Emile Norman: By His Own Design (2007)

The life of artist Emile Norman is chronicled in this compelling documentary profile, which essays the 88-year-old's lifelong dedication to his art, as well as his personal life as an "out" gay man long before it was safe or fashionable, and the creation of his own lifestyle in his private compound in the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur, California. Norman, whose mixed-media works include the grand marble relief and ornate mosaic window of San Francisco's Nob Hill Masonic Center, found success in New York but choose to settle in and live his life in Big Sur, California where he built his own artistic shangri la.