Baby, 2007

Margaret Keelan

stoneware, under-glaze

28" H x 12" W x 6" D

Baby, by Margaret Keelan, is a realistic doll-like figure that has gone through multiple processes of glazing, staining, and firing to create an intentional aged look. Keelan's work is centered around the emotions that are evoked with the passage of time-nostalgia and melancholy-as she looks at the relics of her childhood and incorporates those feelings and objects into these deliberately aged dolls. As this particular figure holds a smaller version of itself, it is simultaneously taking on the appearance of an infant and an adult. Wearing red lipstick and seeing with large glossy eyes, the doll and baby are suggestive of the attachments to childhood when one becomes an adult, and vice versa.

Artist Biography

Keelan earned her BA in Fine Art from University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, and her MFA from the University of Utah in 1976. She was the Associate Director of Sculpture for many years at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, continuing the legacy of her teacher Marilyn Levine. Keelan is known for super realist doll-like figures. The figures are hand built, however they include cast components for the heads and hands that are cast in molds made from 19th century dolls. The pieces are glazed, stained, fired then glazed, stained, fired multiple times. This process gives the figures an aged appearance with surfaces reminiscent of those seen on Santos, Mexican and Central American religious figures. Keelan's super realistic approach to her own subject matter may be a result of her working with Marilyn Levine, who was known for her exquisite trompe l'oeil ceramics.

Artist Statement

For the past few years my sculptures have been glazed, stained, fired, then glazed, stained and fired again to give the surfaces the look of disintegrating paint over weathered wood. This softening and reduction of form so that its essential nature is revealed is a metaphor I am using for life being lived, my exploration of the process of growing up and growing older. These latest small sculptures recall the "Santos" figures of Mexico and Central America and incorporate a reproduced 19th century doll head. Although my figures echo contemporary concerns, the borrowing of earlier styles gives them more of an ageless quality. Linda Gastrom, Professor of Art, states, "The subject conveys a sweet sentimentality twisted into melancholy that touches my emotional core and helps me remember the complexities of childhood and life".

Donated by the Grainer Family.

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