Norman Paris

Professor
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RISD faculty member Norman Paris
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
MFA, Yale University

Painter and printmaker Norm Paris grew up in Cleveland, OH, a city whose industrial and civic history has profoundly influenced the way he thinks about space. He is interested in over-built structures, struggling icons and failed reenactments of old myths. Paris earned his BFA from RISD and his MFA from the Yale School of Art. He has lectured at Yale, Arcadia University, the Ohio State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Tyler School of Art and has been teaching drawing at RISD since 2008.

Paris was a Pew Fellowship finalist in 2005 and won the Ralph Mayer Prize for excellence in methods and materials at Yale in 2002. His work is part of the permanent collections at the Jewish Museum in New York, among other noted collections, and was recently on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Samson Projects in Boston and the Proposition in New York City.

Courses

Fall 2024 Courses

FOUND 1001-07 - STUDIO:DRAWING
Level Undergraduate
Unit Experimental and Foundation Studies
Subject Foundation Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FOUND 1001-07

STUDIO:DRAWING

Level Undergraduate
Unit Experimental and Foundation Studies
Subject Foundation Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: T | 1:30 PM - 6:00 PM; T | 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM Instructor(s): Norman Paris Location(s): Waterman Building, Room 31 Enrolled / Capacity: 20 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Studio: Drawing is pursued in two directions: as a powerful way to investigate the world, and as an essential activity intrinsic to all artists and designers. As a primary mode of inquiry, drawing is a central means of forming questions and creating knowledge across disciplines. Through wide-ranging drawing approaches, students are prompted to work responsively and self-critically to embrace the unpredictable intersection of process, idea and media. To pursue these larger ideas, the studio becomes a laboratory of varied and challenging activities. Instructors introduce drawing as a dynamic two-dimensional record of sensory search, conceptual thought, or physical action. Students investigate materiality, imagined situations, idea generation, and the translation of the observable world. Formal and intellectual risks are encouraged during a sustained engagement with the possibilities of material, mark-making, perception, abstraction, performance, space and time. As students trust the drawing process, they become more informed about its uncharted potentials, and accept struggle as necessary and positive; they gain confidence in their own sensibilities.

Enrollment is limited to First-Year Undergraduate Students.

Major Requirement | BFA

FOUND 1001-16 - STUDIO:DRAWING
Level Undergraduate
Unit Experimental and Foundation Studies
Subject Foundation Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FOUND 1001-16

STUDIO:DRAWING

Level Undergraduate
Unit Experimental and Foundation Studies
Subject Foundation Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: W | 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM; W | 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Instructor(s): Norman Paris Location(s): Waterman Building, Room 31 Enrolled / Capacity: 20 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Studio: Drawing is pursued in two directions: as a powerful way to investigate the world, and as an essential activity intrinsic to all artists and designers. As a primary mode of inquiry, drawing is a central means of forming questions and creating knowledge across disciplines. Through wide-ranging drawing approaches, students are prompted to work responsively and self-critically to embrace the unpredictable intersection of process, idea and media. To pursue these larger ideas, the studio becomes a laboratory of varied and challenging activities. Instructors introduce drawing as a dynamic two-dimensional record of sensory search, conceptual thought, or physical action. Students investigate materiality, imagined situations, idea generation, and the translation of the observable world. Formal and intellectual risks are encouraged during a sustained engagement with the possibilities of material, mark-making, perception, abstraction, performance, space and time. As students trust the drawing process, they become more informed about its uncharted potentials, and accept struggle as necessary and positive; they gain confidence in their own sensibilities.

Enrollment is limited to First-Year Undergraduate Students.

Major Requirement | BFA

Spring 2025 Courses

FOUND 1002-08 - STUDIO:DRAWING
Level Undergraduate
Unit Experimental and Foundation Studies
Subject Foundation Studies
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

FOUND 1002-08

STUDIO:DRAWING

Level Undergraduate
Unit Experimental and Foundation Studies
Subject Foundation Studies
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-02-13 to 2025-05-23
Times: TH | 1:30 PM - 6:00 PM; TH | 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM Instructor(s): Norman Paris Location(s): Auditorium, Room 510 Enrolled / Capacity: 20 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Studio: Drawing is pursued in two directions: as a powerful way to investigate the world, and as an essential activity intrinsic to all artists and designers. As a primary mode of inquiry, drawing is a central means of forming questions and creating knowledge across disciplines. Through wide-ranging drawing approaches, students are prompted to work responsively and self-critically to embrace the unpredictable intersection of process, idea and media. To pursue these larger ideas, the studio becomes a laboratory of varied and challenging activities. Instructors introduce drawing as a dynamic two-dimensional record of sensory search, conceptual thought, or physical action. Students investigate materiality, imagined situations, idea generation, and the translation of the observable world. Formal and intellectual risks are encouraged during a sustained engagement with the possibilities of material, mark-making, perception, abstraction, performance, space and time. As students trust the drawing process, they become more informed about its uncharted potentials, and accept struggle as necessary and positive; they gain confidence in their own sensibilities.

Enrollment is limited to first-year undergraduate students.

Major Requirement | BFA

Image
RISD faculty member Norman Paris
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
MFA, Yale University