Deanna Norwood, Artist in Residence

Instagram: @sophiedbarker
Twitter: @sophiebarker

Deanna’s not ready for this part yet, so I (Liz) will tell you about something I find mysterious. Deanna says “I’m going to draw a thing and it’s going to look like this” and then she does.

She used to be able to draw without needing an eraser, but then her hand got shaky (a story for her to tell you) and that got hard. We took a drawing class and our teacher thought it was very important for us to understand,

erasers are tools and not just because you make mistakes

and so Deanna learned to use an eraser. I saw it click one day. It was magical, and our art has not been the same since.

She likes those ones that come in a pen dispenser thingy because she can erase very small things. She also uses really fine mechanical pencils, (even though they’re catchy and miserable and break off all the time and I don’t know how anyone can stand to live like that) and the really fine wood carving tools.