Working within a visionary surrealist tradition, Norman Stiegelmeyer’s (1937—1985) work is noted as extravagantly colorful, with ornate fantasmagoric designs. He attended and then taught for many years at the San Francisco Art Institute and is often regarded as a founding figure of California Visionary Art, art produced in the late 1960’s inspired by elevated states of consciousness and concerned with spiritual transformation. The artist began a practice of meditation at the San Francisco Zen Center in the mid-1960s. Stiegelmeyer’s work explored dualities of identity such as good-evil, spirit-matter and man-woman.