The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Maureen O’Keefe
Sidney Ohio 45365 United States Cell Phone: 937-638-6423 Website: Maureen O’Keefe: Fine Art
Bio
Maureen O’Keefe is a portrait and figure painter living and working in mid-western Ohio. The process
for Maureen’s current body of work involves a return to the blind-contour drawing that is taught in
beginning art classes. The artist never lifts the pencil from the surface and never looks at the drawing;
only at the subject. Once a line drawing is finished, she has a template for a finished work. Her work
investigates identities, labels, personas and belonging. The portrait and the figure are tools for this
exploration of the tension between our perception of ourselves and how we are seen by others.
Maureen received her BFA in Fine Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2005. She has
shown work in seven states in both group and solo exhibitions. Maureen is a recipient of the Ohio Arts
Council Individual Excellence Award for FY2019. She has taught drawing, painting, and design courses at
Edison State Community College since 2009.
Artist Statement
My current work consists of mirrored and kaleidoscopic portraits, figures, and florals caught in the sublime moments of existence that reflect the holiness and importance of religious ritual. I was born Catholic and raised in a very traditional family and environment. As an adult woman, a wife, parent, and a feminist, I find that there isn’t a space for me in the church of my childhood. The work addresses my desire to find the sacred in my secular life. It communicates the experience of living outside of tradition while surrounded by tradition. I make work for doubters and questioners, because I am curious and doubtful. I make work that communicates a sense of uncertainty and skepticism without judgement or fear.
