Norms, he has only one arm, but unlike his Norm counterparts, he is an automaton, engineered, no doubt, by other Norms, but still retaining the Norm-like curvaceous shape. He is fitted with all the mod-cons which a Robot could possibly need – a dial pad, an electronic extendable arm, and an antennae, no doubt for receiving commands, yet his body is somewhat roughshod in its construction, with sheets of metal pinned like a patchwork into one metal whole.

Dec 15

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Norms in Heaven and Norms in Hell

Back in 2005/6 when the Norms were born, my Norm-riddled imagination went all Last Judgment on me, and a diptych with all the foreboding power of the archetypal Renaissance altar-piece was the imploding result: Norms in Heaven and Norms in Hell.

Norms in Heaven (acrylic on canvas, 2005 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Norms in Heaven features 10 serene angels, floating amidst fair-weather clouds, radiant in their angelic glory, relishing in the celestial music flowing from the golden instruments of three, while for two, the propagation of love is their priority, one one-handed Norm angel holding cupid’s bow, while the other helps to pull back the arrow in readyness for its launch into Elysium. However, even in this scene of paradise, there is always a foreboding reminder of what awaits those whose sins make them unworthy for the great pleasures of this joyful nirvana… the gateway to hell, guarded in all his intrusiveness redness by a demon Norm, a portentous warning of the visions of horror awaiting the viewer in the second half of the diptych…

Norms in Hell (acrylic on canvas, 2006 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

For its audience of innocent little earthly Norms, Norms in Hell would be a shocking warning of the fate that awaits those who do not behave. For those Norms whose sins have necessitated a descent into the abyss, their arrival is through a rubbish shoot where their dead, rotten souls pile up in a New Arrivals skip. From there, demon Norms, eager to torture their newly arrived victims, spear the Norms through their side, before awakening their souls to a life of eternal damnation. Thereafter they will be subjected to the most terrifying of horrors, such as the scene of flogging on the left, being hanged from a column and left to roast in the fires of hell, or being caged up only to await an audience with Satan Norm himself, whose punishments deal the deepest and most appalling blows of all. Meanwhile the scene is dramatically lit by the glow of a lava river flowing behind, while on the other side of this burning deluge, further damned souls can be seen in their torment, behind bars, awaiting further retribution for their depraved and iniquitous lives.

Dec 14

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The age-old dilemma of wrapping odd-shaped Christmas presents

It’s an age-old dilemma. Just how do you wrap odd shaped Christmas presents and make them look good? It’s a dilemma which has been frustrating the hell out of me all morning. For example, my grandmother asked me to buy her a very specific vase. It’s red, beautiful, glass, but also oval, like a rugby ball. I started wrapping it up and soon enough, when I got to either end, the vase almost slipped out of my hands twice, and I went through three attempts to neatly fold the ends of the paper without 1) a huge excess of folds and 2) all the paper scrunching with so many creases that I might as well have wrapped it in newspaper. What I ended up with is frankly not the gem of my collection. The present looks like a wrapped up over-sized potato. I attempted to hide my various folding faux-pas with ribbon, but this resulted in a merely trussed-up looking wrapped up potato. I soon gave up. It will have to do. Doesn’t all the paper end up swiftly in the bin anyway?

The dilemma of wrapping a Norm-shaped Christmas present (Pen on paper, 2011 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Nov 28

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Paris Part I: Dali, Moreau and the problem of getting a good macaroon.

It’s Paris season at The Daily Norm, and here in the City of Lights, Paris pulsates with the buzz of pre-Christmas anticipation, millions packing the shops and the metro, the streets starting to sparkle with fairy lights, and a chill in the air coupled with the occasional waft of log fires from the Marais chimneys indicating that Christmas is close at hand.

But the city is not just readying itself for seasonal festivities. Tourists continue to pack and cram into every irresistible cultural corner, cameras flashing, and queues forming. Yes, those queues have been the bane of my Paris visit so far, curling tirelessly out of every museum, on the metro platforms, out of restaurants, and even to get into some shops! Our primary intention, as we set off yesterday morning, was to visit the Musée d’Orsay, my partner having never seen it before, and myself intrigued by the rehang on an allegedly revolutionary scheme of coloured walls which are meant to enable the impressionist paintings to glow more against their new backgrounds. However as we approached, it was possible to see, even from the Tulleries across the river, the masses queuing before the entrance, these queues snaking way beyond the old railway building and almost onto the nearby bridge.

Nov 23

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New Norm Exclusive: Flamenco Norm

Image via Wikipedia

From the first Norm I painted to the newest… during the last two days of the Daily Norm’s Spanish season, I will be presenting the two new Norm paintings which I have been working on while in Spain. This is something of an exclusive for the Daily Norm, and for me, as this is the first time I am presenting my “next generation Norms” to the public. Unlike the limited collection of original Norm canvases, the next generation Norms are slightly more sophisticated, benefitting no doubt from several years of interim painterly experience, although maintaining the same air of lighthearted joie de vivre as the original collection.

The first next generation Norm is Flamenco Norm. Flamenco Norm is something of a star. She exudes the energetic, impassioned movement of the flamenco, the multiple folds and frills of her polka-dot skirt swirling through the air as her body pulses with the intense and powerful rhythm provided by the guitar player behind her. Her arm is thrust upwards as the energy and spirit of the dance reaches the tips of her twisting fingers, while in her face, her eyes close in the intensity of the moment of duende, when all the raw, almost orgasmic emotions of the dance culminate in a moment of pure, uninhibited passion. Around her, the setting is an old flamenco club like those found in the smallest little villages of Andalucía, where the priority is not in the outmoded decor of the yesteryears, but in the moment of the dance. Hence the walls are starting to bulge and crack, the posters on the wall advertise past flamenco stars, alcoholic beverages and other flamenco paraphernalia, a single bulb hangs from the ceiling lighting only the star of the show, and the wooden floor is battered down by generations of dancing spectacles upon its resonant boards.

Flamenco Norm (2011, acrylic on canvas) © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown

This is not the first time I have been inspired to paint the flamenco. Below is my 2004 painting Duende, painted to a degree in the style of Picasso, the dancer’s face betraying dual emotions as she both fights and indulges in the intensity of emotion rupturing at the moment of duende.

Duende (2004, acrylic on canvas) © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2005-2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from the The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Nov 22

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Norm Profile: Norm in the Jungle

Continuing my introduction to the Norms which I painted in the past, and expanding further upon the (variably) tropical theme of my Spanish season, the next Norm stepping into the limelight is Norm in the Jungle. This was the first Norm I ever painted. I gave him as a gift to my grandmother who always adored him, and continues to enjoy him still.

I’m not sure why I chose the jungle as the backdrop to my first Norm. I’ve always been drawn to the idea of a jungle, as I have been to forests with their dark creepy corridors between trees, naturally sheltered by the canopy of vast tree tops and low hanging luscious flowers and furry palms. I think I can identify two sources of inspiration for this fascination. Firstly the stories of the Moomins written and illustrated by Tove Jansson which I was obsessed with as a child. Through her vivid descriptions and beautiful illustrations, she really conjured the idea of a magical midnight forest, full of little creatures hiding under the trees, each plant and crag and corner being imbued with a sense of mystery and adventure.

Image via Wikipedia

The second influence is the art of Henri Rousseau. I adore Rousseau. He’s a great inspiration to me, first and foremost because, like me, he was a self-taught artist, and that lack of teaching can really be seen in the wonderful naivety of his art, as it can be in the work of other self-taught masters such as Frida Kahlo and Van Gogh. Thus in his work there is none of the pretention of a taught artist, but a vivid, often childlike imagination illustrated through wonderful scenes of jungle animals and full and voluptuous vegetation. My favourite work is probably “Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)” which we are lucky enough to have hanging in London’s National Gallery free for all to see. All of his jungle works have the power to transpose their audience to the tropics… which is amazing since Rousseau never went to the tropics himself. He actually sought inspiration for his jungle scenes from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris!

Well, Norm in the Jungle was painted a long time ago (in 2005), and as I hope to show you later this week with the exclusive unveiling of four new Norm paintings, the Norms have come on a lot since. But my obsession with jungles and plants remains still. Here is a painting I did in the summer, also out here in Spain, called “Paseo Banus”. A pure celebration of the wonderful plants which grow habitually out here in Andalucía.

Paseo Banus (2011, Acrylic on canvas)

Nov 15

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Introduction to the Norms Part I: Kelsen’s Theory of Normativity

I’ve already said that my Norms first emerged from the strange depths of my imagination in a law lecture when, no doubt, I should have been focusing on other things. As even the brightest law student will tell you, it isn’t always easy to concentrate in law lectures, especially when the subject is jurisprudence, where the very idea of legal philosophy fills most budding lawyers with abject horror, and then, inevitably, boredom. One such lecture introduced us to the legal theorist Hans Kelsen, who’s Pure Theory of Law (“Reine Rechtslehre”) has become a staple of jurisprudential study and was itself a radical modernist legal theory when first published in 1934. Like most legal theorists, Kelsen was trying to establish why law is what it is, how it works, why it is obeyed, and what it says about us as a society, our moral compass and the importance (if any) of religion as a backbone to society’s legal machinery. All fairly irrelevant questions you may think: The law is what the law is and that’s that. And you may be right – it’s certainly a question that went through my mind on a number of occasions when I first started studying jurisprudence. But the subject throws up some very interesting questions which make for a fascinating dinner table conversation, even for the most unwitting philosopher. Read more

Nov 14

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Welcome to the Daily Norm!

Welcome to the Daily Norm, a daily exploration through Normville, the world of the Norms, the little white blobs who have pervaded my artistic output for some years. Through this blog, I hope to introduce you to the lives and times of these blobby little creatures, where they can be found, who’s who in the world of the Norm, and what they’re thinking too.

Norms began as small sketches in my law degree notes, filling my pages where no doubt there should have been complex legal observations and academic discussion. In 2006 they made it onto the canvas, and the first collection of norms I painted sold out in one night. They reappeared briefly in 2008, but haven’t been painted since. Following popular demand, the Norms are back, and this time, they’re venturing into cyberspace! So please follow this blog, and let the norms provide you with a little daily diversion. Also be sure to check the sales section of the site regularly, so that you too can bring a little bit of Norm magic into your home.

Norm you later,

Nick (Editor/ Artist)