Marion J. Kitzman

M.J. Kitzman was born in 1929 in What Cheer, Iowa. He received his BFA from Drake University in Des Moines and MA from San Francisco State University, with post graduate studies at University of Illinois, Colorado College and the University of Iowa. He studied painting with distinguished artists such as Karl Mattern, Byron Burford and Ludwig Saunders.

A life-long educator with 44 years of teaching in public school and at four universities, his last twenty-seven years were in the Department of Architecture at Iowa State University. He retired in 1994 as professor emeritus and currently lives in Ames, Iowa.

Much of the influence and inspiration that found its way into Mr. Kitzman's art came from his extensive travels throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico and Central America. His field studies in ancient art and architecture in Mexico and Central American involved seventeen trips. He studied and photographed over seventy ancient sites located in remote jungles.