Norman has lived in southern Alberta for a long time. He is taken in by the sky, the light, the colours, and the forever extending views. The 19th Century land and railway settlement posters of AC Leighton and others were a big influence on him, as was mid-20th Century advertising: big, bold, expressive, all about a single subject.

Norman studied at the Alberta College of Art, as it was known then, and the Banff Centre. He was active in the local Calgary gallery and artist-run Centre scene in the 80s. His work at the time incorporated text into the surface of the artworks in order to bring out some hidden, underlying meaning.

In the 90s and 2000s Norman travelled extensively throughout the mountains and coastal regions of western Canada and the northwestern United States. In the late 2010s he began a series of depictions of infrastructure, particularly bridges, that is ongoing. His most recent work comes from what he’s seen in the oil sands camps of northeastern Alberta.

He lives and works in Calgary.