Norman Sunshine photo

Norman Sunshine

Norman Sunshine is a painter and sculptor whose work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Earlier in his career, he was a fashion illustrator and Vice President, Creative Director of Trahey Advertising, where he coined the phrase “What Becomes a Legend Most?” for Blackglama Minks and “Danskins are not just for Dancing.” He won an Emmy Award for art and title design for Addie and the King of Hearts in 1974. In 1988, he served as Design Director of Lear’s Magazine. View his artwork at www.normansunshine.com


“About their wedding on a beach of Nantucket, after nearly 50 years together as a couple: "After years of being who we truly were only in the privacy of our homes or with a few friends, we were out in the world, under the sky, no longer pretending.” - Norman Sunshine, co-author, Double Life”
Norman Sunshine
Read more
“In the 1970s, when Norman Sunshine won an Emmy for the graphics and title design he had created for one of Alan Shayne’s television productions, “Alan and I agreed it was not a good idea for us to be seen together at an industry event,” he remembers. “Alan, after all, was one of the very few homosexuals who had such a powerful, high profile job, and who lived openly with a man. Homophobia had its adherents and some ruthless climber up the executive ladder would certainly love an opportunity to use it… 'Better to be seen with a woman,’ we were advised by a very trusted friend, ‘Makes everyone more comfortable.”
Norman Sunshine
Read more
“As an artist in the 1960s, Norman Sunshine was able to maintain a moderately out lifestyle. But when the first exhibition of his paintings in New York brought on a profile in The New York Times in 1968, he was photographed in the apartment that he admitted sharing with Shayne. At both his advertising agency and Shayne’s television production company, the article was met with absolute silence.”
Norman Sunshine
Read more
“We both grew up at a time when homosexuality was not even spoken about. There were certainly no books that could help a young person understand that two people of the same sex could build a happy, productive and loving life together. When we entered our 50th year, another same sex couple told us we were ‘an inspiration’, so we began to feel we had the responsibility to make what we’ve experienced available to others. We also wanted to show people who were not gay that our life was not unlike theirs. We are all pretty much the same, so we deserve equal protection under the Constitution.”
Norman Sunshine
Read more
“After 50 years together as a couple:"Look how fast the leaves are falling now," Alan says. "The trees will be bare in a couple of days. Do you realize that we have watched the leaves fall together for more than fifty autumns?"I stand quietly, looking at Alan, letting his words sink in. I am suddenly so moved.”
Norman Sunshine
Read more