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Norm Lewellen, a self-taught artist raised in the southwest, spent his early years exploring and experimenting in a variety of visual mediums. He soon developed the interest and the determination to have both the perspective and depth of two dimensional work combined with the form of sculpture, thus creating his unique style of high relief. The illusion of depth in a realistic style with very fine detail, continues to be his challenge and passion. Norm's work is a reflection of his respect for nature and the required habitat of wildlife.
Excerpt from American Bungalow magazine, Spring 2007 If you walk through the studio where Norm Lewellen carves intricate wood patterns for the designs of his bronze and stone plaques, it's easy to see that his love for nature inspires his artwork. But if you ask him how he got started, he'll tell you about the school lunches that first inspired him. "As far back as I remember, I've always been drawing," says the self-taught Bellingham, Washington, artist. "In grade school, I started exchanging my drawings for lunch. When I saw that I could trade my drawings, it turned out to be a pretty good lesson in marketing." That discovery reinforced for him his grandfather's advice about finding fulfillment and a career: "First figure out what you have a passion to do. Second, figure out how to make a living doing it." Knowing early that art would be his passion, he grappled for years with finding the right medium in which to make a living. He loved both sculpture and the perspective of two-dimensional art, and he wondered how to combine them. The answer hit him one morning when he was taking a walk whileliving in Maine. "I was staring at a piece of wood, and just like seeing images in the clouds, I could see an image of a fish. I thought if I just made a cut here and a cut there, other people could see what I see. And that's really how my high-relief woodcarving was born.
He adapted to this new medium by "thinking like a three-dimensional computer, because things don't just get smaller when you're farther away, they also get thinner," he says. "I really had to visualize every little detail in a totally different approach from sculpture and painting, and it was awkward at first. I eventually developed a creative process that works. I'll think of the subject, and letting my mind go blank, just let the image come out on its own. I don't try to force it or over analyze it, or I'll be unhappy with it and have to start over. I just let it flow, then go back and refine it for details and balance. The process is time consuming, and demonstrating that "ingenuity is a practical form of creativity," Norm progressed to replicating his designs by casting them in stone and bronze, using the wood originals as master patterns. This has allowed him to meet the demand for his work, remain the creator and still have time to create new designs. To master these applications, he has drawn on the skills he developed in his earlier experience with cement in the construction industry and with pattern and mold development for ferrous-metals foundries in the gift industry. The result: his patience and care in the long creative process has been rewarded with detailed images of nature and wildlife in wood, stone and bronze, and appreciation from a growing audience.
Arts and Crafts Appeal " I was surprised when people first told me my art fit in with their Arts and Crafts homes," he says. " I had associated Arts and Crafts with more stylized work. But I learned that the things that inspire me are what inspired the artists of the period, the mystery of nature and the medieval influences, even a Japanese influence that was pointed out to me though I wasn't consciously incorporation it. People also tell me they can look at my work and see more, such as a misty, foggy bank in the background or moss-laden trees in a forest. They personalize my art in an ongoing creative way, going far beyond what I do. That my art can do that for people is very rewarding. Norm has lived the real-life artist's life, though what he calls "not feast or famine, but more like famine and less famine." His passion "fueled me through all the hard times and lean times." Now, he says, "the fact that my work has found this audience is part of another lesson I learned, that I don't have to worry about trying to target a product to a specific market, but if I always do my best and succeed at my craft, there'll be enough of an audience to make a living." It's been a long road, but the passion burns brighter than ever. "I'm not an overly religious guy, but I'll be working on a piece in my little corner over there and get so excited, I'll say to myself, God, please don't take me yet, please let me finish this."
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