Norma Heyser

Norma Edythe Heyser, born in Portland in 1933,{{Cite web|title=Norma Heyser's Life in the Arts • Marylhurst University • Portland, Oregon|url=http://www.marylhurst.edu/about-marylhurst/media-resources/news/20130621-norma-heysers-life-arts.html|last=House|first=Phinney/Bischoff Design|date=March 2013|website=www.marylhurst.edu|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316234608/http://www.marylhurst.edu/about-marylhurst/media-resources/news/20130621-norma-heysers-life-arts.html|archive-date=March 16, 2015|access-date=2016-03-05}}{{Cite web|date=January 4, 1957|title=Oregon, State Marriages, 1906-1966|url=https://www.ancestry.com/account/signin?returnurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.ancestry.com%2finteractive%2f61677%2f48910_302022005598_0106-01061%3fpid%3d90145149%26backurl%3dhttps%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26dbid%3d61677%26h%3d90145149%26tid%3d%26pid%3d%26usePUB%3dtrue%26_phsrc%3dXft1%26_phstart%3dsuccessSource%26treeid%3d%26personid%3d%26hintid%3d%26usePUB%3dtrue%26_phsrc%3dXft1%26_phstart%3dsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3dtrue%26_ga%3d2.263702340.918082153.1593456058-649457439.1593456058|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-06-29|website=www.ancestry.com}} is the daughter of Norman Lewis Heyser and Agnes Grace Peters.{{Cite web|date=April 22, 1940|title=1940 United States Census|url=https://www.ancestry.com/secure/register/index/?rtype=1&fname=&lname=&dbid=2442&pid=64337364&flowId=dbid2442&returnurl=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdb%3d1940usfedcen%26indiv%3dtry%26h%3d64337364%26nreg%3d1|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-05-04|website=www.ancestry.com}}{{Cite web|title=Washington, Marriage Records, 1854-2013|url=https://www.ancestry.com/secure/register/index/?rtype=1&fname=&lname=&dbid=2378&pid=905448605&flowId=dbid2378&returnurl=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdbid%3d2378%26h%3d905448605%26indiv%3dtry%26o_vc%3dRecord%3aOtherRecord%26rhSource%3d2442%26nreg%3d1|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-05-04|website=www.ancestry.com}} She studied at the University of Oregon with Andrew Vincent and David McCosh from 1951 to 1953, and at the 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.{{Cite web|title=Third Tuesday Author: Norma Heyser {{!}} City of Lake Oswego|url=https://www.ci.oswego.or.us/library/third-tuesday-author-norma-heyser|access-date=2020-06-29|website=www.ci.oswego.or.us}}

She and her husband worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City during 1957–1958.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bT4R3YMnBkC&q=%22Norma+Heyser%22+-wikipedia|title=A Pacific Profile of Young West Coast Painters|date=1961|publisher=Pasadena Art Museum|language=en}} They returned to Portland in 1958 to open the New Gallery of Contemporary Ar, which closed in 1962.{{Cite web|url=https://www.willamette.edu/arts/hfma/about/news/library/2013/norma_heyser.html|title=Afternoon Tea Honors Norma Heyser and Her Life in the Arts|date=18 June 2013|website=Willamette University|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207003441/https://www.willamette.edu/arts/hfma/about/news/library/2013/norma_heyser.html|archive-date=7 February 2015|url-status=dead|access-date=6 March 2019}}{{Cite web|title=Norma Heyser and Ron Peterson, 1960-2000 {{!}} University Archives|url=https://libmedia.willamette.edu/archives/as/repositories/2/archival_objects/38680|website=libmedia.willamette.edu|access-date=2020-05-05}}{{Cite web|title=Archives West: New Gallery of Contemporary Art Scrapbook, 1958-1962|url=http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv35470|access-date=2020-05-05|website=archiveswest.orbiscascade.org}}

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".{{Cite news|date=1963-01-26|title=Art courses slated for Mt. Angel|pages=24|work=The Capital Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51769459/art-courses-slated-for-mt-angel/|access-date=2020-06-29}}

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{{Cite news|last=Randall|first=Barb|date=|title=Norma Heyser to share 'Little Body Book'|url=https://pamplinmedia.com/lor/54-my-community/397740-291424-norma-heyser-to-share-little-body-book|access-date=2020-05-05|website=Pamplin Media Group|language=en-gb}} 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,

{{Blockquote|text=The paintings of Norma Heyser are predominately large in scale, bold in their powerful images and simple in choice of color. One can sense a vast kinetic energy in the movement of color and form, a fact borne out by the Artist's own statement that she feels the relation of her painting in this idiom to dance and music.{{Cite news|date=1961-08-07|title=Creative art seen|pages=11|work=The Capital Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50233804/creative-art-seen/|access-date=2020-05-04}}}}

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."{{Cite news|date=1968-01-20|title=Exhibit set at Linnfield|pages=2|work=The Capital Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50237292/exhibit-set-at-linnfield/|access-date=2020-05-04}}

Heyser has been quoted saying she "stopped making [art] work for ecology reasons", and that for her "art and social action are inseparable".

• Blue-yellow, Mt. Angel College, 1960{{Cite web|title=Norma Heyser Sculpture blue-yellow by Norma Heyser on Monograph Bookwerks|url=https://www.monographbookwerks.com/pages/books/38/norma-heyser/norma-heyser-sculpture-blue-yellow|last=www.bibliopolis.com|website=Monograph Bookwerks|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-05}}
• An Exhibition of Portland Painting and Sculpture, Bush House, with Lee Kelly and Joyce Britton, 1961{{Cite news|date=1961-07-23|title=At Bush House : New exhibit to open in gallery|pages=16|work=Statesman Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50267507/at-bush-house-new-exhibit-to-open-in/|access-date=2020-05-22}}
• Norma Heyser, A journey from 1962{{Cite news|date=1965-11-10|title=Mt. Agel art show scheduled|pages=6|work=The Capital Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50235389/mt-agel-art-show-scheduled/|access-date=2020-05-04}}{{Cite news|date=1965-11-07|title=Constructions by Heyser at Mt. Angel Show|pages=26|work=Statesman Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46647888/constructions-by-heyser-at-mt-angel/|access-date=2020-05-05}}
• "Centennial Painting 1959" 1959, oil on canvas, Mark Ross Gearhart Collection, Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

• Little Body Book: Every Human Body is a Work of Art {{Cite web|title=Conversations with Writers and 9 Bridges Presents: Norma Heyser: Find Your Voice Through Memoir|url=https://washingtoncountywriters.com/2018/07/10/conversations-with-writers-and-9-bridges-presents-norma-heyser-find-your-voice-through-memoir/|last=Beechwood|first=Elizabeth|date=2018-07-10|website=Washington County Writers Forum|language=en|access-date=2020-05-05}}

• Oregon Centennial Exposition and Trade Fair of 1959, award for painting{{Cite web|title=Norma Heyser's life in the arts|url=http://www.marylhurst.edu/about-marylhurst/media-resources/news/20130621-norma-heysers-life-arts.html|date=2013|website=Marylhurst University|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316234608/http://www.marylhurst.edu/about-marylhurst/media-resources/news/20130621-norma-heysers-life-arts.html|archive-date=March 16, 2015}}
• 2013 — Honored at Hallie Ford Museum "for her life's contributions to the art world"{{Cite web|date=2013|title=Marylhurst Unlimited - Fall 2013|url=https://issuu.com/marylhurstuniversity/docs/mufall13_final|access-date=2020-06-29|website=|page=5|language=en|via=Issuu}}

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Category:1933 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American women artists

Category:21st-century American women artists

Category:Artists from Portland, Oregon