Keith Fox's "Making Headlines" Page

From the Observer/Advocate Newspaper ...

Former Mt. Lake artist exhibited internationally

By Marie Dick.

It all started with the collection of art books in the Mt. Lake Public Library.

Keith Fox, formerly of Mt. Lake, remembers discovering a book of Salvador Dali in the library, which to this day, Fox cites as an inspiration for his artwork; work that has earned a great deal of recognition as of late.

Fox, son of Gerald and Betty Fox, Mt. Lake, was a 1982 graduate of Mt. Lake High School.

He studied Studio Art at Carlton College for two years and later earned a B.S. in Social Work from The University of Nebraska-Omaha. In addition, he holds a B.F.A. in Studio Art and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In Iowa City where he currently resides, Fox held a solo exhibition titled: "Keith Fox "A Free-Speech Motif-Paintings" in 1996.

In these paintings Fox drew on cartoon voice balloons, musical notes and patch work quilting patterns.

From that collection, Fox sold four of his acrylic paintings from the collection of twenty and three of the nine studies done in preparation for the collection.

One of his "Freedom-of-Speech" paintings is held in a private collection in Montevideo, Uruguay. His work is also seen in a private collection in Iowa City, and earned him a place in a municipal group exhibition in Iowa City in 1997.

Some of Fox's work is now in the permanent public art collection named ART-TO-GO, which is housed in Iowa City Public Library.

Prior to these achievements, three of Fox's acrylic paintings, from the "Teapot on a Tablecloth" series, were included in the ARTS IOWA CITY/Center and Gallery's Members' Show in downtown Iowa City; autumn, 1996.

Furthermore, a detail picture post card that Fox published announcing his '96 solo exhibition has been included as part of the design on a computer website at the University of Michigan, www.umich.edu/~tsatter

In addition to the sale of art, group exhibitions, slide archives, and the development of a detail of a photograph of an abstract painting on a website, Fox has had seven of his works published as illustrations since May 28, 1996.

Over the years, Fox's paintings have been collected by eighteen private collectors living in the United States, Germany, Italy and Uruguay.

Moreover, Fox has written two articles on the subject of contemporary art for the United States Department of Agriculture and the Wisconsin Four-H Visual Art Program for youth.

He has also created illustrational artwork for the foreign language workbook in Portuguese titled, Portugal: Caderno de Exercicios and has had five paintings previously reproduced as illustrations for Torre de Papel, a University of Iowa publication.

Fox is currently teaching a watercolor class at the University of Iowa through the Department of Continuing Education and plans to start a series of watercolor paintings in the near future.

Most of Fox's work he classifies as abstract. He has always enjoyed Da Da, which is typifiedd as whimsical, nonsensical, anti-art, often reminiscent of children's art.

Similar to Da Daism, is Surrealism, the juxtaposing of incongruent images, which Fox also draws on as inspiration.

Finally, Fox enjoys assemblage, which is related to collage. In this genre, the artist takes unrelated materials and assembles them into an unrelated and mixed media. This form of art is usually associated with sculpture.

"I think that as a painter I am attracted to concepts," says Fox of his work, which accounts for his penchant for conceptual styles of art.

Likewise, surrealism and Da Daism are typically of interest to writers and filmmakers. They are a more literary style of art.

For this reason, Fox thinks he is drawn to these areas more than others, having always had a love for cinema and literature.

In fact, Fox remembers voraciously reading science fiction, by such authors as Arthur C. Clark, in elementary and junior high school.

"When I was around 13 or 14, I did a painting using a spaceship, planets and elephants," says Fox. Even back then, his style of art was coming forth.

Also pinnacle in his preparation for his artist's work, Fox credits former Mt. Lake High School English and Speech teacher Linda Mix and her classes as helping him build the foundation for his work.

"In High School, I took Drama Productions class and did 'The Elephant Man.' I think that I use some of the skills Linda Mix taught us in that class today."

Fox also worked with Mix on stage and painted the backdrop for the 1981 MLHS production of "Oklahoma."

Fox still draws on those high school experiences. "Putting together an exhibit is like putting on a theatrical production," notes Fox.

Many years after he first looked at a Salvador Dali book in the Mt. Lake Public Library, graced the MLHS stage or took Linda Mix's Drama Production class, Fox is using the skills he learned and fulfilling the dreams he had in art that began so long ago.

Observer/Advocate July 2, 1997, page 2.
P.O.Box 429
Mountain Lake, MN 56159
Editor: C. Bill Paulson