My Welsh Icons: Norris Nuvo - graphic artist, animator, poet, campaigner

Norris Nuvo is the working name of a Welsh graphic designer.

Before retirement through mobility problems he taught graphic and multimedia design at a Welsh college.

He has edited video and produced graphic artwork for Swansea University, Cardiff University and the State University of California.

He's worked in animation and video production for clients including Panik Attak, Hooper Films, Nin films and many others.

He recently produced animated visuals for Cardiff band Sicknote.

He's exhibited at Chapter, Antelope Valley Museum California and Welsh universities. He works in a dizzying variety of media and also writes poetry and is campaigns for drug law reform.

My Welsh Place:

It has to be Barry Island. I grew up there, had my first spliff there, had my fist shag there and did my first trip there. It is crap now compared to the boom years of Butlins and the fairground, then it was bustling with lights, sounds and people hell bent on getting as ‘out of it’ as they could, now it is crumbling and falling apart - a bit like me - and drifting into uncared-for decay.

My Sound of Wales:

To be honest, which is something I normally abhor, I would have to say that I do not have a true Welsh sound. I Never liked most of the Welsh musical icons such as Bassey, Jones, Church. I disliked the Stereophonics and loathed Manic Street Preachers and found Catatonia a drag.

I have always loved the theatrical, the bizarre and the carnival and loved the punk era for its audacity and visual theatre. So although there have been no great iconic Welsh musicians for me in the past except maybe for a band called Victimize. I have quite recently discovered a group of people going under the name of Sicknote that has rekindled my interest in local musicians and has awakened the older but not wiser punk in my soul.


My Welsh taste:

Gotta be Clark's Pies innit! When I lived in Egypt, it was my single dream to be eating a Clark's Pie in the rain. When I came home I bought five of them and sat and ate them in one sitting at Victoria park when it was pissing down. Lovely! Although I did puke 'em up afterwards and was amused to watch two dogs lapping up the pie vomit.

My Welsh pride:

I've never really though about national pride and I'm not sure if I am proud to be Welsh. I am proud to be me and I am proud of my artwork, so as I am Welsh by birth I suppose that my Welsh pride is to be proud of myself and my achievements.

My Welsh artist:

Me – because I am a f**king brilliant artist, animator, cook, poet, gardener and general all round great bloke.

My Welsh Icon:

Howard Marks has done more for Wales than most and looking back on my life I feel that without the constant flow of cannabis that came from his organisation, I would not have developed as an artist. I may have indeed drunk myself to death long ago without the weed.

The Loop of Creation by Norris Nuvo: