Chaps and Spurs
JANUARY 2017 PARKER COUNTY TODAY said he couldn ’ t play football for religious reasons , i . e ., Friday Night Sabbath . So he got used to the “ outsider thing ,” to being a bit different , to marching just out of step to the beat of a different drummer . He became very experimental and focused on the creative process .
“ I don ’ t know if art imitates life or vice versa , but I found myself doing crazy stuff ,” he said . “ Most of it ’ s been fun .”
When it came time to start thinking about the almighty dollar and
44 employment , at 13 Norris worked with his dad at a print shop in Fort Worth , “ doing things that guys with art degrees weren ’ t doing .” A little on the precocious side , he excelled at graphics arts and eventually transitioned in to sign shop work , specializing in hand-lettering and gold leaf work , back before computers cut vinyl letters .
“ Later I worked for Casa Bonita in Dallas , did Crystal ’ s Pizza ’ s [ artwork ], and I loved that because it was more creative , unusual signage ,” he recalled . “ That ’ s where I broke in to the movies . Somebody called and said they were auditioning for an artist [ to work on ] the movie Born on the Fourth of July , the Tom Cruise movie , in Dallas . So I went over there and there were a bunch of artists , and I did a little thing and they said ‘ The rest of y ’ all can go home . We ’ ve got who we want .’”
Norris said that began a run of four or five movies that he did artwork on , including Necessary Roughness , Leap of Faith and Billy