Norma Heyser


Norma Heyser is an American contemporary artist from Portland, Oregon, who worked in mixed media and new art forms, influenced by Cubism and Abstract expressionism.

Early life and education

Norma Edythe Heyser, born in Portland in 1933, is the daughter of Norman Lewis Heyser and Agnes Grace Peters. She studied at the University of Oregon with Andrew Vincent and David McCosh from 1951 to 1953, and at the Pacific [Northwest College of Art|Museum Art School] with William Givler from 1953 to 1956, earning a BA in art from Marylhurst University in 1980. She married Ronald Orrin Peterson in 1956 and they reared two sons.
She and her husband worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City during 1957–1958. They returned to Portland in 1958 to open the New Gallery of Contemporary Ar, which closed in 1962.
In 1963, she co-taught a course at Mt. Angel College along with Ron Peterson, Joyce Britton, and Lee Kelly, entitled, "Explorations in Art," which consisted of "lectures, demonstrations and practice in sculpting, drawing and painting".

Critical reception

Heyser's earliest work was influenced by cubism. In the 1950s, she became an abstract expressionist artist, while in the 1960s she self-identified as an Oregon modernist and created "installation and conceptual art and began to experiment with mixed media and other new art forms". Since 1982, Heyser has worked in mixed media and collage, as well as ink drawings.
Reviewing a 1961 exhibit, The Capital Journal wrote,
In 1968, The Capital Journal wrote of Heyser, "The young Portland artist is described as one of the most innovative proponents of the 'new art' which goes beyond two-dimensional wall painting and pedestal sculptures for total viewer involvement."
Heyser has been quoted saying she "stopped making work for ecology reasons", and that for her "art and social action are inseparable".

Selected exhibitions

Publications

  • ''Little Body Book: Every Human Body is a Work of Art''

Awards and honors