Work samples

  • A Bird Flew Out In Search of A Cage XX
    A Bird Flew Out In Search of A Cage XX

    Mixed Media on Canvas, 60 X 40, 2024

  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon Charmin and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon Charmin and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon Charmin and Me / Mixed Media / 15 x 9 x 9
  • Messages and Memories- Life of Its Own (1).jpg
    Messages and Memories- Life of Its Own (1).jpg
  • Jeanne Gentry Keck-It's Hopeless But Not Serious.jpg
    Jeanne Gentry Keck-It's Hopeless But Not Serious.jpg

About Jeanne

Baltimore City, Howard County

JEANNE GENTRY KECK
Studio: 3500 Parkdale
Baltimore, MD 21211

Keck studied at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA and the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH. She received a full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT in 1995 and was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council grant in 2010, 2000 and1996. Keck worked in independent studio programs at the Contemporary Art Center, North Adams, MA and Assisi,Italy. She was an artist in residence at… more

A Bird Flew Out In Search Of A Cage

Sometime in my childhood I heard or knew of this statement: "A Bird flew out In search of a cage." I was attracted to its ambivalence.  Later, in wondering where this quote came from I found that Kafka said, "A cage went in search of a bird". Where and when I changed it I don't know.  But this changed quote became the context of many of my paintings.  While we have the urge to be free, to fly, fear can make us make the safer choice of the cage.

  • A Bird Flew Out In Search Of A Cage XX
    A Bird Flew Out In Search Of A Cage XX

    Mixed media on canvas, 60 X 48, 2024

  • Reveal, Conceal/ Light and Shadow
    Reveal, Conceal/ Light and Shadow

    Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, 60 X 48, 2023

  • Journey Around the Sun
    Journey Around the Sun

    Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, 60 x 48, 2023

  • When Stars Weep
    When Stars Weep

    Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, 60 x 48, 2023

  • Of A Certain Age
    Of A Certain Age

    Mixed Media Painting On Canvas, 60 x 72, 2023

  • Impermanence
    Impermanence

    Mixed Media On Canvas, 60 x 48, 2023

  • Et Un Jour (detail)
    Et Un Jour (detail)

    Detail/ Et Un Jour, 2024

  • Et Un Jour
    Et Un Jour

    Mixed Media Painting, 60 x 48, 2024

  • A Bird Flew Out In Search Of A Cage XIX
    A Bird Flew Out In Search Of A Cage XIX

    Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, 60 x 48, 2024

2021 SCULPTURE SERIES

This work began in early months of 2020.  When the invasion of the news of Covid - 19 arrived, I was in my studio as always, but unable to continue the paintings in progress. Frankly, unable to work at all for several months.  Thoughts became endless investigations of this new reality:  awareness of losses, awarenes of grieving, the unknown, awareness of limitations, the unknown, scarcity, hoarding, the unknown, ugly face of selfishness, fear, the unknown, consummerism and the unknown.
Recycles materials are familiar to me because I have used them always in my paintings. I began to work again, reconfigurating  the piled up Amazon boxes, other emtied household products, paint filled papers used for cleaning brushes and  other found objects to make these sculptures.  They are serving as a record of an unimagined world, mine of couse, but one in which we have all shared.  So, once again... alone together. 
  • Amazon and Me 20.jpeg
    Amazon and Me 20.jpeg
    Mixed media/ cardboard and mixed papers
  • Amazon and Me Second image.jpeg
    Amazon and Me Second image.jpeg
    Mixed Media/ cardboard and mixed papers and wire
  • Amazon and Me.jpeg
    Amazon and Me.jpeg
    Mixed media/ cardboard and mixed papers and wire
  • Amazon Hunan Manor and Me.jpeg
    Amazon Hunan Manor and Me.jpeg
    Mixed media/ cardboard, wire and mixed papers
  • Bare Bones.jpeg
    Bare Bones.jpeg
    Mixed media/ mixed papers
  • Blue Plus Yellow Makes Green.jpeg
    Blue Plus Yellow Makes Green.jpeg
    Mixed media/ paper
  • Paper Story.jpeg
    Paper Story.jpeg
    Mixed media/ paper
  • Quiet Escape.jpeg
    Quiet Escape.jpeg
    Mixed media/ paper
  • Quotidian.jpeg
    Quotidian.jpeg
    Mixed media/ paper

Accidental Freedom

This series "Accidental Freedom" are works that came about because of the world I found myself in 2020.  This body of works are collages made up of pieces of paintings, found art and debris from the  process of painting itself.  These collages provided a kind of puzzle solving and a creation of a finished piece with the joining of the unexpected, the "not suppose to happen" or "not suppose to be there".  In retrospect I realized I was expressing the "not suppose to happen" and recording the history of this experience,
  • Accidental Freedom II
    Accidental Freedom II
    Accidental Freedom II / mixed media on canvas / 12 x 12 / 2020
  • Accidental Feedom X
    Accidental Feedom X
    Accidental Freedom X / Mixed media on canvas / 9 x 7 / 2021
  • Accidental Freedom
    Accidental Freedom
    Accidental Freedom V / Mixed media on canvas / 12 x 12 / 2020
  • Accidental IV
    Accidental IV
    Accidental IV / Mixed Media on canvas / 12 x 12 / 2020
  • Accidental Freedom VIII
    Accidental Freedom VIII
    Accidental Freedom VIII / Mixed media on canvas / 10 x 7 / 2021
  • Accidental Freedom VI
    Accidental Freedom VI
    Accidental Freedom VI / Mixed media on canvas / 12 x 12 / 2020
  • Accidental Freedom VII
    Accidental Freedom VII
    Accidental Freedom VII / Mixed media on canvas / 9 x 9 / 2020
  • Accidental Freedom III
    Accidental Freedom III
    Accidental Freedom III / Mixed media on canvas / 12 x 12 / 2020
  • Accidental Freedom X
    Accidental Freedom X
    Accidental Freedom X / Mixed media on canvas / 12 x 12 / 2021

2020 Sculpture Series

This work began in early months of 2020.  When the invasion of the news of Covid - 19 arrived, I was in my studio as always, but unable to continue the paintings in progress. Frankly, unable to work at all for several months.  Thoughts became endless investigations of this new reality:  awareness of losses, awarenes of grieving, the unknown, awareness of limitations, the unknown, scarcity, hoarding, the unknown, ugly face of selfishness, fear, the unknown, consummerism and the unknown.
Recycles materials are familiar to me because I have used them always in my paintings. I began to work again, reconfigurating  the piled up Amazon boxes, other emtied household products, paint filled papers used for cleaning brushes and  other found objects to make these sculptures.  They are serving as a record of an unimagined world, mine of couse, but one in which we have all shared.  So, once again... alone together. 
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon Charmin and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon Charmin and Me
    Amazon Charmin and Me / Mixed media / 15 x 9 x 9 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series/ Amazon Maxwell House and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series/ Amazon Maxwell House and Me
    Amazon Maxwell House and Me / mixed media /15 x 16 x 16 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me Plus
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me Plus
    Amazon and Me Plus / Mixed media / 15 x 8 x 7 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon Charmin Essential Mask and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon Charmin Essential Mask and Me
    Amazon Charmin Essential Mask and Me / Mixed media / 15 x 7 x 8 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series/ Amazon and Me Plus I
    2020 Sculpture Series/ Amazon and Me Plus I
    Amazon and Me Plus I / Mixed media / 24 x 5 x 5 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    Amazon and Me / Mixed media / 15 x 13 x 13 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    Amazon and Me / wall sculpture / Mixed media / 23 x 8 x 4 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    Amazon and Me / Mixed media / 7 x 7 x 7 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    Amazon and Me / Mixed media / 6 x 6 x 6 / 2020
  • 2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    2020 Sculpture Series / Amazon and Me
    Amazon and Me / wall sculpture / Mixed media / 20 x 6 x 20 / 2020 - 2021

Strange and Shallow Walls

  • FOOLS RUSH IN
    FOOLS RUSH IN
    ACRYLIC/ MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS/ 12 X 12
  • Steel Magnolias/Moving Thru the Bluess
    Steel Magnolias/Moving Thru the Bluess
    oil/mixed-media/canvas 48x60
  • Fields of Fever
    Fields of Fever
    Oil/mixed media/canvas 72x60
  • Strange and Foolish Walls
    Strange and Foolish Walls
    acrylic/mixed media/paper/2009 30x36
  • It's Hopeless but Not Serious
    It's Hopeless but Not Serious
    oil/mixed media/canvas 68x68
  • Secret Fields
    Secret Fields
    oil/mixed media/canvas 60x48
  • Alone Together
    Alone Together
    diptych/oil/mixed media/canvas 60X96
  • moons ruthless longing
    moons ruthless longing
    oil/mixed media/canvas 36x24
  • You are Here
    You are Here
    acrylic/mixed media/ canvas 30x30

Journeys Around the Sun

Time and my changing perceptions of it are compelling to me.  This interest and pursuit for understanding exposes a self inquiry and thus brings to my work a collaboration of poetics, words and paint.  This current series called Journeys Around the Sun explores that delicious slowing of time that reveals the wonder of the mundane as well as the extraordinary in the human experience, the extraordinary ordinary.  My personal struggle to allow vulnerability is revealed in the layers of the work.
"The knowledge of impermanence that haunts our days is their very fragrance".  Rilke
  • Journey Around the Sun
    Journey Around the Sun
    Journey Around the Sun acrylic/ mixed media/ canvas 2019 60 x 48
  • Detail: Journey Around the Sun
    Detail: Journey Around the Sun
    Detail of Journey Around the Sun
  • A Slice of Life
    A Slice of Life
    A Slice of Life acrylic/ mixed media/ canvas 60 x 48 2019
  • A Slice of Life
    A Slice of Life
    A Slice of Life acrylic/ mixed media/ canvas 60 x 48 2019
  • Journey Around the Sun II
    Journey Around the Sun II
    Journey Around the Sun II acrylic/ mixed media/ canvas 48 X 60 2019
  • Impermanence
    Impermanence
    Impermanence acrylic/ mixed media/ canvas 30 x 30 2019
  • Ephemeral
    Ephemeral
    Ephemeral acrylic/ mixed media/ canvas 30 x 30 2019
  • Journey Around the Sun III
    Journey Around the Sun III
    Journey Around the Sun III acrylic/ mixed media/ canvas 30 x 30 2019

Strange And Foolish Walls II

  • Strange And Foolish Walls/The Tyranny of Habit
    Strange And Foolish Walls/The Tyranny of Habit
    Acrylic/ mixed media on canvas/ 60 X 72/ 2013
  • Detail/Strange And Foolish Walls And Some Blues
    Detail/Strange And Foolish Walls And Some Blues
    Acrylic/ Mixed media on canvas/ 60 X 72/ 2013
  • When Walls Can Talk
    When Walls Can Talk
    Acrylic/ mixed media on canvas/ 60 X 72/ 2013

ALONE TOGETHER

I create textured landscapes to reflect the projection of a thought or event into color and line-delineated space.
  • all the world is a stage /detail/2009
    all the world is a stage /detail/2009
    oil/mixed media/canvas 68x68
  • all the world is a stage 2009
    all the world is a stage 2009
    oil/mixed media/canvas 68x68
  • Ambivalent
    Ambivalent
    oil/mixed media/canvas 60x48
  • Le Anniversaire diz-huit fevrier
    Le Anniversaire diz-huit fevrier
    acrylic/mixed media/canvas 12x9
  • Presence of Absence
    Presence of Absence
    oil/mixed media/canvas/ 2010 68x68
  • Steel Magnolias/ Cultivate Fields
    Steel Magnolias/ Cultivate Fields
    oil/mixed media/canvas 60x48
  • Tell Him You Are Special
    Tell Him You Are Special
    acrylic/mixed media/canvas/2010 12x9
  • Sometime I go about Pitying Myself While All the Time Being Carried By Great Winds Across the Sky
    Sometime I go about Pitying Myself While All the Time Being Carried By Great Winds Across the Sky
    oil/mixed media/canvas/2010 48x60
  • Lonely Moon
    Lonely Moon
    acrylic/mixed media/canvas 12x9
  • La Fin d'une Relation
    La Fin d'une Relation
    oil/mixed media on canvas 60 x 72

Words and Paint/Uncommon Dialogue

This body of work is a collaboration of words with a writer. I painted from inspiration from his works and he wrote from inspiration from my paintings. This collaboration resulted in a book: Words and Paint/ Uncommon Dialogue
  • In the Paint and Shadows/If You Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine
    In the Paint and Shadows/If You Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine
    Oil/ mixed media on canvas 50 x 50
  • This Is Not What A Painting Looks Like
    This Is Not What A Painting Looks Like
    acrylic/ mixed media on canvas 30 x 30
  • FOREVER JOURNEY OF NOW
    FOREVER JOURNEY OF NOW
    ACRYLIC/ MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS/ 30 X 30
  • Night And Day/ Familiar Complexities
    Night And Day/ Familiar Complexities
    ACRYLIC/ MIXED MEDIA/ ON CANVAS/ 50 X 50
  • Here Remembering Somewhere Else
    Here Remembering Somewhere Else
    acrylic/ mixed media on canvas 50 x50
  • Naviete's Hopeful Fusion
    Naviete's Hopeful Fusion
    Acrylic, mixed media on canvas 30 x 30
  • Accidental Freedom
    Accidental Freedom
    acrylic/ mixed media on canvas/ 2011

Novels of the Every Day

This body of work concerns the moments and stories in the every day. These observations of what one often dismisses as incidental and not important are the gatherings of the profound and puts one clearly in the present.
  • messages_and_memories__life_of_its_own.jpg
    messages_and_memories__life_of_its_own.jpg
  • Strange And Foolish Walls/Tyranny of Habit
    Strange And Foolish Walls/Tyranny of Habit
  • Novels of the Every Day
    Novels of the Every Day
  • Sometimes I Go About Pitying Myself And All the Time Being Carried By Great Winds Across the Sky
    Sometimes I Go About Pitying Myself And All the Time Being Carried By Great Winds Across the Sky
  • Nurtured Fields Of Comfort
    Nurtured Fields Of Comfort
  • Not Just A Walk In The Park
    Not Just A Walk In The Park
  • Strange And Foolish Walls And Some Blues
    Strange And Foolish Walls And Some Blues