For former University of Washington art professor Richard Kehl, mystery is a celebration.
"I think of myself as a spokesman for the universe," he said. "I'm celebrating all that's intangible and can't be explained."
'Everything is art'
For about 20 years, Kehl has been making collages that are designed to ignite the imagination and evoke mystery.
His collages have been shown in more than 70 galleries in New York; Paris; Tokyo; Washington, D.C.; St. Louis; Seattle; and Turkey. Like his images, the titles of his pieces - such as "I begin with what was always gone" and "A garden of reconciled opposites" - are taken from old books.
"To me, everything is art," he said. "When you name something, you just put it in some category in your brain and never see it again."
When people see his collages, he noted, they see the same thread of tenderness and compassion in them. Unlike most collages, the images in Kehl's works are separated from each other and do not overlap.
"They're more like poetry than art," he said.
Multiple sources
When he is away from his studio in Maple Leaf, Kehl spends a great deal of his time at used-books stores, scouting images for his works.
"All of the images kind of just talk to me," he said. "I wait for something to find me."
When he finds the images that might work, he photocopies them to the right size, cuts them out and lays them out on a table at his studio. Kehl can try hundreds of combinations before finding the right one.
He uses images dating back to 1931 and often works on more than one collage at a time.
"It's just amazing, the range of things that he's done," said Lana Sundberg, a painter who has known Kehl for about 25 years.
An impressive portfolio
Born on Sept. 21, 1936, in the small farming town of Mexico, Mo., Kehl knew from age 2 that he wanted to be an artist. He went on to graduate from the Kansas City Art Institute and developed a reputation as an abstract expressionist painter.
He subsequently became a teacher, collaborating with designer and educator Norman Laliberte on an experimental curriculum at the Rhode Island School of Design. Together, they founded a design studio in New York City and designed a 40-foot mural for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair, a 12-sided photo room for the National Film Board of Canada and a 90-foot mural for Pepsi Co.
After moving to Minnesota to teach at the Minneapolis School of Art, he continued to make monthly trips back to Manhattan to work in fashion and graphic design.
Kehl's works have been published in numerous magazines, and he also has published 16 books, received a number of awards and produces commercial work for such clients as Microsoft, Starbucks Coffee, Cannes Film Festival, Hewlett Packard and the Goodwill Games.
Celebratory exhibit
The artist recently celebrated his 70th birthday with an exhibition of some of his collages at the Seattle Asian Art Museum over the weekend. Kehl was surprised to be reunited with students from 20 and 30 years ago, who told him that he made a great impact on them. "It was really heartwarming," he said.
Kehl was an art professor at the University of Washington for 36 years, until he retired three years ago.
"I taught them how to learn," he said of his students, adding that he learned along with them.
Since his retirement, Kehl has been traveling the country and beyond, including a trip to Egypt last January. He plans to organize another local exhibition of his work sometime next year. "I want to do something more indirect and more fragile and unexpected," he said.
For more information about Richard Kehl, visit www.richardkehl. com.
Jessica Davis writes about arts and entertainment for the Herald-Outlook. She can be reached via e-mail at needitor@nwlink.com.
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