Laura Normandin

As an artist, Laura Normandin operates within a limited lexicon of images: "My work consists of a catalogue of 89 symbols which I explore in varying combinations and contexts. The objects I choose are generally humble, domestic and ordinary ... The idea that the lowly are strong, not despite their brokenness but because of it, is the theme to which I constantly return. To this end, I make books, painting and artifacts and whatever else catch my fancy."

Some of the work is familiar, like the (beloved) cover of Sufjan Stevens' 2003 concept album Greetings From Michigan. And some of the work feels familiar in the way one remembers impossibly seeing it (or something very like it) in Grandma's living room a lifetime ago, as with Hair Embroidery. This recycling of imagery over mixed media lends her body of work a gestalt free from typecasting. Her forms do not merely wear their next incarnation, they inhabit it.

Normandin runs the Etsy shop Wren Handmade, and authors a blog of the same name. Oh, and she's been a craft editor at Martha Stewart Living for 10 years.