John Krieger and His Many Bodies of Work

Oct. 16, 2015

Manistee artist John Krieger spent decades designing cars in the competitive Detroit automotive industry.

Now retired from the car game, he’s gone from designing fins on cars to designing fins on fish, his recent specialty. His colorful, unique fish are made of the same clay used in car models and they range in size from about 3 to 10 feet long, although recently he’s been asked to create a couple of fiberglass fish in the 20- to 25-foot range.

“Most guys who do fish just take their clay or wood or whatever and make the fish,” said Krieger, “but because of my design background, I always do a drawing first. I draw every fish, then I work from that. I have piles and piles of sketches of fish and, when I do them, I work on several at a time because they are in different stages of completion. I try to make the heads as realistic as possible. The bodies, very often, are of a general shape, but I try hard to get them anatomically correct.”

During the summer, Krieger is often seen with his work at art shows across northern Michigan, but he also ventures out of state to Illinois, Virginia and as far south as Florida. In the past decade, he’s racked up some 330,000 miles on his durable Mercedes diesel van, but his most financially successful shows are, naturally, in areas where anglers abound.

“I learned right away that I do best in places where there are boats and water,” said Krieger. “I took my fish to Illinois and they looked at my fish like they were space aliens. In Petoskey and Charlevoix, I sell well.”

Most of his customers are women. “My female customers outnumber my male customers about three to one,” he said.

HOW I GOT STARTED

Growing up in Livonia, I wasn’t an art kid at all. I drew a lot, but didn’t take a drawing class until the ninth grade. Even then, I didn’t get much out of it. I always wanted to be a car designer, so I went CCS [College for Creative Studies] and later worked as a designer for Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Corporation.

Along the way, I painted watercolors, oils and acrylics for 25 years, but after a while I got tired of it and just wanted to do something different. I wanted to do some sculptural work, so I started a new body of work about two and a half years ago. That quickly evolved into the fish that I am doing today. The bodies are made out of clay and the rest are somewhat mixed media. The fins are made out of different combinations of copper, steel and fused glass. I have just finished a new large fiberglass wahoo that lights up with LEDs. I believe it’s the first of its kind anywhere.

THE STORY BEHIND MY ART, MY INSPIRATION

Fish — I like to catch them, eat them and make them. I use them as foils for expressing human emotions and abstract art on a finely crafted surface.

WORK I’M MOST PROUD OF

Besides my children, I make series of fish that incorporate hand-fused float glass fins, some of which also have brass and silver inclusions. When they are placed where they can receive back light they are very impressive.

YOU WON’T BELIEVE

Years ago, I met racing legend A.J. Foyt in the men’s restroom at Michigan International Speedway. I was a teenager at the time.

MY FAVORITE ARTIST

John Singer Sargent. He’s the best — his color, his design. His work is tight where it’s supposed to be tight and loose where it’s supposed to be loose.

ADVICE FOR ASPIRING YOUNG ARTISTS

Turn off the TV and work as hard as you can for as many hours as you can, even when you don’t feel like it. The harder you work, the more talented you become. No, wait — especially when you don’t feel like it. Everywhere you look around you there is inspiration.

MY WORK CAN BE SEEN/PURCHASED

At the Charlevoix Art Fair, Tvedten Gallery in Harbor Springs, Bier Gallery in Charlevoix, Finelines Design Gallery in Sister Bay, Wis., and at Krieger-Studio.com.