Curtis Norton, Sculptor

We are so lucky to have creative friends in the area.  Curtis and his wife Cate are two very good friends. They live and work in the area. Cate is a potter, and Curtis.....

Curtis Norton, sculptor, was born in Newport News VA.  His father worked at Newport News Ship Building.  Even as a five year old he knew that he wanted to build things.  He would save up his quarters to go to the local hardware store to purchase a small bag of nails.  He would take these home, and with scraps of wood and some of his fathers tools, he would try to build something.  He built small boats to play with and the first large piece that he remembered building was a platform on his parents back porch.

Fascinated with the building process he would watch as they built homes in his neighborhood.  He learned how to build by watching how others would do it.  He has built two homes one for his mother, and another one where he currently lives and has his work shop.

He remembered that his grandmother would design and make patterns to sew her own dresses.  In later years he would also make patterns that he could turn into his sculptures. Watching his grandmother take an idea and turn that into a physical item was inspiring.  He loves the challenge of conceiving and idea and then actually bring that idea into being.

His family moved to Culpepper VA in the 1960s.  His father worked at Old Dominion Manufacturing, becoming the plant manager.  They made garbage trucks.  As a teen he was able to get a job working at the plant.  While he was there he learned how to do welding. He became fascinated by what you can do with welding.  Because his dad was the plant manager he was able to go into the plant after hours and work on his own projects.  He basically taught himself how to do welding on all sorts on materials.

After several years he decided to open his own welding shop there in Culpepper.  He did welding for customers. Later he closed his welding shop, as most of the work was too repetitious and boring to him.  He continued to work on his own designs from his parents garage.

He decided to make a copper teapot for his mother.  He ordered sheet copper and started creating.  An engineer friend helped him with making patterns.  He would cut the copper sheet into his patterns and bend and twist until he got the form that he wanted and the he would spot weld until it was right.  Being a perfectionist helped him at this point.  He would keep trying until it was right. His mother's teapot was the beginning of his art work pieces.

In 1976 The Washington Post did an article on Albert Paley.  Looking at Paley's work got him interested in doing work with steel.

He purchased an used  power forging hammer from a friend and started making forged steel plant stands.  These echoed the shapes and forms of natural growing vines.  His biggest inspiration came from Jose de Rivera's work in metal. He was able to purchase an antique forging hammer from a machine shop in Kilmarnock, Va.

 He made more art pieces at this point and started getting commissions. He began to make railings and gates.

He would order 4x8 foot sheets of metal cutting his patterns by hand without the use of a plasma torch.  He then takes these pattern pieces and bends and twist them into the shapes that he wish to form.  His patterns were made from ideas that he conceived and he first manipulated these so that he knew the the forms would work, then he could cut these from the metal sheets.  He painted some of the stainless steel pieces drawing form pieces that he had seen as a kid back in the 1950s.

He rarely works with copper now as he finds it too soft mostly working with stainless steel and bronze.   Sometimes he will work on a piece that he has in his head and it will not work out. These he will trash or set aside to rework at a later date.  He constantly raises the bar of the challenges that he sets forth for himself to accomplish.   It is the challenge as much as it is the work itself.  He has never deviated from the path which he set for himself as a child.  He followed his passion, even though he was never classically trained.