And that includes taking the 1st Place People’s Choice Award for Mixed Media winner at the 2005 68th Annual Santa Paula Art & Photography Show. Her work has been recognized at the Laredo Center for the Arts International Juried Exhibition, Ironstone Vineyards, National Orange Show, the Placerville-based Mother Lode National Art Exhibition and Ventura County Fair, among others.
The previous owner of a successful graphic business, Gwenlyn remains a professional calligrapher. She finds herself constantly studying different art subjects and methodologies, from abstract oils to sculpturing, colored pencil to yarn. Norton creates arts from all things including tile, thread, foil leaf, paper, fibers, shells, old jewelry, beads, photography, manipulation of digital images, tole paints, wood and much more.
A multifaceted artist who keeps experimenting, Norton is a native Californian who admits that art takes over her mind and body to create the flow of creativity.
She has described herself as “so focused, so single minded, so dedicated, so directed, so determined, so utterly consumed by spending as much time and energy as I’m able to building, to experimenting with materials, with color, with texture...driven to see what happens, what develops, what results from my actions and to experience the excitement, the humor, the rewards, the challenges of completing the project to its very end, climax.”
Said Gwenlyn, “To be able to stand there and say ‘It’s finished’ is a high.”
For further information about the Santa Paula Society of the Arts visit
www.thespsa.com or call 805-525-1104.
