About the Author

Ashley Norman

Greetings, AOEU community! My name is Ashley Norman, and I am an artist, educator, and community builder. I hold an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art and a BFA in Art Education from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA.

For over a decade, I have taught in New Hampshire, Maine, North Carolina, and Massachusetts in various programs spanning higher education, public schools, and alternative, community, and adult education.

As an artist, I work under the pseudonym Ashley Normal. Making observations of the every day, I illuminate the bizarre and absurd in the familiar. Through drawing, painting, mixed media, altered materials, and performance art, I create work where nothing is as it seems. This work allows me to explore and communicate about issues surrounding: womanhood, gender, mental illness, family, and social taboos. I connect with the Japanese ceramic method and philosophy Kintsugi, which treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object. Rather than something to disguise, the imperfections of an object add to its allure, making it more beautiful for having been broken.

When not teaching or making art, you can find me walking, practicing yoga, and enjoying time with my husband, son, and family in southern New Hampshire.