John was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he received his BFA in Painting and Illustration in 1976. John began his career illustrating in the Boston area for such publishers as Little Brown, Houghton Mifflin, and such magazines as Yankee and Atlantic Monthly. He went on to focus on his fine art painting and drawing, working in oil, egg tempera and graphite, and over the last 45 years, his work has been exhibited widely across the U.S. and abroad. Some of his solo exhibitions have been at the Georgia Museum of Art, The Coral Springs Museum of Art in Florida, The Lord Hall Gallery - University of Maine, The Kemper Museum of Art. His work is also in the collections of The Portland Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art, Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas, and the Puratos Sourdough Museum in Belgium.