Mel Kishner

BORN: 1915, Milwaukee

DIED: 1991 Tucson, AZ

Mel Kishner was born in Milwaukee in 1915. He attended Wis­consin State Teachers College, now known as the Uni­versity of Wisconsin, received his B.S. in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Upon graduating, he began teaching in Milwaukee schools and also taught some programs for the University of Wisconsin. 

In 1940 he became the Art Director and illustrator at the Milwaukee Journal / Sentinel and supervised a 26-person art department. He retired in 1978 after 38 years,where he often did the illustrations for covers to television sections, cartooning and caricatures. He was widely known for the deer hunting cartoons for an annual hunting sec­tion.

Kishner also did caricatures of actors he met when they came to Milwaukee to play in a summer theater, such actors include Leonard Nimoy, Rita Moreno and Arte Johnson.

Kishner and his wife, Jane, lived in Pewaukee, WI and moved to Tucson upon retirement. He continued his painting and added desert land­scapes to his well-known collection of winter illustrat­ions. Kishner specialized and best known for his watercolors, he painted in oil, casein, and acrylic. During the 30s, he painted in a more traditional, regionalist style, however, his artwork showed the influence of other artists and movements toward the middle of his career. One series was of the 1871 Peshtigo fire created to accompany the Journal's serialized verison of the book, Fire at Peshtigo.

By the 1970s, Kishner was exhibiting surrealist paintings. During the course of his lifetime saw his work displayed in more than 100 private shows in the Mid­west and Tucson and  have hung in pri­vate collections, public galleries and numerous institutions around the country.