John Earnest

BORN: 1924 in Mena, Arkansas

DIED: October 6, 2007 in Milwaukee, WI

Born and raised as an only child in the rural south - Mena, Arkansas. His father was an auto mechanic, and his mother a school teacher.

Mr. Earnest first studied geology and astronomy at the University of Arkansas, until WWII interrupted those plans. In the Army's 101st Airborne Division, he was a radioman. While serving with the paratroopers, he spent much of his time in Paris where he regularly visited the Louvre. At the end of the war, he marched in the Victory Day parade in New York City on January 12, 1946.

Upon returning home, he settled in Seattle, Washington, where his parents now lived. However, he did not return to his earlier career interests, and instead attended the University of Washington earning an Art Degree.

He returned to Paris, and from 1949 to 1955 he studied painting at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He also studied sculpture with London born Parisian Ossip Zadkine from 1958-1959, although there is no trace of the Cubist sculptor's influence in any of Earnest's work. He studied and worked in Paris for a total of ten years, which is also where his three daughters were born.

Returning to the States and the University of Washington, Earnest earned a Masters Degree in Art.

He joined the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee faculty in 1962 when the Art Department was still part