John Norman Stewart

My entire life has been centered around art and music. They are both equally important and I'm still in the process of discovering their possibilities. My parents encouraged my drawing interests at the age of 5ish and my mom taught me some piano basics at the age of 7. I got my first paid art gig while in high school - one of my fellow classmates' mom was an interior decorator that did projects all over Los Angeles. She took an interest in my work and I did a lot of art projects for her (paintings, murals, ceramic tiles, etc.)

I graduated from high school with a 1/2 tuition scholarship to Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts), and later attended Art Center. I spent six years working for an art company in Burbank, CA creating multiples of welded sculpture and then tiring of that developed a relationship with an art agent who sold a lot of art for me across the country. Fast Forward to 1975: My wife at the time was a film actress and she suggested that I look for a job at the studios. I looked and I found and spent the next 25 years working as a scenic, portrait and title artist for Universal, Disney, Paramount, MGM and others. Highlight was meeting and doing an oil portrait of Bette Davis for a mini-series called "Harvest Home". Also got to do portraits of Brian Keith, James Brolin, Henry Winkler and several other leads.

My first paid music gig was at a bar in Glendale, California in about 1962, followed by scores of others over the years. I had a trio, duo, single and enjoyed them all but found out that I prefer doing "single". I've always enjoyed the old standards, show tunes and jazz, but also enjoy attempts at pure improvisation.

I retired from the entertainment business in 2000. I had just lost my second wife of 34 years and decided to head for Northern California and see what "not working" was like. I dabbled in buying and selling art, operating a B&B with my current wife, Valerie, painting and doing various musical jobs......and I'm still doing Art and Music today....... :)