I broke my arm REAL bad a couple weeks ago and had to get surgery to put my bones back in place with some plates n’ screws. Im in minimal pain and doing okay relatively speaking! Anyways, they gave me the freakin Jumbo Cast 3000 that I’ll be stuck in for a couple more weeks 🥲
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Polymer clay, strings, wire
Inspired by poet Maya Angelou (who I am honored to be named after) and her poem “Caged Bird”
FUCK ICE
So proud of Kent for yesterdays protest ❤️ it was freezing and snowing like crazy but we showed up
Painting WIP!! Still needs some cleaning up and shading ((-: me and my B <3 feat. Music by Pro Skater @proskaterband_official (they are a super cool underground local band, too cool for you. You probably dont even know em /: smh) @brennan.norberg.art
Mute
Clay, drawer, plexiglass, paint, speaker, cassette player
Symphony of Silence
Music by Brennan Norberg @brennan.norberg.art
The final piece of work from the senior thesis show! Yes I know this took me forever to upload, instagram has been hurting my brain so much lately.
“The figures in Mute are hollowed and there are holes drilled in the wooden box that they are on
top of. Their varying body size and openness of their mouth changes the amount of sound that is able to be projected. As the figure gets smaller, it also gets quieter. Their large ears give them the ability to hear, but their muffled mouths take away their ability to be heard.
My motivation to make this body of work came from observing miscommunication in relationships around me and experiencing it first hand. So many problems and conflicts are caused by a lack of ability to understand one another. I hope this show enlightens viewers to recognize flaws in everyday language so that they can strengthen their communication skills with others while also strengthening it within themselves.”
The Shrine
Wood, paint, flameworked glass, soot, Grandma’s ashes, candle, burnt matches, bottle of mercury, dried plant
“Boxes have become a prominent sculptural element in my recent work. This was largely inspired by sculptures made by my Grandfather who was an artist and teacher all his life. He was greatly inspired by Joseph Cornell’s assemblages of found objects arranged in shadow boxes. This influence can be seen most directly in The Shrine. I was recently gifted a similarly shrine-shaped box sculpture that my Grandfather made in the 60’s. I referenced his surface treatment with the paint drips on the sides of the frame. Mercury was a magically obscure medium that he often used in his work. In homage to him, I included a small bottle of mercury that belonged to him inside the frame.”
Obsolete
Piece #4 from my senior thesis show
Plaster, tin cans, cord, telephone book pages
“Communication is something that is not equally accessible to everyone. This can happen through
obsoletion of technology. Generations before me relied solely on landlines, answering machines, and telephone books for communication. Not everyone today has equal access to modern communication methods. My Grandpa is very old fashioned and lived in a house without internet connection or a cell phone. When the nurse at the doctor’s office asked for his email to send him medical updates, he didn’t have an answer for her and was therefore left out of the conversation. The red telephone cords in the piece, Obsolete connect two tin cans to create a game of “telephone” between two plaster telephone poles. Sound can only travel through the cords if they are held absolutely taught. This becomes less possible when there is more and more slack on the cord. This obstruction of the medium interferes with the utilitarian and communicative purpose of the tin can phones, therefore making them unusable.”
