Norma Lu Meehan

With the encouragement of teachers of fashion illustration both in high school and at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, Norma Lu Meehan realized her dream of drawing high fashion as a career.Following design school, Norma Lu returned to her hometown of South Bend, IN, and her next four decades saw in-house and free-lance positions as both illustrator and advertising director locally, in surrounding cities and Chicago. To keep up with the changing scene, she relied on fashion magazines, the New York Times and ongoing education with life, anatomy and portrait classes.

When the use of advertising fashion illustrators ended, she was surprised and delighted to see that some illustrators had found a new outlet in the engaging world of paper dolls. So now she enjoys the camaraderie of other artists, collectors, and publishers. Beginning in the 1990s with Hobby House and Texas Tech University Press, Norma Lu is now happily at home with Paper Studio Press.

Another of Norma Lu's specialties are her personal paper dolls which are done through commission so that anyone can be a star.

Winters find her doing volunteer work at her local history museum as a costume curator working with their extensive collection, mounting exhibits and choosing fashions of the past to be featured in their costume cases, which change quarterly.

Summers are spent away from South Bend at her Michigan cottage where painting turns to water color landscapes, where she can join her friends in their kayaks, and best of all, where she can soak up her visiting children, grandchildren and great grandkids. That and an evening glass of wine while watching the sun go down over the water. [adapted from Art Nouveau Paper Dolls (2015)]