Monday, February 21, 2022

PORTRAITS by Shirley Keller

FAMILY THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ARTIST AND WRITER: Shirley A. Blair Keller ©2022

From left to right: Levi, Skye and Ford Jones, and Granny.
The event is to celebrate the marriage of Skye and Molly Jones, Long Beach, CA. 
 I sat at a table with their grandfather Buddy, step-grandmother Lori, daughter-in-law Carla, and granddaughter Annie Mae. The grandsons grabbed both hands and pulled me up a step to a chair, sat me down, and posed behind me for the official photographer. 
JOY! That is the only word that comes close to what I was feeling. 


ARTS WITH ELDERS
As the pandemic became a reality of life in isolation, I was contacted by family who lived in the Bay Area. Some of them lived in a retirement community that held art classes for elders. Artists taught classes in not only retirement communities but in hospitals and full time care homes.The organization that sponsors these classes is Arts With Elders.  

The fear of the contagious virus was every where. The classes moved from in person to zoom to keep artists and students safe. The wonderful side effect was that someone like me who lived in other cities, or even other states, could join the class from where ever they are.

Darcie O'Brien is our talented and knowledgeable artist and teacher. When I think of her the first word that comes to mind is compassion. Her students range from people who spent lifetimes doing art in one form or another, to people like me who came to art very late in life and did not have a history of formal artistic education. Her encouragement, critiques that feel like hugs, pushes us so gently we do not even realize we've been pushed, until we look at a piece of art we accomplished and are astounded that we actually did something new in nature for us.

This blog post is about a recent assignment in the Arts With Elders zoom class: to do a self-portrait. That began a process that I have become obsessed by - attempting portraits of my children, grandchildren, children-of-the-heart, and daughter-in-laws. Below are the results in progress.

I began with pencil. And then added designs around edges with ink. At some point I realized I am having problems with hand-eye coordination. Photography captures the exact person, but I am not interested in doing that with drawing. If I could just catch the essence of why I love that subject, that would be more than enough. So a more cartoon style began to emerge. I love the look of black ink on white paper, so after doing the pencil drawing to my satisfaction, I then applied ink to the work. I also love dots, so where I could use them I did. We had an assignment to try out zentangle design work, thus developed the edges of the drawings. The last couple of pieces craved colored pencil. It remains to be seen how that develops.


Self Portrait by Shirley Keller ©2021
Pencil on drawing paper.

Annie Mae Jones by Granny ©2021
Charcoal, pencil and ink on drawing paper

Drake Jones by Granny ©2021
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Richie Jones by Mother ©2021
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

JP Jones by Mama ©2021
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Levi Jones by Granny ©2021
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Levi Jones by Granny ©2022
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Ford Jones by Granny ©2022
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Ford Jones and Gillianne Litvack by Granny ©2022
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Skye Jones by Granny ©2022
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Molly Jones by Granny ©2022
Pencil and ink on drawing paper

Carla Jones by Mother ©2022
Pencil and Ink on drawing paper

The Winner by Mother ©2022
Pencil, ink, colored pencil on drawing paper
Richie and Carla took kids to Montana. They held a fly fishing contest. Carla is bragging about her catch and release making her the winner.
Carla and Brigid by Mother-of-the-Heart ©2022
Pencil, ink and colored pencils on drawing paper

Photographs are taped to my work shelf that I plan to draw. Andrea, my daughter-in-law is next. I found an amazing picture of Molly I will attempt. Annie Mae and I roomed together at the wedding reception and I took a picture I cannot wait to draw. Drake and his girlfriend Cloie sent me a photo that is on the list. I have a couple of sons-of-the-heart that have grown children and I will include them in future drawings. And two very important daughters-of-the-heart and their families must be included. So this post is to be continued.