Joe Norman - Faith/Doubt

Hi everyone, I’m Joe Norman. I’ve been a full-time sculptor since 2009. My studio is about an hour North of here in Loveland, Colorado. Mostly I work on site-specific sculpture projects that involve cities, private individuals, and business. This work in front of you is made of stainless steel and shows the word “Doubt” when seen from one angle, and the word “Faith” when seen from the other. Over the past several years, I’ve been drawn to sculpting large words. Originally I was interested in using them to demonstrate a transition from one idea to another: Fear transforming into Love, for example. I’ve found that a more appealing interpretation is that these concepts can exist together and are not mutually exclusive. Somehow can have doubt and faith at the same time; those feelings may even inform each other. I find that a very useful conversation.

Although the words “doubt” and “faith” have often had a religious connotation, my intent is to use them in a broader sense. Personally, I’ve found that putting political ideals, popular myths, and scientific claims through the crucible of doubt has strengthened my faith in many of them. Needless to say that process has also revealed other ideas to be pure horse shit, and any faith I had in them originally evaporated. But my intent only goes so far when my work is in public places like this field. Maybe these sculptures can be somewhat of a mirror; people can bring to them what they are already thinking and feeling. In that case, I’m really interested to hear those stories. If you’d like to see more of my work or get in touch, please visit www.joenormansculpture.com or drop me a line and joe@joenormansculpture.com.