Miriam Keeler | Painter

I use self-portraiture, figuration, and narrative to explore issues of personal psychology, identity and culture. My primary medium is oil paint, although I enjoy using gouache and pastels as well. My projects usually consist of a series of paintings that unveil different aspects of a theme. Hefty tomes have been written about many of the themes that interest me, but I have found that visual imagery often leads to insights that are not so easily captured in words.

In my project on the Seven Deadly Sins I investigate contemporary life through the lenses of Gluttony, Envy, Sloth, Anger, Greed, Lust and Pride in seven separate paintings.  Are these “sins” as old-fashioned as they sound today? Or do they provide the energy that fuels modern life in our media-oiled, consumer-driven society? In my overview of the sins I use contemporary compositions and contexts in combination with saturated colors and flattened figures that harken back to medieval times when the seven deadly sins were frequent artistic subjects.

 I explore my own psyche in the Animus Committee Self-Portraits using Jungian ideas about anima and animus. These self-portraits reference male figures—both historical and fictional—who live in my psyche and support my development as a person and as an artist. My hyper-female presentation of self represents to me how my character is enhanced by their support.

The paintings in the project Pursued by My Inner Animals are hybridized self-portraits depicting imagined Kafka-like metamorphoses from my human self into various animals. They reflect both a fear of the incumbent loss of human identity and a fascination with morphological possibilities. The line between human and animal is mysterious.

Other projects I continue to work on include Self-Portraits as Artist in which I delve into my identity as an artist, Homages in which I try to connect with the artists who inspire me, Sex and Gender, and Family Dramas. In these, as in all of my projects, painting and comparative imagery provide an enlightening and therapeutic road to knowledge.