Stephen Kline (born 1943) is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in acrylics and ink.

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,[1][2] where he studied art under Stan Hess and Leonard Good.

Kline was soon accepted as a gallery artist at Foxworth Gallery on Madison Ave.[8] in Manhattan, where his work made headlines when his provocative painting Madonna and Child caused street demonstrations in 1985,[1] It was in this period when he began combining his painting and photography into one medium.

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 Lines of Language technique to create his first dog lithograph.