EJ Stapleton, the second of five children, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. There is a story of a babysitter walking in to find him, at two years old, standing in his crib, drawing all over his bedroom wall. Not much has changed since then. He still writes or draws on anything that doesn’t move.
EJ was educated through the Boston Public School system and spent most of his time there searching for whatever information he could gather about art and the people who generate it. In 1971, he left for a two-week trip to Italy. He returned in 1973. This began what continues today to be a lifetime of learning, handshake by handshake, the true heart of the human tribe.
In the mid-1970’s EJ was lucky enough to find himself in the company of Joseph Solman, one of the founders of the American Expressionist movement. Until his death in 2008 at age ninety-nine, Mr. Solman was one of the most active and powerful influences in the art world and a steadfast source of influence and inspiration to all facets of EJ’s work.
In 2012, EJ, along with Grammy-award winning composer, Peter Stopschinski and NY director Craig J. George, began work on an adaptation of The Calico Buffalo for musical theater. The Calico Buffalo Musical was first presented as part of the 2015 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) where the show enjoyed full houses, an extended run and took home the coveted Audience Award, ‘BEST of FEST’. Their work on the musical continues.