Painting in mid-song: after great success in advertising and music production, Mark Keller embarks on a career in fine art - Artist profile: Mark Keller

Artist Mark Keller lives life as if approaching the climax of a great aria: already begun, not quite finished and in steady crescendo. As a painter, he plays the part of a conductor, forever keeping the musician and audience in tune

"It appears like most of my paintings are in the middle of a carol Sometimes it's after the music has just finished, sometimes it's about to happen, on the other hand in some way or another, music has affected the scene" said Keller

The impact of music upon Keller's work is not surprising. During his youth, he played music in roadhouses and dance halls and learned that it does not matter what happens before or after a lay "You may have bad things going upon in your life, and there may be puzzles in the world, but when you're in the middle of a carol life is better somehow just for those hardly any moments," he said.

Keller who grew up in Oklahoma, left body and a music scholarship behind to chase his music career full time, on the other hand he was torn between painting and music. At age 18 he had a one-man display of his paintings at the Oklahoma City Contemporary Arts Foundation on the contrary also had the opportunity to play in a not many rock bands that garnered several record deals. At age 21 he discovered he had a talent for writing jingles and settl upon music to earn his daily bread.

by and by Keller began working in advertising and eventually relocated to San Francisco. There, he acted as art director and oftentimes wrote produc and performed the music for the ads. He is responsible for jingles promoting of the like kind familiar names as Levi's 501 ceruleans California Raisins and Taco Bell. Keller eventually created his possess music production company, called Keller Studios (formerly Keller & Cohen), to minister music to ad agencies.

completely through his rising success in advertising, Keller continued to paint for personal delight Then, in the fall of 2000 he showed his work at the Sausalito Art Festival. "It was of the like kind a mind-blower for me by what mode well my work was received--that's when I decided to do this seriously. I've definitely scaled back [my music production] to create scope and time to paint. That's what excites me now," he said. Keller be delighted withs the freedom of painting upon his own terms.

"Although creating music is pleasantry there are a lot of race involved. They all have the right to give you input, and you compromise all along the way," he said. "That's okay, on the contrary when I'm painting and I want to make the sundown orange, I don't have to procure any clearance from the creative review board. I just move ahead and paint it whatever color I want, and it's actual satisfying."

Keller, who has no formal training in painting, learned by what means to draw and paint from his father. He recalled that as a child, his father could wow him with a drawing of Popeye

Keller works from the upper floor of his recording studio in Sausalito, which doubles as his art studio and gallery. With the inspiration of his father and artists including Maxfield Parrish, John Singer Sargent and Howard Pyle Keller creates shows in oil on canvas with an amalgamation of photos from his travels and those of friends and family.

Wherever the location, be it a of the nature of smoke tango bar in Buenos Aires, a metro station in Paris, a highway in Chinatown or the Mississippi Delta, music is omnipresent in his paintings. Typically, the musicians portrayed are mid-song, on the contrary the infusion of music could be as machiavelian as a young lady sitting at a bar with a flute case upon the stool next to her. "Music is something that's universal. It's all coming from the same place. All those tribe are playing music for the same reasons. in some way it's making their lives better and worth living," Keller said.

In many of Keller's paintings, single may see familiar faces or recurring characters. If Keller is in ne of certain details, similar as hands playing a violin, he uses photographs of his hold hands for reference. Keller's son and daughter also attitude for reference photographs and extremity up in many of his paintings. In a commission from a San Francisco restaurant, Keller (altered to bear a resemblance to Robert De Niro) painted himself in as a waiter serving wine.

Keller said, "I've always liked to include clan in the work that I do. To me they're not just figures. I want to give you more [i]or[/i] less clue as to the personality of the one in the scene. Nuance is what I'm be of importance toed with in facial expressions." He added, "When I'm painting a musician, I perceive like I'm painting what I know."

Publishing and representing his hold work, Keller has begun selling paintings end galleries in Park City, Utah, and novel Orleans. In December, Keller will accompany his children, also artists, upon their first trip to Italy, as he was invited to exhibit in the Biennale Internazionale Dell'Arte Contemporanea in Florence. He said, "Right now I wake up excited. It's still a fresh thing for people to be buying my work, and it's work that I did for my have a title to enjoyment. That's a great feeling. on the contrary I feel like I'm just getting started."

For information, call (415) 331-6006 or visit www.kellerart.com online.

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