Simple Twist of Fate: Rebecca Norton talks art, education, and community

By Kevin Murphy Wilson Photos By Matt Johnson 

Rebecca Norton is a well-traveled, highly regarded visual artist. In addition to maintaining her Louisville-based studio practice, Norton currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Kentucky College of Art + Design. She is also co-founder of the Maybe It’s Fate Cooperative. The latter is a community-focused project space housed in a three-story 600 square foot building located in the heart of the Butchertown neighborhood. Its innovative model allows for members to join at several tiers, from Believer to Sustainer to Pay What You Can. We recently caught up with Norton to hear all about her own creative journey as well as her ambitions for Maybe It’s Fate as a cultural hub for the city and beyond. 

VOICE-TRIBUNE: Can you tell us about your background and education? 

Rebecca Norton: “As a child, my time was largely spent outdoors, chasing toads, playing in the woods, and idly imagining life elsewhere. I grew up and attended schools in Southern Indiana. Undergraduate studies were taken up at U of L in fall 1999. I was accepted to the Hite Institute of Art with scholarship soon after, and graduated with a degree in painting in 2004. While in undergrad, I immersed myself in the Louisville arts scene, participating in group shows at the Lava House, Water Tower, and elsewhere. In January 2005, on my birthday, I set off for the West Coast with all I owned packed tightly in the back of my pick-up truck. I unintentionally ended up moving to Los Angeles, and for several years waitressed in West Hollywood and enjoyed the pleasures of the city and its creative scenes. From 2007- 2010 I continued my academic studies at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. My teaching career began in spring 2011, teaching first at Indiana University Southeast, then back to California at my Alma Mater, Art Center, and in Berlin for a semester. I moved to Brooklyn in 2012, and quickly found myself engaged with a vibrant community of artists in Bushwick. For nearly three years I taught painting in the upper West Side of Manhattan, participated in shows, and worked as an assistant for the late Lynn Umlauf in her studio on the Lower East Side. Through a generation of older artists, I was introduced to established practicing visual and literary professionals, whose stories and lessons I absorbed with great curiosity and wonder. During this time, I was also focused on my individual studio practice and collaborating with the late artist and critic Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe. As a duo we traveled to various institutions, nationally and internationally, to exhibit our collaborative artworks, give lectures, and do studio visits with students. Jeremy was an incredible teacher - I learned a great deal from him. In 2015, my husband and I moved back to Louisville, pregnant with our first child. I’ve been raising a family and creating here ever since.” 

VT: What put you on the creative path in the first place? 

RN: “Early desires for travel and adventure, a contrarian personality, and hours spent imagining other worlds may have been early cluesto how my life might unfold. Lately, I’ve thought a lot about two individuals who exposed me to art and music in my youth…my pianoteacher, Leah Porter, and her mother, Rosamond Sample. Leah taught me to appreciate rhythm, melody, and my own artistic sense. Leahalways teased me about the ‘passionate’ ways I played the piano. I played with great physical intensity rather than with a modest, graceful touch. Rosamond Sample was a visual artist living in my neighborhood. I can still recall visiting and eyeing the beautiful arrangement of brushes and collage materials in her studio space. Her house, too, was something else. Its multi-leveled open floor plan, designed with input from Mrs. Sample, allowed natural light and views of the surrounding woods to cascade and integrate themselves into the interior. Like Leah and Rosamond, I wanted to live an artistic life, enriched by music, literature, natural surroundings, poetry and visual art.” 

VT: Are there any specific artists that inspired you or that you wanted to emulate?

RN: “The botanical illustrations and paintings of the German Romantic artist Phillip Otto Runge were incredibly important during my studies in graduate school. Runge’s

mathematical structuring of botanical illustrations led me to question our descriptions of the mathematical models that govern the natural world, and this has become a topic of interest that still guides my practice today. As a graduate student, I was lucky to have been mentored by contemporary artist Lita Albuquerque. Experiential explorations with her encouraged me to consider my body as an embodiment of cosmological space. And of course, working with Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe was special. My aesthetic education has been enriched by the years working with him. He has influenced my approach to painting and color, and educated me in world history, philosophy, semiotics, poetry and other general areas of study. I am continuing to be inspired by generations of artists who also studied under him. It’s lovely to be part of a large community of creative individuals who share a language and way of thinking that was in part nourished by this great contemporary enthusiast of art and education.”

VT: How would you describe your visual art in general? Is there a medium or area of research that excites you? 

RN: “My work may be generalized as colorful and mathematical. Theories of embodied cognition and attraction are very interesting to me.The work of French psychologist Jean Piaget and contemporary Italian mathematician Giuseppe Longo are important to my studies inembodied mathematics and mathematics in living systems. In philosophy, the writings of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, French phenomenologist philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and French philosopher Gilles Deleuze have shaped my understanding of the correlative and contrastive structures of human mind, body and consciousness. 

Periodic mentorship with writers and poets strengthens my practice in the literary arts. Currently, I’m working towards a certificate in Neuroaesthetics to further understand the neural basis of aesthetic experiences. My studio is where I go to explore ideas, moving them through materials in order to come to a formal understanding of the questions that I’m pondering or exploring. As with any artist, my techniques and interests have evolved over the years. Sometimes I play with developing technologies, or study new areas of thought or emerging fields in philosophy. But I have always been, and will always be, excited by painting.”

VT: Do you see any overlap between professional practice and your work as an art educator? 

RN: “When asked why he continued to teach, the late conceptual artist John Baldessari would answer that it gave him the freedom to make the work he wanted to make. Finding ways to make a living outside of the studio allows me to create beyond market demands. Add to this the benefits of the community of people I get to work with. My colleagues and students challenge me, and in this environment my practice can grow.” 

VT: How did Maybe It’s Fate Cooperative come to be and what makes the community-owned model so special? 

RN: “Soon after moving back to Louisville, my husband, Charley Miller, and I noticed the lack of collaboration between visual arts and technology, and other fields of knowledge. Unlike major metropolitan cities, Louisville is not a primary destination for individuals from all over the world to travel and share ideas. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t people of great intellect and talent, doing amazing work, here right now. We wanted to create a place where diverse talents and knowledge could be seen, and shared. We are also seeking a new model of support for creatives. The arts build culture, and we want culture makers to have more of a stake in the city through ownership of spaces like Maybe It’s Fate.”

VT: What is happening there at the moment in terms of programming and exhibitions? 

RN: “Maybe It’s Fate is a place where co-op members can host events that are meaningful to them and their groups. For example, as a member, I’ve brought Leonardo LASER Talks to Louisville, with Maybe It’s Fate being a place to host what is an incredible international program. Other events that you’ll come across at Maybe It’s Fate include yoga, dancing, music, poetry readings, writers groups, and art exhibitions. We currently have two exhibitions installed, including the group show on our main floor curated by local member-steward Eddie Frank Hickerson.”

For more information visit maybeitsfate.com.