Professional Background
Autumn holds a BFA in Fine Art from the Columbus College
of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio. She graduated in 1998, with a solo thesis
show in the Beaton Hall Gallery. After graduation, Autumn became a founding member
of the Phoenix Rising Printmaker's Cooperative (also based in Columbus), and worked there
during 1998-1999. Following her return to Washington, she worked for a short period at
the Sev Shoon printmaking studio in Ballard. Currently Autumn works in a
range of media out of her home studio in Everett, Washington.
Personal Background
Autumn was born in 1976 in Fairbanks, Alaska, where her parents worked
constructing homes. They have always encouraged her interest in art (she continues
to work with the sable watercolor brushes that were birthday presents in elementary school).
After 6th grade, Autumn became disenchanted with public school, and successfully petitioned
her Mother to homeschool her, allowing greater freedom in pursuing an artistic career.
She took many courses through community centers, and found guidance in books
such as "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".
While Autumn was completing highschool at Edmonds Community College,
she took wonderful courses in ceramics, art history, and drawing. Also, she had the
opportunity to join a student watercolor expedition to Russia. Working with Russian watercolor
instructors plein-air helped her to grow tremendously as a painter.
Autumn has worked as a picture framer during and since college to provide
regular income while continuing her personal artistic work. Besides pursuing art, she
enjoys gardening tremendously, and has had the good fortune this past year to
purchase a home with soil to till.
Inspirational Sources
Autumn's work draws from nature, as she has always loved biology and
botany as well as artistic creation. She would like her art to provide a reminder of the
essential physical and spiritual human connection to the natural world. Within our homes
we can sometimes cut ourselves off from the magic and majesty of the outdoor world,
uncreated by human hands.
The life and paintings of Georgia O'Keefe are a particular inspiration to Autumn.
Karl Blossfeldt's photography led her to see more clearly the iconography of plant forms, and
have inspired her experimentation with scale. He made people look at the structure of plants by
enlarging them through the use of early microscopic photography. In many of
Autumn's pieces, she has equalized the scale of human and plant forms to
emphasize their connection as organic structures.
Autumn is also a romantic, and loves the Pre-Raphaelite painter's literary visions.
Her work leans towards the illustrative tradition they sought to resurrect from the Renaissance.
Autumn hopes to provide a Jungian continuance of mythology in her art, connecting the viewer with
nature using current and ancient symbology. Creating a loving and dedicated representation of some
detail in nature, whether it is a piece of driftwood, a flower, or a landscape view gives it importance
to other people. Autumn wants to help others anchor a spiritual connection with nature through
intimate images that draw them in to appreciate the immortal beauty of life around us.
Creative Process
Autumn often begins work on a painting outdoors, while hiking or just out for the day
with her family. Some detail of the landscape will strike her, and provide the basis for a sketch
or watercolor. Being an obsessive about details, she will usually finish such work at home using photo
references. Sometimes paintings evolve from a combination of photo references and objects collected for
her "shrine" of natural ephemera. Since being introduced to the ever-changing human subject in college
figure study courses, Autumn has taken every opportunity to tie the figure in with her nature studies.
Sometimes she will use a sketch done at an open drawing session, or a dance photograph, or a
snapshot taken of friends and family whose gesture fits into the current work - or inspires a
new piece. The motions of painting or carving a print block remind Autumn of the
calligraphic work of monks or arabic scribes tracing the words of God.
Painting helps her affirm the beauty of life.
Mrs Kegley has exhibited both in Ohio and Washington:
Puyallup Fair Juried Art Show, 1994
Awarded First in Drawing Category
Ust-Kachka Watercolor Expedition Show (Perm, Russia), 1995
Mind Lands (Thesis Show) at C.C.A.D., 1998
Phoenix Rising Member Show at Studios on High (Columbus, Ohio), 1998
Edmonds Arts Festival Juried Show, 2000
Awarded First in Prints & Drawing Category
Please contact Mrs. Kegley with any
inquiries through e-mail or by phone:
or
(425) 304-9907
