Emile Norman

[5][2] In the 1980s, the married actors Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry met Norman, purchased land from him in Big Sur, became his neighbors and close friends,[3] and eventually spent five years[6] producing a documentary on his life.

Norman began his professional career designing window displays for the Bullocks Wilshire department store in Los Angeles.

He later moved to New York to design window displays for department stores including Bergdorf Goodman and Bonwit Teller — his work featured in Vogue and other periodicals.

[10][8] His work was featured in a Manhattan gallery in 1944 and subsequently covered in The New York Times — noting Norman's innovative use of plastic as decorative rather than functional material.

The Monterey Herald described the mural as an endomosaic, incorporating thousands of bits of metal, parchment, felt, linen, silk, natural foliage, thinly sliced vegetable matter, shells and sea life, plus 180 colors of stained glass.