I make things that are meant to leave my hands.
I’m norville Parchment, an artist and designer in Lake Oswego, Oregon, just outside Portland. Right now that mostly means the Mona Lucy, a new Mona Lisa with features borrowed from Lucille Ball. I spray-paint her, put her in a gold frame and hang her somewhere in town for someone to take. The piece isn’t done until they do. That’s the whole project, Thank You for Stealing the Mona Lucy.
For more than twenty years I was a creative director at agencies. After that I led the user experience groups at Cisco.com and Intel.com, and at Intel I directed design for a site of about 700,000 pages. These days I run Project Wildflower, a two-person design consultancy, with Ann Radcliffe.
For many years I fancied myself a painter, but I was never really that good (I admit it now). I’ve been all over the map: games, music, a movie, a musical, a bunch of albums, two magazines, a puppet circus. Every single one a commercial failure. So I guess I’m lucky.
On the art side I spray-paint, take books apart and rebuild them (26 so far), make board games and puppets, and now and then fire smoke rings at people. The Duchamp page explains where the L.H.O.O.Q. on every frame comes from.
More of the work is on Instagram at @art_norville. If you want to reach me, the contact page has everything.