Emile Norman: By His Own Design Preview

Emile Norman: By His Own Design is a portrait of the self-taught California artist, Emile Norman, who at age 90 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.

The film tells the story of Norman's independent spirit—how it developed from his early days on a walnut ranch in the San Gabriel Valley and brought him success in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. This independent spirit later gave him the confidence to leave the New York art scene and find freedom in Big Sur, where he and Brooks Clement, his partner of 30 years, built a house and created a haven for a circle of friends that still grows today. None of this came without struggle. From the beginning, Norman's natural talent and love of art came into conflict with the conventional ideas of his parents, while his sexual orientation had to be hidden in a time when "gay" meant "sissy."

The film shows Norman's work glittering in Bergdorf Goodman's windows, on chorus girls' headdresses in the Fred Astaire movie "Blue Skies," and winning rave reviews at New York City gallery shows. Even then, however, he had to be portrayed as "the California rancher-turned-artist." It wasn't until Norman met Brooks Clement that he was able to live openly. Then, as his long-time friend, costume designer Willa Kim relates, "He didn't just come out of the closet, he burst out of the closet!"