Introducing Joe Norman as part of the Raitman Art Galleries family August 17 2026, 0 Comments

By Kimberly Nicoletti

Fresh on the heels of introducing landscape painter Brad Teare, Joe Norman is the newest artist Raitman Art Galleries represents. 

Joe Norman’s multi-faceted steel sculptures truly need to be seen in person. Our website depicts three photos of the same sculpture because they’re so complex. The series of evolving panels within one sculpture transform from, say, a coyote to a hawk or from the words “Fear” to “Love,” depending upon which side you view them from.

While the Raitmans definitely don’t accept any ole artist who walks in off the streets — due to their impeccable eye for quality — Joe Norman defied just that: He and his wife Erin were walking around downtown Breckenridge and swung into the north gallery to check it out. He had just purchased a new shirt so he was feeling particularly fancy when he strolled into the gallery. He saw works by a couple friends of his and started chatting with Andrea Browne, one of the Breckenridge sales consultants. Brian Raitman happened to be sitting at the other desk in the gallery and eavesdropped on the conversation when he heard Joe point out his friends work (Clay Enoch in particular) and introduced himself as an acquaintance of Enoch's and as an artist himself. It turns out, the Raitmans were already familiar with Norman's sculptures, having seen them in public art collections around the state of Colorado. For the past six years, they've admired his "Run and Fly" sculpture in Golden, Colorado as they drove up and down Highway 93, often on their way to or from installing art in the area. They've admired his "Monarch Girl" sculpture in the Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland, Colorado on more than one occasion too.

Norman's degree in product design from Stanford and experience as a custom metal fabricator within the motorcycle industry informs how he conceives and fabricates these complex sculptures. He also uses automotive finishes on his sculptures so they hold up both indoors and out. 

But he admits that the designs stem from plenty of trial and error.

“I'm staring at an entire shelf of prototypes of failed ideas,” he said as he looked around his studio in Loveland, Colorado. “For each sculpture, there’s probably 30-plus prototypes that no one sees, but each of them informs the next version. So it’s a lot of mistakes and just trying to enjoy that process of learning and making mistakes.”

Indeed, he needs a healthy ego to make that many mistakes on every project and continue to persevere. 

The ones that don’t see the light of day fall short of his three criteria for compelling art. 

First, it needs to intellectually engage the viewer — something his 22 x 22 x 12-inch orange coyote that transforms into a hawk, or the 22 x 12 x 12-inch green hawk that turns into a trout, definitely do as you try to figure out how on earth he pulled the metamorphoses off.

Second, it must emotionally resonate with people, like his 10 x 4 x 4-inch sculpture of the word “Doubt,” which converts to “Faith” by changing the way you look at it — literally.

And, third, he wants it to contribute to the health of the community it’s placed in, whether that’s a family’s private home or a public art sculpture, the latter of which most of his career revolves around. In addition to Colorado, Norman has works in public collections in Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

While you might wonder how he dreams up pairing a coyote with a trout or a hawk in one sculpture, it’s actually based on his public art series that relate to the environment. The sculptures usually exist in a trio and represent the wildlife that thrive within the land, air and water. For example, in one Boulder hotel courtyard (at the Limelight Boulder), he created a coyote that turns into a trout in one sculpture, then the trout turns into a red-tailed hawk in the second piece and the hawk transforms into a coyote in the third, completing the circle. 

Another public sculpture in Arizona features howling coyotes that transform into jazz musicians, based on the premise that both share a reliance on improvisation to survive or engage in their craft.

His love of public art — and the fact that everyone can enjoy it — began at a young age. Growing up, his family would spend all day in New York City’s public libraries. While he later learned that they hung out in libraries because they couldn’t afford to heat their apartment, as a kid, the availability of books enchanted him. 

When they moved to Texas, Norman discovered a library with large panels showcasing mounted paintings attached to the wall in a way that would allow people to turn them back and forth like pages of a gigantic book. But what really stood out is that he could check the paintings out, just as he would a book. And for that period of time, his family would admire an original painting in their home.

“I just thought, ‘How cool is that, that there’s art for everybody?’ That really made an impact. So that’s why I focus on public art now, because whoever you are — a visitor, a resident, whatever your income level — you can experience this art,” Joe Norman said.

In coordination with structural engineers, city works departments, fabricators and other stakeholders, he generates public art throughout the nation, spanning from Georgia to California.

He’s currently working on one for a new animal shelter in Aurora, Colorado.

“It’s probably a year and a half out, but I'm pretty excited about that because people have really deep connections to animals, and animal shelters are such a rich place for that kind of emotional and intellectual engagement,” Joe Norman said.

His overall intent revolves around making art that supports justice, compassion and action in the world, in hopes that people will increasingly care about each other and their environment.

He also enjoys playing around with paradigms that seem mutually exclusive, such as his “Fear/Love” sculpture, in which the focus on the word “Fear” switches to “Love” when you change your point of view. 

His work embodies a belief that multiple ideas can coexist in one form, or piece — if you look at something from one side, you might experience “fear,” but if you approach it from the other side, suddenly, “love” emerges.

“A lot of these things that I combine in the sculptures, they’re not actually mutually exclusive, even though at first glance, I thought they were. Take love and fear, for example. I think in healthy people, both of them exist at the same time, just like they both exist in a sculpture at the same time,” Joe Norman said. “Conceptually, that’s where these things start.”

And, that really is just the start for him. He’s currently creating some sculptures that include mural paintings on each side of the plates, providing even more images, colors, depth, shadows and highlights.

Joe Norman's work in the galleries introduces a new level of interactivity to the space. The sales consultants have gotten a kick out of the look on people's faces as they walk around each piece, discovering something new as they move about it for the first time. That sense of transformation encapsulates what the Raitmans are looking for when they curate their spaces. They want the galleries to encourage people to go from casually walking around town to really slowing down, discovering something new and taking the time to take it in. Norman's work is a wonderful addition to deepening that experience.