By Mary Owen
Julie Keating loves to create, incorporating bits and pieces of stuff most folks might not even consider artistic.
“I found these two poles on a walk across to the park,” said the Sublimity senior, rubbing her hands over two staffs of well-polished wood that are central to a recent piece. At the center is a painted face made from half of a gourd, her latest crafting discovery.
The screen – complete with feathers, bird skull, human hair, porcupine quills, willow strips, rabbit skins and other finds – is decidedly American Indian in nature, a popular motif for Keating, who hails from Albuquerque, N.M.
“I give credit to my mom and grandma for the talent they left me,” she said when complimented on the piece that serves as a screen. Creativity runs in the family, said Keating, whose son is a jeweler in Portland.
“It took me about three or four weeks to create, although not straight through,” she said. “I’m intrigued with faces. One wrong line on a face can completely change its expression.
When working on a piece, Keating said she “lets my imagination go. I’ll stop and look at it for awhile, then something will snap, and I’ll jump up and do it.”
Keating, who lives on a fixed income, doesn’t sell her creations, but she does give her artwork away to friends who appreciate them. She also displays them in art shows from time-to-time.
“I recently won second place in a senior center show in Salem for this piece I made from eight different gourds,” she said, holding up a multi-colored gourd on feet made from four smaller gourds and wrapped in tan rope.
“It has almost a Raku-like finish,” she added.
Her living room serves as a gallery for her many artworks, from vibrantly-colored gourds to carved table tops to delicately-crafted cloth dolls. Her jewelry embellishes many of her creations.
“There is no shutting down until a project is finished,” she said of her urge to make things.
Keating started 30 years ago by making jewelry out of silver and turquoise, then gold and turquoise, both popular in her native New Mexico.
“I loved to construct things out of plate and solder them together,” she said.
But when crafting earrings, necklaces and bracelets by hand was replaced by less-expensive, caste replicas, Keating soon tired.
“I couldn’t design any more,” she said simply.
She dabbled with glass beads, stained glass, polymer clay, paint and her favorite, wood.
“I have a knack for using power tools,” she said. “And I love to burn wood.”
Keating employs all she has learned over the years into her work, which for the past several years has centered on gourds. Creating her art, she said, “makes me more of a sane person.”
“I get bored easily,” she said. “I have to be creating something or it’s like a part of me isn’t there.”
Keating’s not sure about her next project, but she said, “Something always comes up that I want to do.” And there’s always finding bits and pieces to add to her creations, made by hand and tools with mostly Southwestern and African themes.
“That’s the most fun of all of this – finding things,” she said. “I’m always on the look out for natural things to use in my art. Everything I use is real.”
Of her former occupation now hobby, she said, “I just love to create!”
