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Allen & Patty Eckman both completed their formal education at the Art Center College of Design in 1974, Allen majoring in advertising art and Patty in illustration art.  The couple established and operated an advertising company in Los Angeles, California until 1988 when they made the switch from commercial art to fine art.  

The Eckmans are the inventors of the Eckman Method® of Cast Paper Sculpture which is trademarked as theirs alone.  Since 1988 Patty and Allen have developed and perfected the medium of cast paper far beyond any other artist in the world.

The cast paper process involves mixing an acid free paper pulp in the studio hydro-pulper from two raw stocks, cotton and abica.  Then the pulp is cast into molds which were made from original clay sculptures.  The paper is then pressed under vacuum pressure or by hand in the mold where most of the water is extracted at the same time.  After the dry and hardened casts are removed from the molds the exclusive process of chasing, cast additions, cast alterations, sculpting in paper and detailing begins.  Some works are so painstakingly detailed they can take many months to complete.

 Allen and Patty Eckman reside in Rapid City, South Dakota.  Their home and studio is in the beautiful Black Hills.  There, the couple finds inspiration in the wildlife, the history and the climate.