Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Klepinger.
Hi Eric, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was heavily interested in nature and drawing since I was a very young boy, around the age of 7. Though my family supported my fledgling talent, my father never saw being an artists as a viable career, being a highly educated man with a business mind. So, going along with my father’s views, I saw art as purely a hobby and would often hike around our Colorado mountain home with a drawing pad and pencil in hand. As I grew up, I would often win art awards, such as the Kiwanis Gold Key Award, which I won in 7th grade, and other school-based art competitions. I was always grateful for the amazing art teachers I had leading up through high school. Learning various painting and drawing techniques were invaluable to me. Despite my clear aptitude towards art, and awards I earned, my father’s beliefs guided me away from seeing art as a way of living.
I won a small art scholarship to attend the University of Denver where my father was, at the time, a professor. Though the School of Art and Art History was not highly recognized nationally, due to my massive tuition break, it was a logical place to attend college. Unfortunately, I found my art education through the university to be lacking, and was thankful I had such great teachers in high school. I moved away from fine art and pursued graphic design, which had a much better curriculum and direction. Regardless, I still did a lot of art, specifically drawings and paintings, as students would often commission me to create art for them as gifts to others. I was also arting on my own, and these creations often sold.
During my junior year, I was given an internship at he Denver Museum of Natural History in their Exhibits Division as a Preparator. It was a fantastic opportunity that led to a paid career. Over the years at the Museum, I brought my graphic design experience to exhibits where I was helping to create multimedia and interactive exhibits, as well as managing traveling exhibits that had interactive elements as part of their show. I was ultimately given the title of Manager of Technical Support Services and Exhibit Maintenance where I had a staff of 5, many volunteers, and managed a million dollar budget.
After ten years of a wonderful experience, I left the museum to pursue a career in multimedia design and software development through two companies I co-owned, Cyberdyne Systems Corporation and ActiveGuide, LLC. Both entities were highly successful before the market began to crash in 2009, and to be honest, my love of computers and multimedia design was crashing, too. At the time, we were working with animal welfare groups all across the US, and with the poor market, within 6 months, we lost all of our clients as we were considered ‘non-essential’ expenditures. Instead of depression, elation washed over me. Having decades worth of experience in home improvement work, which I had done on the side for decades, I started a new business called, Chameleon Home Improvement, which was successful from the start, and allowed me to get back into creating with my hands. It also allowed me to pursue my love of fine art, which I started doing professionally, due to my now flexible hours and time.
Once my daughter left Colorado to attend college at the University of Puget Sound, I too, felt it was time to leave. After researching areas, I settled on Duluth, MN, in which I bought a humble two bedroom cabin that sits right on Lake Superior 20 miles northeast of the city. Not having a job, I continued doing home improvement work in the area, while building my career as a professional artist. And, after 10 years of glorious living on the North Shore, I have slowly built a name for myself as an artists, where I am often invited to have private shows, group shows, and have gallery presences in two local galleries. I also enjoy teaching art and serving others through art commission work. I am now a full-time professional artist and feel very blessed for the path that led me to this place. And the journey only continues!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I follow a very spiritual, not religious, life, which I became more aware of in my mid 40s. Due to my beliefs, I believe that fear is an ego creation meant to hold us back from our true potential. Often we stay ‘stuck’ because it is comfortable and safe, even if it makes us miserable. The idea of change can be terrifying because we often have no idea if the change will be better than what we have (“oh, what if it is worse?”, says our egos) and true change is so very hard to predict. So we stay miserable. Though I never felt my life was miserable, I did feel divinely pulled toward embracing my artistic side, even though the story that my father planted in my head when I was 7 that art is not a career. Artist clearly can be successful, so why not me? So, the scariest thing I did was to move with no job, not idea what the future held, living expenses that were much higher than I could have imagined, and not knowing where the money would come. Despite all this fear (again, ego created), I moved. Then it was a matter of continually putting aside the fear and doubts and taking each opportunity one step at a time. The only thing that would hurt me is if I didn’t take action on these opportunities, now matter how small they are. And like stacking rocks on top of each other, one opportunity leads to another and another and even when I had no idea where it would lead or what meaning it had, I followed my divine guidance, those Universal and Angelic gifts, and kept moving forward. So, I would say, it is NEVER a smooth road as smooth means predictable. It is more about redefining what smooth means and accepting the joy of unpredictability.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
When I first decided to become a professional artists, it was all about, ‘if I make X number of art pieces and sell them for X price, I can make this work’. What I didn’t realize at the time is I had already failed before I had started. I followed this seemingly logical path, which my now deceased father would have been proud of, and I received very little if any income from it. Through my discouragement, I went through a phase some call the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’. Once I processed myself and reflected on my ego and humility, I made a shift to creating art that is meaningful to me, and to not focus on whether others will like it and what the price would be, so completely opposite my original plan. My love is nature, specifically wildlife, as I feel all life does have a soul, an energy, and that energy can guide us. We may have the largest brains, that doesn’t mean we are the wisest in the world. I know how much nature can guide us, it has done so for indigenous peoples all around the world for millennia. Regardless of whether I create an acrylic painting, soft pastel, pencil or ink drawing, I pour my love and soul into my subject, hoping I will be successful in celebrating the subject’s energy so that others are inspired by it. I use my extensive experience as a graphic artist to use the tools of the trade in building and composing strong compositions for my art reference. I am usually planning multiple compositions at once, though some may take weeks of planning and revising before I like what I see as a reference. One thing one of my high school teachers said that has always stuck with me, ‘you have an innate knack at composition’ as, for me, it is like breathing. To me a strong composition will make for a wonderful piece of art.
My art tends to be more on the realism side, though I may create more impressionism backgrounds for my subject. I also know that wildlife art has to appeal to the viewer, and not all people like animals, so when someone resonates with my art, it is magical, whether they buy it or not. I do have gallery representation at both Siiviis in Duluth, MN and at Ghost Ship Gallery in Washburn, WI, and I do participate in individual and group shows, where I have done the most is using social media as your art becomes distributed to such a massive audience.
I don’t believe in competition and I completely and energetically support all artists and photographers. We each celebrate the world in our own way, and through our unique styles and ‘eyes’, others will resonate with us, too. My focus is on me and my technique and my intention for being an artist, and as long as I stay true and authentic to myself and my subject matter, that is all that matters to me. The biggest challenge an artists and photographer faces, to me, is being brave and vulnerable enough to express themselves in whatever medium they choose and to not worry about money or fame or who likes or doesn’t like their art.
What were you like growing up?
Though those who may meet me for the first time would disagree, I am very much an introvert and much prefer to be alone and creating and being at piece. I resonate with animals and nature more than people, and this gets stronger as I get older. The COVID year was my best year as I didn’t have to see anyone. However, I also know how important it is to be ‘social’, so I am grateful for all the businesses I owned is it forced me to go to shows, promote myself, interface with others, and to feel more comfortable, energetically, to be with others. However, I need to refuel in my alone space after.
Growing up, people saw me as an observer. I wasn’t timid, but I also wasn’t aggressive, and I would say I am still that way. Wolf is my Spirit Animal for many reasons, and being an observer is one of them. I also am blessed with an intuitive nature where I can read people and animals pretty easily. Maybe this is a defense mechanism or maybe it is a skill. I will let others judge that. For me, it allows me to go deeper into life and better understand motives, loves, and desires in others if they aren’t wanting to share with me directly. And, artistically, it allows me to better celebrate my subject.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.EJKlepinger.com (this site is sooooo antequated and I really need to create a new site, social media is my preference)
- Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/EJKlepinger
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EricKlepinger
