To Andy Gunnar Norquist, an artist is an observer. And he hopes that his drawings lead people to be observers, too.
“I think life is my muse. There’s so much in life that can inspire (art),” he said. “I see creation as an endless source of inspiration, and given our faith, that makes sense.”
Norquist, who goes by Andy in his personal life and Gunnar in the artistic world, is a lead exhibit designer and installer at the Rhode Island School of Design and a ruling elder at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Providence, Rhode Island. And he’s a lifelong artist, primarily working in graphite drawings.
“There’s something about making, creating, that just feels intrinsic,” he said.
He believes that being made in the image of a God who creates means humans have an essential impulse to create. And he feels that pull very strongly.
“I think the broader understanding within my faith is that I think it’s really intrinsic in humanity; but especially it’s really intrinsic in me.”
Norquist was nine years old when his mother signed him up for art lessons. And other than a brief period in his teens when he lost interest, he’s been drawing ever since. He studied studio art at University of Northwestern, St. Paul, and later earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Today, Norquist works with two others to design and install exhibits showcasing the work of RISD students. And he continues his own work, most recently working on a series of graphite drawings of ancient trees that he hopes speaks to an eternal world outside the bounds of his art.
Looking at a drawing, he said, viewers first see just a tree. But keep looking, and the viewer gets a sense of the tree’s history and how many hundreds of years it has been alive.
“It kind of creates this lore almost around the tree, that’s very much not depicted but it’s sort of hinted at in the looking part,” he said. “That’s an allusive thing in all art: is the art the thing itself, or is it the thing it hints at or points to? I would suggest that art has to be about more than just itself.”
Norquist was captivated by the idea that for generations, the trees have watched kingdoms rise and fall; children born, living their lives, growing old, passing away.
“It really evoked for me our mortality by contrast,” he said. “These trees, almost in a poetic sense, are a witness to this present world.”
Norquist said he gathers ideas as he moves through life; from history, his church, his family, and from nature.
Once he has an idea, he starts researching the project. For many of his pieces he can’t actually visit the subject. Some are moments in history. Others are far away, where he can’t travel. So he relies on photographs, other sketches, and written histories and descriptions. Then he plans the piece, creating a digital master sketch that becomes the basis for his final drawing.
Finally he starts to draw. He has a large, wall-mounted easel and draws in multiple layers: first a tonal layer, then deeper shadows, then a final layer for the last details. This final layer is usually when he draws in the sky.
Drawing can be so immersive for Norquist that he forgets everything else.
“When I’m working on a project it’s one of the only times in my life when I lose track of time,” he said. “I forget to eat, or take care of myself. I do very much get into the zone.”
Generally, a piece like one in the ancient trees series takes 35 to 40 hours to complete. Larger ones will take longer.
He hopes that when people see his art, they walk away more curious about the world.
“The world around me is endlessly humorous and transcendent and beautiful and broken, there’s so much there that ties this all together,” he said. “I hope that they feel curious about other people, curious about the world around them. I hope they feel called to open their eyes and be more observant.”
His own curiosity develops through the discipline of making art, shaping the way he sees the world and making him more sensitive to nature and people.
“I hope it increases my capacity for humility or hospitality, to reach out and care for the people that I come into contact with, and honestly to care for the world God’s given to us,” he said. “I hope it gives me greater capacity to experience the beauty of God when I see it.”
Norquist said he was deeply influenced by Dorothy Sayer’s book, “The Mind of the Maker,” which describes human creativity as reflecting the Trinity and the creativity of the Creator.
“That’s sort of the baseline understanding of where I’m coming from as an artist,” he said. “Going out into the world and engaging in creativity is part of being human, the way that God made us to be human.”
Now he’s looking forward to his next project, an “artistic pilgrimage” to Israel and Palestine he hopes to make in December. He wants to engage with Israeli and Palestinian Christian artists, learning the artistic processes for brothers and sisters in Christ who live in very different contexts.
Norquist said he always wanted to visit the Holy Land as a spiritual journey, but the more he heard about the history and challenges of the area, the more he wanted to learn. And as a church leader, he wants to find a non-political way to engage with the issues and people of the area.
Art made sense to him. He said he wants to explore how faith and circumstances influence the work of Israeli and Palestinian Christians, while also drawing the church’s attention to brothers and sisters in painful circumstances.
“We should try to remember that our brothers and sisters in Christ live there and have incredibly difficult lives,” he said.
The trip plays into the advice Norquist has for others starting out in their artistic journeys.
“Live a full life, engage in community, have other hobbies,” he said. “I think it’s in relationships with the creation around us, with people that God has put us in community with, that we learn the most about life, which can become the foundation for better art.”