Hulan Fleming was born in Todville, Iowa in 1933. After the age of seven, his family moved to Florida. When he was fifteen years old, his mother enrolled him in the "Art Instruction Inc. Commercial Design Correspondence Course." At the age of nineteen, he was drafted into the Korean War and served in southern France as the company painter. He then moved on to become a technical illustrator for Boeing. At the age of twenty four, he enrolled at Seattle Pacific University and a year later he married. In 1962 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and then became an engineer for Boeing. Later he returned to school and earned his teaching certificate and taught for three years. In 1968 he left teaching and became a full time painter.