Today I am talking with Tony Norris who is also known as Mighty Tony a artist with a comic-esque style and boldness to his work. Join us as Tony shares about his transition from fine art and coming back to his love for comics, his current exhibition in NYC, “Mighty Tony and the Asstronauts” and what’s next!
:17 Intro to Tony
2:42 Transition to fine art and coming back to comics
8:58 Commercial vs. Artstic
10:44 “Mighty Tony and the Asstronauts” exhibition
15:39 Mighty Tony’s art went full circle
19:07 Being Gay
22:16 Trans Scooby Doo Cast painting
27:44 What’s Next?
33:55 Where to find Mighty Tony
Anthony Norris was born in 1973 and raised in the rural tidewater region of Virginia. He attended Virginia Commonwealth University to earn his BFA in Sculpture. In 1999 he earned his MFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME. Anthony began making work under the pseudonym Mighty Tony in 2011.
Anthony says, “The work of Mighty Tony is a blend of gay erotica, reference to the history of painting, and to the cheap animation of my youth. The work that I am creating often exists somewhere between Tom of Finland, Francisco Goya and Scooby Doo. Using an adventure strip illustration style (think Alex Toth) I explore the objectification of the male body in various situations of distress (think man eating tigers). The work is a reflection of my own body image issues, fear of rejection and other anxieties as a gay man mixed with eroticism, sincerity, and a frank in your face aggressiveness in subject matter.”
Mighty Tony has self-published the books “The Butch and the Beautiful” and “Chunky Bear.” He will have his first New York City solo show at The Prince Street Project Space in October 2016. The Prince Street Project Space is administered by The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.
