Normal: A Conversation with Artists The title, “Normal” is based on the abstract idea of what the standard of normal is both in our society, within our identity as artists, and how that translates into our work. I have always struggled with my identity both as an artist, designer, and as a human. I know you are thinking, “Don’t we all?” Well that’s what I wanted to find out. I sat down with 15 of my visual and performing arts peers here at Cornish. I asked them about their identity, their work, their stories and what normal means to them. What I found is that I connected with their struggles, and I admired their triumphs. Normal is a zine about real people, with real opinions. Strangers who may be going through the same thing you are. You are not alone. WE ARE HERE. AND SO ARE YOU.
Jeia Villacis Senior BFA Project Class of 2016
“In high school, I had a teacher who would yell at
anyone in the classroom if they were drawing
while she was teaching, which would drive me crazy
because that’s one of the only ways I can focus.
It got to the point where we
bigger trouble for ‘defacing school property’
It’s pencil, it comes off.”
“I wanted to do non-representational work but everything I did looked like something else. It was me trying to get back to that no filter process where it comes from my brain
“We’re choosing a life that’s more authentic because we are choosing what we love to do. I think normal now is not choosing what you love, it’s choosing something that will make you money.”
“I had to be a chameleon in different environments which served to help me understand how to adapt to different atmospheres but it also strips away what makes you, you.�
“I didn’t grow up around married people so I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like,
I’m just winging it.”
“People in middle school used to make me do drawings of them so I would draw them in a really fucked up way, like with rats nest hair, it started out as a joke.�
“I think my work is me exposing a wound.”
“Dealing with people is my artform, understanding people why they do something, why you tilt your head to this degree as opposed to this degree when you’re interested, why you part your hair a certain way, what meaning does this necklace have to you why you hold your glass like this. All of that makes me very observant, it makes me question a lof of things. When you approach conflict after doing theatre for a long time, it’s much easier to get your point across. You know how to speak and what to say.”
“I think that was the first time it really clicked that people’s perception of me was a lot different than how I percieved myself. I knew what the girl meant was that she expected me to sound dumber. I briefly considered dyeing my hair brown in high school and throwing my makeup away because I felt self conscious of how people thought I was supposed to act based on how I looked.”