Short Bio
I am John Bittinger Klomp, Visual Artist, creating acrylics, mixed media distressed digital images, graphics, pastels and graphite paintings and drawings. My work can.be found in my blog, The Art of John Bittinger Klomp, http://jbkart.blogspot.com, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JohnKlomp. Twentierh Century masters like Pablo Picasso and Georgia O’Keefe experimented in various techniques and media. While I cannot compare myself to those two masters, I have had my share of Andy Warhol’s ‘fifteen minutes’ as seen in “Career Events” below. I worked a double career as artist and art educator for thirty-eight years, teaching K–12 and college level,“Computer and Digital Technology as Applied to Art Education.” I completed my Doctor of Arts, Art Education at New York University in 2000. Since retirement I am free to fulfill my passion of art production.
Statement
"I'm saying to you," …There is no such thing as / One initial singularity. / It Happened, / Happened again – And still again. / It happens now, / And will happen / In another now, / And again – / And each time / Folded into itself / In extra dimensions – / Matter and energy / Condensed into / A soup of / No thing / And, the / Nothing of / Another space / And then / Reborn each time – / Every time! / A thousand / Eternities! / Another thousand, / And another – / And still others – / Space time / Is overfilled / With possibility. / An infinity!
Biography
Born September 11, 1944, the artists earliest memories are those associated with World War II, his mother’s molasses cookies, watching her swirl yellow die into white margarine, a maroon prewar Desoto that often broke down, and a nightmare about falling off a balcony. He was encouraged as a child artist by his grandmother, Sarah Harriet Bittinger (she preferred Harriet) who kept a folio of his drawings that started with his earliest stick figure at age three. However, his family and public school (k – 12) seeing “Jack” devour science fiction literature encouraged him to concentrate on science. After one year enrolled in a Liberal Arts Program at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, the artist scribbling and drawing in his notebooks and texts switched from nickname, Jack to John, and Liberal Art program to Fine Art program at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. He graduated with a major in Graphic Design in 1967. However, Instead of pursuing graphics, as always marching to his own drum, he pursued a career in teaching. He obtained his master’s degree in art education (1978), Rowan University, N.J. and Doctor’s Degree in Art Education (1999) at New York University. During the years teaching art, K through 12, as well as college level, “Computer and Digital Technology as Applied to Art Education, John continued to work as a fine artist making Photoreal portraits (using powdered graphite, additive / subtractive techniques) of family and friends, as well as iconic personalities in the arts and Sciences. With the advent of computers and electronic technology the artist used his digital camera and computer software to make art. Later, in the first decade this century, he pursued a seemingly impossible technique, art production located on the divide between the virtual computer spaces created by technology versus traditional physical tools, paper, paint, collage. Most recently John has returned to his Science and Sci-Fi roots with the series "Initial Singularities, Other Dimensions / Universes and Queer Icons: Paintings, Digital Prints, Poetry and Graphic Chatbooks."
Resume / CV
abbreviated list of career events as a visual artist
2024 – Initial Singularities – studio, Rehoboth Beach, DE
2013 – LGBTQ Pictionary, – Gay Pride Month Exhibit – Camp Rehoboth Community Center, Rehoboth Beach, DE –
2008 - Pastels, Ocean, Beach and Marsh, Florida, Friends of the Arts, Juno Beach, FL
2007 – Faucett Okie Award – 69th Annual Art League Fine Art Membership Show, Rehoboth Beach, DE
2001 – World War II Observation Towers, Blue Moon, Rehoboth Beach, DE
1980 - 84 – Photoreal Portraits, exhibit in the gallery and storefront window, Good Company Gallery, 339 Columbus Avenue, New York City, NY
1981 – Paul Muni, Scarface, (commission), Patrick O’Neal, New York, NY
1980 – Marilyn Monroe, Let’s Make Love, (commission), Patrick O’Neal, New York City, NY
1977 – Portraits, Route 66 Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1973 – Portraits, group show – Marian Art Center, Lancaster, PA
