California artist Emile Norman, born in 1918, is still working with the same passion for life, art, nature, and freedom that inspired him through seven decades of a changing art scene and turbulent times for a gay man in America.

As a young man he was a commercial artist, producing window displays for Bullocks Wilshire in Los Angeles and working on the sets of Hollywood films. At the age of 25 he made his first trip to New York, where he displayed his innovative creations made of plastics, such as window shades, jewelry, dishes (decorative bowls and cups) and screens. His jewelry was photographed in Vogue magazine, and he also produced window displays for Bergdof Goodman, Bonwit Teller, and other department stores.

His first major show as a non-commercial artist was in 1951 at the Feingarten Gallery in New York, where his marble sculptures of animals and abstract organic shapes displayed his signature blend of meticulous detail and a generous, sweeping lyricism.