KeanEy Rathbun

Keaney Rathbun is a Northwest artist, working in the medias of silkscreen printmaking and painted bas relief carving. His work is a bright and optimistic depiction of happiness. His love of landscapes, gardens and birds is paired with a narrative of a life shared with family and friends. He explains that his images are “deceptively simple metaphors of human experience. They are joyous and whimsical, emotional and poignant. They represent an optimistic and naïve spirit embracing the moments that make up my life.”

He celebrates the simple acts of taking a walk in the park, sitting in a garden, observing something of beauty. In capturing these moments, he is presenting us with totems of love, kindness and joy. Their existence in a world that is much more uncertain and imperfect provides us with accents of poignancy evoking our own memories of fleeting joy. He tells us, that we can find peace, saying, “As I get older, I find myself seeking tranquility. I am less likely to squander my energy in turmoil.  I am following my loves and interests, distractions and travels. I am comfortable in my skin.  The making of my work - the incorporation of beauty and humor into my life’s subject matter - allows me to express personal feeling that I could not broach in words.”

Silk Screen Process

The silkscreen prints are created by layering colors through a silkscreen with a developing stencil painted on to the surface. With each application of color, the stencil is worked a little a little more. To keep colors clean, sometimes a layer is printed in white before being printed again in the chosen color. Each layer needs to completely dry before the next can be applied, and Keaney’s prints may have in excess of sixty layers of color. 

Artist's Page