* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Norton Pease was born in Illinois and earned his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999.
Norton explains the work by saying, “When I was seven, I moved from a diverse community to one that was homogenously white. At this formative age, I recognized this lack of diversity as a loss. The awareness that came from this shift in surroundings became my MFA Thesis’s primary focus and a foundation for my continued work. I work with various painting and print media to create abstract and figurative portrayals to address white privilege. As part of my creative process, I sift through American culture’s detritus, finding inspiration from children’s books, news footage, comic books, and advertisements. I use imagery as a nuanced commentary, allowing different perspectives to engage in dialogue on issues that have reached an apex.”
Norton's work has been exhibited nationally in museums and galleries in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia.
He is an Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Humanities and is a Professor of Art in the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art at Georgia Southern University.