Cynthia Norton (Louisville, KY)
Shrunken Apple Head Doll, 2007
Apple, wire, cloth

Part of the Apple Suckling Tree installation, these shrunken apple head doll were made by Cynthia Norton’s 9th Grade students at Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky. Profit from their sales will go directly to the students.

Cynthia Norton grew up in Kentucky where she developed her artistic identity since early childhood. In undergraduate school at the University of Kentucky, she opened the door to new media in video and kinetic sculpture while simultaneously exploring performance work. During these forays into new artistic territory, Norton drew heavily upon the domestic traditions of her southern cultural heritage, creating video quilts and kinetic dress sculptures which transcended the traditional boundaries of media genres and art making.

In graduate school, while pursuing her degree in Time Arts, Norton further honed her skills in video technology and kinetic mechanics while developing her idiosyncratic performance personae of Ninnie Naïve (based upon the classic country comedic genre of the ‘rube,’ such as Minnie Pearl or String Bean). With the accumulation of these skills, and the expansion of her performance personae, Norton was awarded an MFA in Time Arts from the School of The Art Institute Chicago in 1995.

Since that time, Norton has continued to cross traditions and media working in installation and performance while focusing on her cultural heritage, as a Kentucky woman and an artist in the guise of Ninnie she has traveled extensively concocting sculptural installations and her own special music on musical instruments of her own making, exploring further the boundaries and transcending the limits of traditional art genres and media.

More information on Cynthia Norton

Cynthia Norton’s Resume

Cynthia Norton’s Bio

Available Work