Creative Play

  Kaweah River Shirley Keller, 2024 Acrylic This scene is from the Dinely Bridge looking West. Over the last 22 years that we’ve lived here I must have stood at the bridge staring at the river flowing down from the Sierra’s hundred’s of times. Joining the AWE classes eventually inspired me to attempt to paint this scene. And since I love dots painted with toothpicks I decided to take a chance and do the river in dots. To my amazement it worked. And this piece captures the love I feel for this place. Over the years I’ve observed from that spot on the bridge owls and hawks built nests in the highest tree, lay eggs, hatch and raise their babes. I’ve stood there with many walking friends as we expressed our luck at living here in Three Rivers. And it was across the street on this very spot that I met Mr. Burns. For the next seven years he shared his knowledge of the natural life that surrounds us every day.   Puerto Rico Shirley Keller, 2025 Acrylic My friend Nora took anothe...

 Barbara Shirley Keller, 2025 Acrylics - Dots with toothpicks Delia and her husband Erin have no children. When they got together Erin had the dog named Barbara. He’d had Barbara for years by then. Delia fell in love with Barbara. Five years past since they first joined as a couple.  My husband Bruce is Delia’s adopted father. He asked her not long ago if she had any plans to have children. Erin is in his mid-forties. Delia is mid-thirties. Her answer to Bruce was, “Probably not have kids, but I am seriously considering adoption.” Bruce teared up. To him that meant Delia feels he, and her adoptive mother, must have done a really good job raising her and she did not seem to feel the loss many adoptive people feel.  When Bruce told me about that conversation I had to laugh. “Barbara is their child,” I joked. I’d been having that thought for the last couple of years. Barbara is with them every where they go except when they travel to Bali to see Erin’s father and his family,...