Leon Kortenkamp is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and artist who lives with his wife, Ginny, in Belmont, California. He grew up in rural Iowa, and memories of those formative years are often reflected in his work. It is from this perspective that he examines the vicissitudes of contemporary urban life. 

   After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at Loras College, he was drafted into military service during the Vietnam War and served two years with the US Navy in the Public Information Office aboard the First Fleet Flagship USS Saint Paul.  

   Following his military tour of duty, he was granted a full tuition scholarship to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.

       In his early years, he had solo exhibitions at the Snite Museum of Art, The Hesburgh Library Gallery, and each year his work was shown in the Annual Michiana Tri-state Exhibition, where he won honors in painting and sculpture.  In 1970 his painting, Sugar Flower, won honorable mention in the James Rosenquist Small Paintings Invitational Exhibition.

       After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Ginny, and their children in 1971, he took a teaching position as chairman of the fine arts department at Notre Dame High School in Belmont, California.  The same year he exhibited his work with the San Jose Arts Commission Exhibition and received recognition for his hard-edge painting, Bayshore Dawn, in the San Francisco Art Association’s San Francisco International Airport Art Enrichment Program.

       Through the following years his work was exhibited regionally with the San Mateo County Art Association at The Rotunda Gallery in Redwood City, The Costal Arts League Gallery in Half Moon Bay and at The Blackfriars and The Encyclical Galleries in Berkeley, California.

       In 1982, he took a teaching position as a professor in the Art Department at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California.  There he focused on teaching sculpture, 3-D design, film photography and Art History for the next thirty-eight years.  During those years he exhibited his work primarily in The Wiegand Gallery on the NDNU campus and at the Skyline College Gallery, Holy Names College Gallery and other regional venues.

       Through his teaching years his art was often published along with his short fiction in literary journals, such as Ploughshares, Dime Show Review, Literary Yard, Harpoon Review, Every Day Fiction, Bangalore Review, Agape Review and others.  A collection of his published short stories and flash fiction, titled, Let’s Twist Again, is featured on his website:  leonkortenkamp.online  .

       In 1990, his religious involvement and attraction to things spiritual led to his ordination as a deacon in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to his appointment as Director of Deacon Formation for the Archdiocese.  Drawing on his background in medieval art history, he was also appointed Administrator of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in the North Beach District, a major tourist and pilgrim destination in San Francisco.  The Shrine features a replica of the medieval Porziuncola Church near Assisi where St. Francis founded his order of brothers and where he died.

       His current exhibitions feature crossover works involving calligraphic imagery, paintings, monotypes, mixed media collage and assemblage. Recent writing continues to include poetry and short fiction, often illustrated with brushed-plate monotypes and photographs.  He keeps a studio and office in Belmont, California and can be reached by email at leonpk@comcast.net.