MEAGHAN FENNESSY KEELEY: BIO PAGE

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Education:

• Artist in Residence with the Braitman Studio, Charlotte, NC , Spring 2012    
•  http://www.braitmanstudio.com
• Teacher: Assistant to Fundamentals class, Braitman Studio, Spring 2012 - Fall 2012
• Present Student: Charlotte Zweber (figure work)
• Past Student: Susan Matthews, Charlotte, NC (color palette)                
• Past Student:  The Foundry, Charlotte, NC  (bronze sculpture techniques)  
• Past Student: Vaino Kola (printmaking, figure drawing and painting)
• Past Student: Nancy Helfant (sculpture techniques of clay, wire and found objects) 
• Degree: B.A. Art History(studio art), Wheaton College, Norton, MA

Work Background:

• mfk designs, inc. ( art and floorcloth design company) 2005-2010
• Gardner- Moross   Inc., NY, NY and Charlotte, NC (floorcloth design company)1992-1994        
• John Lewis, Inc. Boston, MA ( jewelry designer ) 1988-1990
• Edith Schroeder Restoration, Gloucester, MA 1987-1988 (art restoration apprentice)

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HER STORY:

Meaghan utilizes line work to guide the focal points in her paintings. Her paintings ooze with a unique richness of shape, form  and texture. This process highlights the subliminal application of paint on the  canvas. Intertwining organic backgrounds and geometric foregrounds of shape and color , create a majestic ease to her paintings. 

Diving straight into abstract painting, with the guidance of acclaimed artist Andy Braitman, Meaghan is working in mixed media. Thriving on the larger canvas and its capacity for drama and viewer interaction , she is experimenting with pastels, oils , acrylics,  charcoal and  the encaustic application. She is coming alive and truly enjoying her dialogue with the surface of the canvas. Meaghan's strong element of line and architectural shapes and her fascination with surface interplay, has truly brought her latest pieces to life.  Her build up of  texture and media play, adds a beautiful depth and intrigue to her work. 

A former floorcloth artisan, Meaghan has experimented in mixed media and collage techniques using canvas as the building block to create positive and negative space relations. Primary colors and bold lines bring out the full potential of the large canvases from which she worked.  Shapes ebb and flows across the foreground creating both positive and negative space and a sense of depth and weight to her images.

Her photography captures the beauty of shape, color and the play of positive and negative space that falls on objects.  This play of light and dark  creates a lovely serenity that exudes from her work.  Architecture and landscapes predominately influence her subject matter. Her travels enable her to catch the glimpses of the world and spaces around us. Her focus is on the interplay of shape and natural sunlight and how we /the viewer interact with it all thru the camera's lens.

Born and raised in Northern New Jersey, Meaghan has followed her heart and transplanted to Charlotte, North Carolina  where she lives with her husband, Tyler and their three children.  She works out of her home studio and is actively taking creative figure classes at the Braitman Studio Art School.