Today we’d like to introduce you to Stuart Klipper.
Hi Stuart, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am an artist and a photographer. Photography was one of my early hobbies.
It stuck; and, many of those other early interests and hobbies informed what I have been doing in my life as an artist, I got to where I am today by just doing what I do no matter what; and, admittedly, gaining some decent element of recognition and support, some by mere chance, some more concertedly.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m not sure I’ve felt the need to survey the roads I’ve traveled in that frame of reference.
Sure, life has hit me hard on occasion; personal let-downs and disappointments, some professional slights, and uncertain cash flow. I seem to regain an even enough keel and forge on.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
For nineteen years now, I’ve volunteered at a Minneapolis Elementary School. I often tell about my experiences in Polar regions. I ask who amongst them has been to Antarctica. I get the doofus look. Then I tell that when I was their age I got there. Double the doofus look. Then comes my ‘sermon’ — I say I loved reading about the Antarctic when I was a kiddo, and I lucked out as a grown-up and got to go there to do my work.
Ditto, several other of the planet’s uttermost regions. So, due to that luckiness, I am one of 400 or so people that have stood at both the South and North Poles. I have attained several important awards, including two Guggenheim Foundation fellowships, my work has been exhibited in, and is in the collections of, major museums, throughout the US and abroad; but, the sole thing I like to brag about is getting to the Poles. I might also add that when I was in school, my favorite subjects were geography and science… so what I might have been doing all these decades as an artist has been just to go out into the world, to find what’s there and perhaps just make pictures that would fit into my school textbooks.
What sets me apart is that I am different from others; but, who really isn’t?
What matters most to you? Why?
Friendships. As they say, because…
Contact Info:
- Email: www.sklipper@bitstream.net
