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January 2012 Featured Juried Artist Member of the Month
Norma Cheek ; Illustrator & Fine Art
Norma Cheek Illustrator, Fine Art Watercolorist A resident of Cranston, Rhode Island. Norma received her training at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her studies included: fashion illustration, graphic design, interior design and portrait classes. In addition to this she has taken private classes from Rhode Island professional artists.
In her professional career she has worked in Boston and also Hopkinton, Mass. and in several advertising agencies in Providence as a fashion artist. In addition to this she free-lanced for several specialty stores in Rhode Island as a fashion artist, drawing anything from shoes to jewelry to perfume or furs and of course figure drawing. Norma's ads appeared in the National Advertisers weekly magazine for layout, design and art. Norma has exhibited at and been a member of the Wickford Art Association for many years. Here she developed the "fine" side of her art. She has enjoyed painting children's portraits using an American primitive painting folk art style with acrylics. Her work has also been exhibited at the Cranston library and in the Maritime Provinces in Canada. In 2009 Norma was selected to be an exhibitor in the "Scenes of Rhode Island" show at the Atrium Gallery which hosted a Governors Reception & Awards ceremony. Over the years Norma had the privilege of traveling extensively throughout the world alongside her husband and the richness of her experiences has enhanced her creative expression. Norma has been painting and drawing all her life and she continues to do so because she discovered a long time ago that it was not just what shedid, but that is a big part of who she is. Although she was self-motivated and already working as an artist, she attributes her interest and success in her artwork initially to her mother who was an avid seamstress and encouraged her to sew. This skill was part of what brought her to a career in fashion illustration. But when her sewing machine was broken, it was the man who fixed it that became her biggest supporter and inspiration. Norma credits Blaine, her husband with being her greatest supporter enabling her to embrace life with a hope, passion and inspiration that could be expressed in her art. Although Blaine has passed he lives on in her heart and his words of encouragement still ring in her ears. She paints mostly at home and encourages others to engage in art for life. Norma's biggest collectors are her daughterNatalie and her grandchildren. Her art and her family are her legacy. Norma considers it a privilege to have been able to earn her living doing what she loved, being an artist. She still continues to show her work in exhibits and can sometimes be found on Tuesday afternoons at the WAAs open studio.
Norma Cheek Bio
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