Molly Norris' 'Editoons': Satirical reflections on the world around us

Molly Norris, the prolific local artist and writer, once accused herself in print of having "the hungriest eyeball on earth." It's an asset that glows in "Editoons," her current show of satirical illustrations and comics at Marni Muir Gallery. Her pieces run the gamut from microcosmic portraits of neighborhoods like the Chinatown International District, to delicious skewerings of societal behavior, like "How to Keep a Green Meth Lab" (hint: thrift-store glassware!).

Other creations include stand-alone works like "Red Flag Pavilion," where a man and woman face pennants that read, "He was mean to the waitress," and "She flirts." "Digeridon't" is an elegantly effective dismissal of the annoying instrument. And, there's an entire wall devoted to dogs. "Scratch.com," a canine take on Internet dating, will have you searching for a hydrant.

Norris started flexing her cartoon muscle in 2001 with her Illustrated Art Reviews for Art Access magazine, which she continues today. She also publishes monthly in City Arts. Her drawings are done in pencil and outlined with black watercolor or ballpoint pen. They incorporate watercolor pigments and/or elements of collage, and most are further colored with Photoshop. Their handmade-looking immediacy and grotesque realness are akin to Esther Pearl Watson's Bust serial, "Tammy Pierce is Unlovable."

A distinctly "Seattle" identity-complex reveals itself in Norris' work, as she imagines what's really going on behind the computer screens in coffee shops, or in the crowds at art galleries. Norris seems fascinated, as any restaurant server or cabdriver might, by the subtexts beneath cordiality.

Consumerism is another favorite topic.

"You could've had time to say goodbye to your loved ones at the end of your life, except you were standing looking at shampoo," says Norris of the mind-boggling array of choices we have.

A "free-association junkie," Norris draws humor from the dark and shameful elements of life. Her childhood inspirations include her mother, who she says has the comic timing of Jack Benny, and Mad Magazine. But she was privy to other dark secrets as well.

"My friend that I grew up with, her dad was a doctor, and we looked through his really dark medical books. That always stuck with me. It was so sad — big, hanging goiter things, or a giant hole where an ear should be. We'd drink bourbon and cokes and look through these books while our parents played bridge in the other room," says Norris.

Having made mural-size art in the past, Norris enjoys the scale of her comics. "When I was making art expressing myself, it didn't feel as fulfilling as sort of expressing the world, and being really inclusive and making people laugh."