WRITING as a way to express this dynamic relationship with life has come naturally for Sundling since first grade. In addition to several books listed on this website, he has authored numerous poems and essays.

WILDERNESS. The summer after graduating from high school provided Sundling with what has become an enduring relationship with the American wilderness. The first of several backpacking trips with his father into remote areas of the Rocky Mountains engaged Sundling, and he has repeatedly returned to wilderness for extended stays. He has lived for six weeks in an isolated canyon in southeast Utah while working as an interpretative ranger and guardian for the National Park service at an archeological site known as the Great Gallery, arguably the finest collection of spiritual and ceremonial paintings done by the early peoples of North America. He has done month-long retreats of fasting in the remote wilderness of Utah's canyonlands, and he has lived in Alaska for a summer on $5/day, had extended stays twice on the Alaskan peninsula at the renowned McNeil River State Grizzle Bear Sanctuary, and done a variety of week-long or longer backpacking excursions into the Appalachia Mountains, the Rockies, the canyons of the Colorado Plateau, the hills of Indiana and Ohio, and the tundra of the Yukon and Alaska.

PAINTINGS. His acrylic paintings cover a spectrum of expression in their blending of color, light, and composition. His tonal landscapes express the vibrancy of Nature -- from delicate organic forms to powerful natural dramas like tornadoes, lightning, or sunsets. And his optical art paintings breathe new life into the cold calculus of geometry through his unexpected juxtaposing with the organic.

ART QUILTS. From the fabric of his art quilts emerges compelling three-dimensional imagery. These fabrics evolve from Sundling's nontraditional geometric designs and his selection of organic patterns on fabric prints that are woven together by the traditional handiwork of an accomplished Amish quilter.

EXHIBITIONS. Works by Sundling have been exhibited at and won awards in numerous regional art exhibitions over the years. His work has been and continues to be on regular display in various state and local galleries.

EDUCATION. Growing up in the prototypical small town of Bluffton, Sundling then earned a Bachelors of Architecture at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, prior to earning a Masters of English. For four years, he was an English instructor at Ball State before leaving to pursue full-time work as a project consultant of municipal affairs and development for the City of Bluffton. Besides a stint in an architectural firm in Austin, Texas, other jobs have included being a carpenter's assistant, a construction worker at the innovative ecological urban project of Arcosanti in central Arizona, a cowboy with a cattle rancher in Utah, a volunteer at Canyonlands National Park in Utah, and a high school cross country and track coach.