NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 30, 2009

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Dee Lee
Public Information Director
Oklahoma Arts Council
(405) 521-2931
anndee@arts.ok.gov

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: SLAPOUT TO TAOS
ART EXHIBIT OPENS AT STATE CAPITOL

Oklahoma City, OK – Oklahoma City artist Jim Keffer laughingly considers himself a late bloomer. Although he thought of himself as an artist from the age of 5, Keffer spent his first 46 years “gathering material' as he calls it. Keffer has no formal art training, except for a ninth grade art class. Now at the age of 56, Keffer paints in a colorful, contemporary primitive style and much of his inspiration comes from his love of painting small churches, old barns and abandoned buildings in rural Oklahoma and New Mexico.

His exhibit, The Road Less Traveled: Slapout to Taos, will be on display in the first floor of the East Gallery at the State Capitol from February 2 through April 5. Curated by the Oklahoma Arts Council, the East Gallery is open daily from 8:30-5:00.

An Opening Reception will be held in the East Gallery on Thursday, February 5th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

He began his career as an artist in 1996 creating handcrafted, carved and painted wooden furniture. From there, he began to actively pursue his creative instincts and started to experiment with applying paint to canvas. Keffer says he is not totally in charge of the process. “My work becomes a partnership between the painting and me and each painting begins with a real place. My paintings are like life. I look at all those years before as a time when I was absorbing material, thinking and reflecting. When the time was right, I became the artist I had always thought myself to be.”

Keffer’s work is collected worldwide and has been enjoyed at gallery and juried art shows in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bentonville, Arkansas; as well as Oklahoma City, Guthrie and Cushing.

For more information, contact Ann Dee Lee, Public Information Director, Oklahoma Arts Council, (405) 521-2931 or anndee@arts.ok.gov.

ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA ARTS COUNCIL
The Oklahoma Arts Council is a state agency whose mission is to improve lives through the arts by promoting and sustaining the development of a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.

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