I tend to have quite a few things going on for Valentine's Day and this year is no exception, so I thought I would put everything together in one place.
Galentines Card Swap
The first thing that I'm very excited about is the Galentines Card Swap! I was thinking about all of the ladies that I love and I thought it would be fun to connect for Galentines this year. If you would like to send and receive a snail mail Galentine with uplifting messages and everything sweet sign up here:
https://goo.gl/forms/afwJRL5OCFRwBXTT2
Valentine's Cards
This year's collection of Valentines contains some Normandie Design classics and two new designs. They are all delectable! Order by February 7 to receive in time for Valentine's Day. Find them here in my etsy shop:
https://normandiel.patternbyetsy.com/
Valentine Merch
I have some of the same designs and other fun merch in my Society 6 shop. :) You can find fun Valentine designs on pillows, shirts and endless fun products!
https://society6.com/normandieillustr...valentines
May you have all of the sweetness and be filled with love!
Our Sister's Sorrow Event Synopsis
I wanted to let you know more about what actually happened at this event and to introduce you to our special guests who were able to contribute to our Forum Program. In addition to giving support to the Center for Women and Children in Crisis, we wanted to really learn more about what women’s issues affect us locally. We invited some wonderful people who are involved in these issues and who work so hard to make our community a better place to speak about their areas of expertise.
We were so excited to have Jennifer Blosil come and share some of her music with us. Jenn has a powerful voice and music that touches everyone who hears it with her soul and genuine nature. She sang about true beauty that comes from within and she played a gorgeous rendition of 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' which shares a story of grief and overcoming.
We heard from Niwako Yamawaki, Associate Professor of Psychology. Her research specializes in understanding how sexism and gender roles affect the perception of violence against women. She shared some startling statistics and the psychology of women who suffer in domestic violence situations. We were glad to hear the truth of these circumstances that occur in our community and to understand that these situations are complex and difficult but they are real.
Rachelle Call has been a part of the Center for Women and Children in Crisis and she told her inspirational story of how she turned her struggles in an abusive relationship into something positive. She has rebuilt her life and become a prominent musician in the local community. We were honored to have her share her story and music with us.
Sariah Collard represented the Center for Women and Children in Crisis as our final speaker. She works as a member of the Rape Crisis Team and as the Sexual Assault Outreach Coordinator. She will discussed some of the services that CWCIC offers and she shared about the joy it is to see people heal from their pain.
Zane Harker performed the music that he has composed specifically for this event. His music is inspired by the themes found in the Book of Job from the Bible of struggle and redemption. His contemporary compositions poignantly struck on the tones that encompass the overall topic of discussing issues of how personal strife is often misunderstood and dismissed by the community at large.
Before and after the forum there will be some time to walk around the exhibition of art that explores the same themes in the form of narrative paintings depicting the story of Job with a female character. These pieces have been created by Normandie Luscher with the specific ideas in mind of the personal journey of trial and triumph. Each of the paintings will be available for purchase as will prints of each of the paintings. All proceeds will be donated to the Center for Women and Children in Crisis.
We are so grateful for the people who came to support and participate in this cause for women's issues in our community. We hope that the event had an impact not only monetarily but emotionally. We hope that we all can be moved to help lift our sister's sorrow.
The prints and paintings are still for sale with partial proceeds benefiting the Center for Women and Children in Crisis until January 12th. The paintings are currently being exhibited at Brigham Young University in the Harris Fine Arts Center Gallery 303 foyer. Any purchased paintings can be picked up/delivered after January 12th.
Prints and paintings can be purchased at my etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NormandieL
Our Sister's Sorrow Event Details
My BFA show is finally done! I can hardly believe it. After two years of research, paper writing and painting, painting and painting, the show is now up in the Harris Fine Arts Center at BYU in the Gallery 303 Foyer.
I want to tell you a little about the details of the project. It was a part of a fundraiser event that has been a collaboration in association with the Laycock Center. These art pieces served as the visual aspect in a fundraiser for the Center for Women and Children in Crisis that I hosted with my co collaborator Zane Harker. This event has been in the works for quite some time and Zane and I are so overjoyed that was able to become a reality. We appreciate the Laycock Center for enabling this event to happen and we’ve been so grateful to work with the Center for Women and Children and Crisis and the Women’s Studies Program at BYU and the many other people who have helped. Also I would like to thank my mentors who have helped me in developing this project. Matt Ancell has been a very gracious and kind professor who has offered his time and resources as I embarked on creating an ambitious art series as a novice in the realm of the more fine arts/gallery work and philosophy and academia. Jason Lanegan has also been such a helpful guide in preparing my work for the exhibition and developing my concept. And of course, my illustration professors have helped me so much. Christopher Thornock and David Dibble have helped me to push my art work and they have helped to brainstorm ideas to make this project more innovative.
This project has gone through quite the evolution. I dabbled with the idea of creating a ballet, which the dance department informed me was far too ambitious and we started with many different ideas, but I’m so happy that we’ve been able to channel this project into something that is hopefully more beneficial for us as the Provo community.
Two years ago I went through my first experience of having an existential or quarter life crisis, which left me feeling quite distraught. I try not to judge my younger selves so I look back and try to appreciate my naivete and how it helped me to progress. And I do appreciate that that experience led me to several different important steps in my personal journey, but two of the significant places that I came to was women’s issues and Job. I’ve determined that the Book of Job in the Old Testament is not the type of story that you choose, but it is a story that chooses you and as it happens, the story of Job seemed to come to me through a variety of avenues, including Terrance Malik’s film The Tree of Life, multiple professors and the story just seemed to grab me by the shoulders and insist that I become a part of it.
The questions that Job asks become so poignant during a time of struggle and I was taken with his honest investigation of life’s troubles and how he tried to grasp for truth in the midst of confusion, disappointment and abandonment. ‘What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?’
He asks the questions that we are not always brave enough to ask and risks the chastisement of his dearest friends who can’t offer any satisfactory answers and wonder, ‘How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?’.
It is difficult to know how to help someone when they are distressed and when facing a problem that is greater than we can understand as shortsighted humans. It is common to offer simplistic answers that ‘everything will be ok’, ‘if we do what is right then all will be well’ and when we continue to watch our friends continue to struggle we may suggest that it’s time to move on or ask ‘How long wilt thou speak these things?’
As I started studying women’s issues and learning about the devastation of human trafficking, which is a problem globally and is probably a part of our community in some form and on local levels there is domestic violence, depression and crippling anxiety, disorders and self esteem issues and other tragedies that hinder women from experiencing opportunities, success or even just joy.
These two themes began to merge and the story of Job became less about Job, and it became more about the questions themselves and how they cross through all of our lives and specifically the lives of women.
I thought about how these questions affect women, mostly because, I am one and I had a lot of questions about womanhood. I wondered about what does it mean to be a woman to me? What role do I play? What role do women in general play in our community? How can women and men build healthy relationships? How do we as women talk about emotional issues without being perceived as whiney? Where does my value come from?
As I talked with women from the Center for Women and Children in Crisis I learned of stories of deep devastation, power struggles, abuse and difficult issues.
Then there came the questions, ‘Who deserves to be treated in such a way? Why would these things happen? Why would someone demean another human being, or a loved one so deeply?’ And the questions that became most important to me was, ‘What do we do to stop injustices and how do we make our community a place where domestic violence and verbal, physical and sexual abuse doesn’t occur?’
Job asks, ‘How hast thou helped him that is without power? How savest thou the arm that hath no strength?’
At the end of the Book of Job, God reaches out to Job and offers the Leviathan as a symbol for the great atrocities of the world. The treacherous and undefeatable sea monster is terrible and unconquerable, a match that only God can vanquish. The answers to Job’s questions aren’t necessarily given, but Job comes to understand that suffering is a part of this world.
So how do we face our own leviathan and how do we reconcile our sister’s sorrow? How do we ease the pain and the suffering in our community? How can we contribute to helping when these problems seem too overwhelming? How do we help when the advice or help we have to offer seems obsolete? What do we do when we struggle with these difficulties ourselves?
I in no way hope to replace God or offer that we can draw the leviathan with a hook and uproot any problems in our community completely. I know this exhibition probably won’t do much to change the world at large and I don’t know if it will do very much to make our community a better place, but I hope to say that I did what I could do to spark a conversation that continues to seek for answers to these questions. I hope that as you take a few moments to reflect on these issues that we will remember to try and influence those around us for good and contribute to needed solutions in our community.
A Slew of Summer Work
I was so lucky to be able to work with some very talented people this summer. I just can’t convey how thankful I am to have had the opportunities to learn from Jensine Eckwall, Lily Padula, Daniel Fishel and David Johnson. These people are amazing! I just love the Illustration community.
I came back to Utah and have been pummeled with super super senior responsibilities, but I have had a chance to fix up these pieces from my mentorship experiences and I wanted to share these pieces.
While interning with Richard Solomon I was able to work with one of the artists that he represents. The artist, David Johnson, mentored me on creating a small series of pieces for the Princess and the Pea. I wanted to give the story relevance so I placed it in a contemporary setting. It just makes sense to incorporate city architecture when you’re living in NYC! I still want to take some time to do some hand type. That will be one of my Winter break projects!
Jensine and Lily were incredibly astute in creating assignments that really pushed me in my editorial work. They taught me about symbolism and various visual tools that helped me to understand where I was working successfully and where I still needed to make visual connections. The first assignment was a black and white spot illustration based on an article for the New York Times, the second was a larger color illustration to show the concept of making the best choice out of a myriad of options and the third was a book cover for ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’.
One of my personal projects this summer was my comic, ‘Fairy God Feminist’. Daniel Fishel was insistent that it was my best work, which I appreciate because, I agree! It’s also the most fun for me. I’m setting up a separate tumblr specifically for this project. Look for updates at http://fairygodfeminist.tumblr.com/
Our Sister's Sorrow (The Job Project) Update
Ok are you ready for it?
My collaborator and talented composer friend, Zane Harker and I, have great news. Our project proposal was accepted and we will be receiving a grant to enable our fundraiser for the local women’s shelter to come to fruition! We have been secretly working on this project for a year and now we finally have gotten to a place where we can say with absolute certainty that we are going to be able to turn our dreams into a reality and hopefully we’ll be able to create an event that is impactful on the community through art and music.
The event will consist of open viewing of the final paintings that I have created and music that Zane has composed around the theme of struggle and redemption. We will also have a short forum where speakers from the Center for Women in Crisis and BYU’s Women’s Studies Program will be able to talk about women’s issues in the local Provo/Orem area. We will also have some very special musical guests, including Jennifer Blosil and Rachelle Call and Jessie Clark Funk.
The event will take place early in December. We will let you know as soon as we get the date pinned down which will be very soon.
Thank you so much for your help and support in enabling this project to succeed and we look forward to sharing our journey with you over the next two months and hopefully you all will be able to help this event succeed, but most importantly we hope that we’ll all be able to work together to make our community a better place!
Thank you,
Normandie Luscher and Zane Harker
Fairy God Feminist: Short Film Promo
Hi! I know I’ve been the worst lately, but I promise that I’ve been making a TON of art! Including my latest obsession, online comics :O I really am obsessed though and I love it.
To check out what I’ve done so far make sure to visit my tumblr page. I’ll also be starting a new tumblr specifically for my comic, which is ‘Fairy God Feminist’. I can’t help it, I just think it rocks hard core. And that leads me to my announcement that one of my comics, ‘Depression Derby’ is coming out as a short film next week! I told you I’ve been working hard!
Oh my goodness I have so many exciting announcements on the way, including some pretty big and exciting news that’s coming tomorrow. I know, You’re on the edge of your seat! Well you’ll just have to be patient :) But hopefully those comics will tie you over, eh?
http://norm071.tumblr.com/post/100095218426/get-ready-for-the-fairy-god-feminist-short-film#notes