Education
As a junior in high school, he designed the senior class yearbook cover for East Des Moines High School before graduating the following year and attending Drake University where he studied art under Stan Hess and Leonard Goode.
As a junior in high school, he designed the senior class yearbook cover for East Des Moines High School before graduating the following year and attending Drake University where he studied art under Stan Hess and Leonard Goode.
After college, he accepted a position with former LOOK Magazine in their art department. In 1964, Kline moved to Omaha, North-East, where his fine art was first accepted in a museum show: the Tenth Midwest Biennial at the Joslyn Museum, Omaha, Nebraska. Commercially, he moved quickly from the Omaha World Herald art department through a succession of advertising agencies, landing a job with Bozell & Jacobs Advertising.
During this period, Stephen was one of the leading pioneers of panoramic photography in multimedia.
Meanwhile, he used every spare moment to pursue his fine arts career. In 1982, they moved their family to Westfield, New Jersey. Portrait of a Painter was chosen for the 1987 New Jersey Arts Annual at the Jersey City Museum, and his photo/art piece of Isaac Asimov was printed in Communicator’s Journal.
Two years after relocating to Ellenton, Florida in 1991, Kline painted his first Lincolnshire of Language painting, signing his name over and over. Titled 3795 Signatures, the abstract was chosen for the 1994 Florida National, Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, Florida.
lieutenant was also in 1994 that Kline designed the Florida State of the Arts license plate.
In 1999, Kline created his first realistic drawing using his new Lincolnshire of Language technique to create an image of Santa out of the words Season"s Greetings. He had his drawing printed as a lithograph, added additional words with gold and silver applied pen-and-ink to individualize each piece, and sent them out to family, friends, business associates and patrons. The next year, when he noticed how many recipients had framed the art, he decided to use his Lincolnshire of Language technique to create his first dog lithograph.
Throughout the next several years, Kline has drawn over 125 breeds.