Living on the Kent State University campus in the turbulent 1960s, I met some of the most exciting teachers and ideas of my life, opening my eyes to the beauty of the mundane and unusual.  In 1969 I earned a B.S. in Art Education and taught all grades, the last 20 years at Brunswick High School---the best career I could have imagined. Along the way, while teaching and raising a family, I earned a M.S. in Education from the University of Akron, focusing on Outdoor Education----taking art outside the classroom and into the real environment.

In the early 1980s, my most influential former professor of drawing and painting, the late Tom Lehnert, initiated a critique group consisting of several KSU graduates who were in grad school, teaching, and/or working in the area. Participating in that crit group for over 30 years made me work harder, become more thoughtful, and to be more experimental in my work, while giving confidence, encouragement, and much needed criticism along the journey. A pat on the back and a symbolic kick in the rear are both necessary for growth!

Professional memberships include Akron Society of Artists, Artists of Rubber City, Cuyahoga Valley Art Center, Medina County Art League, and Artists of Group Ten.

​Numerous group and solo exhibitions include juried shows at Akron’s Summit Artspace, Lakeland Community College, Chagrin Valley Art Center, the Butler Museum of American Art, Group Ten Gallery, Mesa Public Library Gallery in Los Alamos, NM, among many others. I won Summit Artspace’s Kaleidoscope People’s Choice Award in 2014 as well as First Place awards in 2013 and 2016. Butler’s Midyear Show accepted my work in 2010, 2012, and awarded my work an HM in 2014. Medina County Art League’s Aquarius Show awarded me the People’s Choice Award in 2011 and 2012, and  First Place in 2015 (also Best in Show), 2016 (Best in Show), and awards in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Fusion Art awarded me second place in the International Online exhibit Light and Shadow in 2023.
A two person exhibit (Flight and Shadow) with master bird carver, Tom Baldwin, was held in December 2017, at the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation in Hudson, Ohio.

I teach drawing and creativity workshops in various places, and I never stop being fascinated by shadows and light, by theater, books, poems, and friends who constantly point me in new directions.

      TO PURCHASE PRINTS OF MY WORK GO TO 
​              carol-klingel.pixels.com