John Kuhn was born in 1948 and grew up in the town of Hutchinson, Kansas. Fortunate enough to have nurturing parents he was encouraged to draw and study art, something he displayed an early talent for. John took the usual art classes in Jr. High and Sr. High and as he has recently relayed to us: … made Jackson Pollock paintings in the basement, gave cartoons and drawings to friends (some of which has embarrassingly resurfaced recently).
After High School, John enrolled at Wichita State University and later transferred to Kansas University in Lawrence at a tumultuous time in US history. John remembers this period quite vividly: College in the late 60's and early 70's was anything but idyllic. The Vietnam War was raging and Kansas University was a hotbed of protest and revolt. I majored in Art History in the Fine Art School rather than Liberal Arts, allowing me to take studio classes in drawing, sculpture, and two-D design. The spring semester of 1970 turned lethal at Kansas University with two dead, the ROTC building bombed, and most of the Student Union building gutted by an arson fire. This was too much distraction for someone who could charitably be called, an indifferent student. I muddled along for a couple more semesters and left without a degree in 1971.
After leaving, John began working in the construction field; however he continued to experiment and created a great deal of art. In early 1974, he received a tip from a friend about a job opening in the art department at a local educational and industrial film company - Centron Films. With enough artwork for a decent portfolio, he applied for the job and was hired.
Centron Films had a small art department of three people where John and his co-workers designed brochures for the company, produced animated sequences for the films and created props and sets. It was a terrific education and part of his work involved the use of an airbrush for creating backgrounds and cut-away animations of machinery for industrial films. It was this experience that John later built upon to develop his current style of painting. John continued working for Centron for the next 10 years and in 1984, when the founders sold the firm, he felt it was a good time to leave.
Throughout this period John continued producing artwork; most of which was exhibited in juried shows and local galleries. Since 1984 he has been working solely as an artist.
John and his wife Margie have been married for 28 years. She's is also and artist and the two share a studio, ideas, criticism and try to give each other support. Margie currently splits her time between the studio and teaching adjunct in the Fine Arts School at Kansas University.
