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John Paul Kesling was born and raised in the Ohio River Valley in Ashland, Kentucky in 1980, spending much of his youth outdoors.  He attended Morehead State University in Morehead, KY for his BFA in Art and spent a semester in Europe studying art history.  Kesling went on to receive an MFA in Painting from The Savannah College of Art and Design in 2010.  He spent the next six years immersed in the NYC art scene while living in Brooklyn.  In March 2016 he attended a month-long artist residency at The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT and realized how integral time, space, and nature were to his studio practice.  In July of that year he relocated to Madison, TN where he currently lives and works.  He now has a dog.