Get In Touch

We'd love to hear from you!

BB&N Office of Communications communications@bbns.org

Print this Page

Inside The Classroom: Exploring Life through Art with John Norton

Andrew Adams ’09 learns about lines while Dorothy Thurston ’08 works on a drawing in the background.

When most students look out the east window of Upper School Art Teacher John Norton’s studio classroom they see only the new courtyard in the center of the campus. But when Norton looks out the same window he sees more—he sees a blank canvas for the students to create on.

“It will be interesting to see how the students adapt to this new space…I can’t wait for the first snow fall to see what sort of activities and sculptures appear out there,” Norton says. “These kids come up with some amazing stuff.”

It’s a statement befitting of Norton, who for 24 years has been striving to empower BB&N students to look beyond first appearances through art.

“It’s a matter of perspective…I often tell students, I know you in a way that you don’t even know you,” Norton says. “I know what you look like from behind, or I know what the back of your head looks like, and you don’t…there are many ways to see something or someone—art forces you to explore that.”

This year Norton is more excited than ever about that exploration, due in large part to his new studio created when the School expanded the Upper School campus. Watching Norton in this new space during his Advanced Studio Art class this Fall, is akin to watching a kid in a roomful of new toys.

 “All the furniture is on wheels to allow flexibility in layout and set up, there’s great light…I even have enough room for a resources library,” Norton exclaims, pointing toward a low bookshelf spanning a wall below a series of tall windows. “And check out this circular drawing space!”

In the brightest space in the room, eight wooden drawing benches are arranged around a modeling platform. Styled after a Parisian invention called the Bozarth bench, Norton and Wood Working Teacher Paul Ruhlmann designed and built the benches to adjust to different drawing positions, including standing and sitting.

 “To me it’s the right way to build a community because it actively positions people in an open circle, and the build of the bench makes students get their entire body involved in the drawing or painting,” Norton says. “Students aren’t just sitting at a flat table; they have to put more into the act of creation.”

As the class convenes, there is an easy but focused camaraderie around the drawing table where Norton and his nine students have gathered. Emerson College radio plays softly in the background while Norton explains their next assignment. Taking inspiration from the famous drawings of New York City artist Saul Steinberg, students will create their own interpretation of Renaissance Hall, the new US wing.

“Steinberg was so interesting because he thought like an adult, but drew like a child,” interjects Norton suddenly, and pauses letting the words sit for a moment, before diving back into an explanation of the assignment. A Norton class is rife with unscripted revelations like this, and it is in these moments that Norton is at his best as a teacher.

“Picasso said ‘art is a lie that we take to be truth.’…isn’t that liberating?” asks Norton at one point of junior Andrew Adams as he works on a sketch of the ceiling. “You aren’t drawing the truth, you’re drawing what’s true to you.”

As Adams ponders this, Norton looks over Adams’ work and points to one area in particular. “It’s at the edge where one line meets another that you have to be clear in your work. Lines are like superhighways, where they merge, you need clearly marked intersections,” says Norton before spinning off to check on another student.

No more than five minutes later Norton comes careening back with a book of sketches by artist Joseph Nicoletti he has found in his art library. “Look at this,” he points out to Adams excitedly. “You and Nicoletti have the same issue with lines.” Norton proceeds to point out how Nicoletti treated the problem.

At another point in the class, sophomore Jessica Brodsky is having difficulty with a sketch. Norton, seized by a thought, grabs her drawing and holds it up for her to look at—then he turns it upside down and has her look at again. Immediately Brodsky notices a problem with horizon lines that she had been sensing, but hadn’t been able to put her finger on.

“I love that moment when something clicks and a student sees something they weren’t seeing before,” Norton says. “You pick up on the kids’ energy and help them to go where they want to go with their work.”

Norton’s students pick up on his energy as well, and have taken to the new studio just as quickly.

“I think the drawing teachers here (Norton and Miklos Pogany) are two of the best teachers at the School,” says Adams. “And this studio is great, it feels like art is a much more balanced part of the School now, and you feel like you’re doing more legitimate work.”

Even after the students meander out of the studio, Norton is still excited about the class and talks about their energy and potential. “Art is like a catalytic converter. It synthesizes kids lives…it takes their energy, skills, mindset, and focuses it all into one act or product,” Norton says. “I try to capture the idea that art is connected to everything else these students are learning.”

                                                                -   -   -   -   -   -   - 

Later on in the day, while picking up his studio for the next class, Norton stops often to point out student art work on the walls that he is impressed with as well features of the new space. He seems like a creature completely at home with his surroundings.

“You know, after two master’s degrees, I came to BB&N thinking I’d only stay for three or four years,” Norton says, and shrugs his shoulders with a smile. “…this will be my 24th year.”

Sounds like a match made in Cambridge.