If you’re a fan of Nick Ringelstetter’s artwork then you’re bound to have seen his famous stop signs either in person or somewhere within the vast web of the Internet. This line seems to draw in a crowd all on its own, being that it is an unusual medium for artwork of any kind. If you’ve ever wondered what inspired Nick to take a common symbol and turn it into a fascinating wall hanging, buckle up, because you’re about to find out.

As a child, he had a unique leather jacket. With green leather sleeves, a black leather body, and a red stop sign on the back, this jacket was a favorite item of our artist’s. From a young age, stop signs were always intriguing to Nick, and that grew with him. He has said that it was never about the stop itself, but rather the aesthetic and shape of the signs that he’s always found pleasing.

But how did he go from enjoying this common road sign to placing his artwork on them? Well, during Nick’s high school years he was known to have a party or two on the family land out in the middle of nowhere. During one of these soirées, a friend of his showed up out of the blue, flying up the drive way and immediately backing up to the barn. When Nick came over to investigate, he realized that the bed of his friend’s truck was filled with traffic signs. Of course, due to the process of acquiring these signs, his friend couldn’t keep them, so they needed a home. They took the signs and stored them in the barn where they sat for years until the Ringelstetter’s sold the property.

When time came to clean out the barn, Nick’s dad had asked him what they should do with all of the signs. At this time, it was one of Nick’s first years of painting, and as he considered the possibilities he realized that he could paint the stop signs. What started out as a fun experiment quickly gained traction and turned into a popular product. People began offering money to our artist for these pieces, and at the time this was an amazing feat, as painting was still a hobby and not yet a fulltime career.

The stop signs became a niche for Ringelstetter, not unlike the skateboards he also paints. He has said that growing sick of creating on square canvases and exploring new mediums was not only vital to his career, but also important to his process as an artist. Switching things up and creating something new and different is what he feels keeps his art fresh and intriguing. And from a business standpoint, the marketing here is rather genius. If you see even one of these customized stop signs, it’s likely to nest in your brain, only to emerge when you find yourself pressing your vehicle to a halt for a brief pause, and there your mind will take you back to a time when your reality was bent in a new direction.

Fascinating as this line of art may be, it certainly was not the easiest thing to create. Painting on a stop sign may not seem like the most difficult of projects, but recreating the prints is a different beast of its own. When the stop signs were first created, metal printing didn’t exist. Nick played with the idea of creating these on octagon canvases, but it just didn’t feel right. To him, a stop sign had to be an actual stop sign.

It wasn’t until about four years later that a coworker at Nick’s factory job brought in some stuff printed on metal and made Nick’s day. He proceeded to do the prints for a while, but as one could imagine printing on aluminum is an expensive business venture. So while Nick was pursing his career as a fulltime artist he had to pull the Stop Sign line for a while in order to cut costs. But as Hostess discovered when they removed Twinkies from their product line, Nick too discovered that once you take away an option, people begin to crave that which they can no longer have.

When the artist was able to reintroduce this line again, people were ecstatic and the product began to fly off of the shelves. Lucky are those who jumped in line to purchase because all of Ringelstetter’s art is limited edition, and there may come a day when the stop signs disappear again, most likely creating space for a new, unheard of medium.

Darienne Keniece

2019 was a life-changing year for Ringelstetter that began in Key West, Florida. Ringelstetter had applied for the show knowing that his father had never been to Key West and that it would be a wonderful opportunity to show him around. Despite some bumps in the Key West show, they both had a fantastic time. 

Ringelstetter went on to experience some financial difficulties as the year progressed and he found himself struggling to get ahead. But in life, nothing is permanent, and it wasn’t long until he was able to realign his goals and tap into his determination. He dyed his hair and allowed his mental state to shift into overdrive, kicking off his “Pink Hair Magic Tour” by winning an award at a show in Cedar Key, Florida. From there he went on to crush the numerous shows that followed and straighten out his finances. It seemed that the year was starting to look up. 

Throughout the summer of 2019, Ringelstetter began to witness the power of manifestation in action. Unfortunately with the state of the northern weather he didn’t get much time to enjoy his usual summer hobbies, but he was able to fill his time through his involvement with Design for a Difference while the foundation simultaneously reminded Ringelstetter of his personal goals. 

It started to sink in throughout the year that Ringelstetter was finally achieving his dreams. He went from doodling in the back of the classroom to a world-renowned artist, locked into every major show in the country he had ever wanted to be in. But he began to realize that he would be more than happy to never do another street show again. He wants to break into the science and neurology side of art and unlock the next level of his potential.

The Universe must have felt Ringelstetter’s drive to level up because it decided to send in a few curve balls. Shortly before the Fall Art Tour of Wisconsin, Ringelstetter returned home to get back to the grind and get everything ready to set up for the tour. But Mother Nature had other plans and she hit Atomic7 with a flood that wiped out the majority of the studio equipment and set back Ringelstetter’s plans to build out his van. Two months of production were lost, and all of Ringelstetter’s energy was spent reconstructing his studio and revamping his gallery so that it would be ready in time for the tour. The never-ending days and late nights paid off though, all of the patrons were happy for Ringelstetter’s hard work.

Going into 2020, Ringelstetter is striving for a change of pace. He’s teaching at schools, and following his passion to help inspire the younger generation and keep art alive. He’s been accepted into one of the biggest shows in the country, Coconut Grove, and plans to change his subject matter in order to take the leap into the next evolution of himself as an artist. Ringelstetter still plans on participating in street shows, but only the ones that he truly enjoys while he does what he can to break into in door shows and break through the barriers of the art world. 

Darienne Keniece

While Ringelstetter was at a show in Minneapolis, a family visited his booth with an unexpected opportunity. They loved the work they saw and went on to explain that their daughter, Tara Gupta, was an aspiring author. A few conversations eventually led to a collaboration between author and artist and ‘Bot the Space Tot: An Intergalactic Roller Coaster’ was created and published on November 13, 2011. Only a handful of copies were sold, but Ringelstetter still has the younger generation compliment him on his participation, as it was their favorite children’s book.

Darienne Keniece

In late 2009, Ringelstetter was approached by the Spring Green Area Arts Coalition with an offer to join their board as a representative of the youth artists in the community. Ringelstetter graciously accepted, but remained the quiet kid he had always been for the first couple of years he spent on the board, focusing his efforts on the builds and set ups of the stages for the events. As he began to get more comfortable he started taking on more responsibility until he eventually found himself handling the graphics for the coalition’s events.  

However, supporting the local arts community wasn’t the only thing Ringelstetter gained from the experience. He also got the chance to learn how to become a professional artist, thanks to the great company he found himself surrounded by during his time with the coalition. Unfortunately, this past year he had to drop off of the board in order to pursue his own career with laser focus, but he loved every second of being on the board and he knows that it was a key part of his evolution. 

Darienne Keniece

As with any career, being an artist comes with its own package of unique frustrations. For Ringelstetter, his biggest frustration is commission work. While he loves to create for his fans, he has a hard time with project like these because it seems that nine times out of ten, the client isn’t quite happy with the finished product, if they say anything about the piece at all.

Ringelstetter officially stopped taking on commission work about four years ago when he went fulltime with his art career. However, with the Forbidden Effect series he’ll be able to customize pieces in a way that he believes will please all of the involved parties. He hopes to be able to keep his style and integrate the client’s vision in the new line to come.

Darienne Keniece

Skateboarding holds a special place in Ringelstetter’s heart because it opened him up to a whole new culture, a new way of life. Because of this, Ringelstetter was now able to express parts of himself he didn’t have an outlet for previously, and this led him down a new avenue. When Ringelstetter was still doing freelance work as a graphic designer, he became involved with DC Shoe’s, and gradually came to learn the whole business side to the art world, which set him up nicely when he embarked on his journey as a painter. Putting his unique style of artwork on skateboards is a way for him to blend different aspects of his life and express multiple facets of himself.

Darienne Keniece

Thanks to his participation in the Stone Arch Bridge Festival, Ringelstetter was offered a project by one of the sponsors, Polaris, and they sent over a helmet to have Ringelstetter revamp in his image. He had been working with an alien/tribal style, which he used as inspiration for this helmet. The gig didn’t pay, but it did pay off by landing Ringelstetter a better spot in the show for the following years to come and added recognition to his artwork. 

Darienne Keniece

Before Ringelstetter was an artist, he was an avid Ebay customer. He found that Ebay was one of the best places to purchase paintball equipment, and he could always sell it back if he needed to. For a while, this was the focus of Ringelstetter’s Ebay experience until he started creating art. Shortly thereafter, he discovered that Ebay had an arts category, and learned that there were different ways to sell. Ringelstetter elected to set up a webstore.

For the first three years Ringelstetter wasn’t focused on making money so much as he was focused on making a name for himself. He priced his pieces at ten dollars, and allowed for bids, which put him on the front pages of Ebay as the bids got higher, thus giving him more exposure. Because he was selling so many pieces so frequently, this allowed him to be recognized and publicized by Ebay’s algorithm.

Ringelstetter had assumed that without selling during 2018, his standings on Ebay would diminish, but he was delighted to discover that he’s still top rated. Missing the thrill of the auctions and the fun of selling on Ebay, Ringelstetter plans to return to this selling platform in the next year to come.

Darienne Keniece

While Ringelstetter was working a show in Fitchburg, Wisconsin he was approached by a fan, Ian Murray, who offered his services as a web developer, should Ringelstetter ever need them. Once things settled down after the show he reached out to Murray and they set up a meeting. They decided that they would barter service for service, but specifics were never discussed.

When the site was completed, Murray presented Ringelstetter with a mannequin he had found while he was at the Tyrol Basin Ski Resort. They had been doing some purging and discarded the mannequin, leaving it up for grabs, and Murray jumped at the chance because when he saw it he knew this was the thing he wanted painted in exchange for his work. Ringelstetter was thrilled to practice on a new medium and accepted the project eagerly. The mannequin went on to travel with Ringelstetter while it was being revamped, and was dropped off with its rightful owners just in time for Christmas.

Darienne Keniece

In 2016, Ringelstetter found himself in Wisconsin, tightly within the clutches of seasonal depression when he saw a friend Adam Egenolf of his posting on Facebook from Coconut Grove, Florida, working an art show. Ringelstetter reached out immediately and began to dig into the details in order to figure out how he could put himself in a similar position. He had just recently joined the Spring Board in his hometown, whose aim was to attract more tourists in the winter months, but he felt it was too early in his life to settle down into the winter lull when he could still be pushing his art in warmer climates.

He knew that he was taking a big leap, but once he was accepted into enough shows he left the state with $200 in his pocket and a heart full of hope. He quickly came to find that this was the peak season in Florida, and the rates for lodging were high in the few open places that were left. But it would seem that something was determined to keep him there, as a friend reached out while Ringelstetter was traveling with the details of an artsy air BNB. The stars aligned and they had plenty of space for Ringelstetter, who wound up making friends with the owner and her daughter Lilly, whom he still visits with when he’s in the area.

Darienne Keniece