We had the good fortune of connecting with Norris Hall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Norris, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It had been a dream of mine since I was a child to be an artist and make a living at it. I had been skirting around the edges of the goal through my 20’s, when I finally made the decision to earnestly pursue it in my early 30’s.
It was the “making a living at it” that was the hard part!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve always had a love for cartoons. On paper and on film. I always wanted to be a part of that world. I had NO idea how to get there. After years of trying to sell my paintings and drawings, it struck me: Put your art on something that’s functional and you’ll probably be more likely to sell it.

We came up with the idea of making jewelry. Pins and earrings with my cartoon images on them. Each one was hand painted. We took about 400 pieces to a craft fair and sold all but about ten pieces. It worked.

Then I came up with the idea of taking a pendulum clock, making a cartoon style toothbrush to attach to the end of the pendulum. It would hang from a “floating” dial in front of a panel with a smiling cartoon person or animal. The toothbrush would swing back and forth in front of the character’s mouth, looking like it was brushing their teeth. It was a hit. I have made and sold many hundreds of those clocks since I came up with the idea back in 1990. Most were sold to dentists, through which I gained more work, designing murals for their offices, making funny custom signs, even doing some logo design. All of this led to more functional pieces like light switch covers, mirrors, and then to furniture pieces. Also during this period I got the honor of designing two Tennessee license plates. A cartoon fish and a cat playing saxophone. It’s always fun seeing my license plates on cars when I’m driving around.

With my art out there in all these forms I started getting calls for illustration work. As the years went by, the illustration work was outweighing the demand for my other things. We decided to stop doing craft fairs and concentrate on the illustration and some graphic design. It took us off the road, which was nice, and I could do everything from home.

Although I had to discontinue the “Time to Brush” clocks this year, I now stay very busy with illustration work. Children’s books, comic books, whatever someone needs in my cartoon style. Recently I’ve gotten involved in animation.

It was a lot of hard work, rejection, disappointment and joy, but now I feel like I’ve come full circle. Back to that little kid that dreamed of drawing cartoons and seeing them in books and on film!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
That’s a great question. I’m afraid my best friend would be ready to go home after a couple of days! All I do is work!
There are a couple of restaurants in Nashville that I’ve been to recently that I really liked. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the names of them right now! I have some good friends and a son-in-law that play in a band regularly. If they were playing somewhere we would definitely go see them. I do like going to music stores and looking at all the gear. I plunk around on the bass guitar and drums, so I always like to look at shiny new musical instruments. There are plenty of great music stores in Nashville!
Nashville and the area have a lot to offer. I’m sure I could come up with something if put in that position. My daughter makes fun of me all the time because I never go out. If I go somewhere, it’s big news to her! I know! I’m boring!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Without a doubt I could never have done it without the unwavering support of my wife, Linda. She was the promoter, the bill collector, the bill payer, scheduler, appointment maker, artist’s assistant, etc. She handled all the “business” part of the business and allowed me to create. She also supported all my crazy ideas without a second thought.

Even when times were tough in the beginning, she never doubted me and our decision to make this “art thing” work. In addition to all of that, she made sure our two girls were taken care of through it all.

She deserves more than “a little credit”, she deserves A HUGE amount of credit.

Website: https://norrishall.com

Image Credits
Norris Hall

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