Pat Keen, Studying People

by Jerry Slayton

This August, Art Spark Texas would like to recognize artist Patricia, Pat, Keen as our Artist of the Month. Pat has led an incredibly interesting life as an educator, civil rights worker, mother, senior citizen, and is now focusing on her life as an artist. Pat and I met about eight years ago at The Arc of the Arts, an art studio here in Austin that she attended. I quickly gravitated to her work: dense collages filled with cultural and art historical references of people and places from around the world. We’ve stayed in touch through the years, and now it is my honor to share a bit of Pat’s story with you all.

Her father was born in Poland, Benjamin Keenowski, her mother, Betty Davis, was born in Michigan. Both pursued education after high school. Her mother attended art school in New York City for two years studying Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, and the plastic arts. Her father attended university and earned his PhD in Latin American Studies, publishing books on the topic throughout his long academic career. He lectured as a professor for the majority of Pat’s youth while her mother stayed home to care for the four children. 

After high school, Pat too pursued her education. She studied at Montclair State University in New Jersey, earning a teaching degree, then went on to earn a Masters in Counseling from Sonoma State University in Northern California. Finally, she earned a Doctoral degree in Educational Psychology from the University of San Francisco. When asked why she found psychology so interesting, she said, “I was interested in understanding people, to better understand myself.”

One day at lunch, some seven or eight years ago, Pat casually mentioned that after she graduated, in the mid-1960s, she moved to Mississippi to help register voters. She left her job in teaching to relocate and assist in “a cause close to her heart.” I’ve included a portion of the article above.

It reads: “This past summer Miss Keen did civil rights work in Trenton and early in September she went to Mississippi to assist in the Shelby Project. She is working with the Freedom Labor Union, which is trying to establish a minimum of $1.25 an hour for workers, who are said to make as little as 30 cents an hour.”

Pat was responsible for registering voters, educating registered voters, and fundraising for the Freedom Center, which would assist African-Americans in the area with phones, typewriters, and other business machines so they were able to advocate for themselves and their wages in agriculture.

Hearing this story now takes me back to the day Pat first shared it, and the lasting thoughts I had about her selfless action. I remember asking her to dig around in the memory and share more details about her experience in Mississippi. Some of which she was able to recall, some not. See, Pat suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm as an adult, years before we met (in 2000 at the age of 57), and that occasionally prevents her memory. The beauty in her diagnosis is that sometimes when she is sharing a memory, it feels like you are rediscovering it with her. She genuinely lights up as she uncovers an aspect of her past life and then immediately starts trying to unpack what it means—she is a psychology PhD, after all. It’s not surprising then that Pat’s artwork is absolutely full of people and thoughts, both historical and cultural. 

Her collage works seem to explore human history and events. They make connections between the web of all human effort. To me, they read as a collection or anthropology. Pictured above, the collage piece on the left has fashion models and cartoon dolls standing together in a field of color. The text “Menswear Inspired” is pasted on top of the models, and long-neck giraffes sprout upward from the bottom of the picture. When forced together, the images provide commentary or raise questions on gender and beauty, while also remaining open. It’s never heavy-handed with Pat. It’s always playful and suggestive. It’s no surprise to me that Pat’s collage materials appear to come from textbooks or pop magazines. She draws on her education, and culture, to build new personal connections.

Pat has also created portraits, or “heads,” since I’ve known her. Mostly with paint and brush, they seem a direct reflection of her interest in people. She explores facial features of all races and genders to create a small population of psychologies. Her people are in various states of worry, or questioning, or joyfulness. This series builds a direct connection to her background in people’s inner workings, and perhaps how we reveal ourselves externally. 

I titled this blog “Studying People” because I believe that to be an integral part of Pat Keen’s artistic pursuit. At least, that’s what it does for me. She is an artist, a thinker, an observer, an empath, and a friend. Her body of work is vast and could fill a museum, and so I’ve only scratched the surface here, but my hope is to provide a window into Pat’s mind. 

Last week was Pat’s 81st birthday, and so we had lunch, accompanied by our friend Mary. In our conversation we discussed psychology and her interests with it, and she reminded me that, “Understanding people helps you better understand yourself.” I have to admit that for me, seeing Pat’s artwork helps me understand people, and for that and the many years of friendship I am truly grateful.