Get To Know the Multimedia Artist John Pepin
Raining Pitchforks Productions showcases the work of multimedia artist John Pepin, a native of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, who spent several years in California where he earned degrees from Pasadena City College and California State University, Northridge.
He worked as a freelance writer for nature and historical publications. Pepin was an intern with Cosgrove-Meurer Productions for the NBC-Television program “Unsolved Mysteries,” and later was hired as a lead agent in the production’s telecenter.
In the mid-1990s, Pepin began work as a writer and photographer for The Mining Journal, Upper Michigan’s largest daily newspaper. During his 21-year tenure at the newspaper, Pepin received numerous awards for his writing and photography.
He also created two documentary films: “The Enemy in Our Midst: Nazi Prisoner of War Camps and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (2004),” which was developed with former WLUC-TV6 anchorwoman Jackie Chandonnet, and 2009’s “Anatomy ’59: The Making of a Classic Motion Picture,” which recounted the events behind development of Otto Preminger’s courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder.” Both films have appeared on Public Television stations.
Pepin has continued to research historical topics and spend time with his photography, building an impressive portfolio of work.
In 2015, Pepin was hired as the deputy public information officer for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Since 2016, he has written a weekly “Outdoors North,” column published in newspapers on behalf of the department. The columns are personal narratives recounting his experiences in the outdoors since his childhood, encouraging readers to get outdoors to enjoy their own adventures.
Under the Raining Pitchforks Productions umbrella, Pepin works on his writing and photography under a subdivision called Monkey Box Dreams. His music publishing company is Poor Little Fool Music, and his film production efforts are housed under Screaming Flowers Films.
He is a truth-seeker continuously working to create, learn, read, explore, question, and understand.
