Don Swartzentruber

[1][2][3][4][5] His efforts are noteworthy in diverse mediums such as the Pop Mennonite and the Totem Triptychs exhibits, the Silence Is Madness album cover, and carnival caricature portraits.

[7] After Greenwood Mennonite School he briefly attended the conference’s post-secondary institution, Rosedale Bible College, in Ohio.

It accompanied the 2005 exhibits at Bluffton University [9][10] and Goshen College [11][12] Swartzentruber was a significant voice in thematically appropriating Mennonite culture into contemporary art.

Two contributors, Marc Harshman [24] (Poet Laureate of West Virginia), and British wordsmith Cleveland W. Gibson wrote text for all 36 triptychs.

[25] Inspired by the Artists’ book (Livre d’art) movement, in 2004, Swartzentruber created a traveling exhibit.

An image was used by Disproductions for the covers of poet John Sweet’s book Henry Chalise.

For twenty years Swartzentruber taught evenings art classes at Grace College and Seminary.

Swartzentruber titled these ink and gauche pages “Sermons.” Eventually they were published in American literary magazines such as Fourteen Hills, Driftwood Press,[28] Forged,[29] Raven Chronicles,[30] Split Rock Review,[31] FreezeRay,[32] Meat for Tea,[33] Show Bear,[34] Helen Literary Magazine,[35] and others.

He resides in the historical Billy Sunday community of Winona Lake and, in 2023, was awarded an Indiana Art Commission grant to move forward on the final artwork.

[40][41][42] At the age of sixteen Swartzentruber started earning income by drawing caricature portraits.

[51][52] After undergrad he earned a MFA in Visual Art at Vermont College of Norwich University and was mentored by Chicago Imagists Karl Wirsum and Don Baum.

[58][59][60][61] He has been a guest speaker at the University of Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, the Midwest Scholars Conference, and the Art Education Association.