| Cycling
through the mind of Logan's free-spirit bike shop owner
By Lukas Brinkerhoff
April 15, 2008 | Jeff Keller was
in his kitchen at 8:57 p.m. ricocheting off of the objects
while he prepared some tea. He had gone to Beaver Mountain
ski resort and was still dressed in his base layers
looking much like someone on a cold morning running
out to grab the paper in pajamas and winter boots.
"I like things like electric
teapots because I can't burn them," Keller said. "I'm
scared someday I'll forget it has a plastic bottom and
put it on the stove, and burn it anyways."
Once his tea was made he was ready
to talk about art. Keller is the owner of Sunrise Cyclery
and an accomplished artist specializing in metal work.
He is well known within the community for his extreme
(at least for Logan, Utah) views of life and his way
of explaining things. He often starts with a conclusion
and moves backwards with lots of digressions in between.
Paul Ashcroft, a close friend of Keller's, said, "It's
like spending a day with Wilbur Robinson."
"Sometimes it's forced. That
is when I have to do it for whatever reason," Keller
said, speaking of his art. "I like to be open, not just
all over the place, with a vision. You need to be open
with a vision. But you can't let the vision hold you
back, it should give you a path."
Keller was sitting now. The backdrop
of his kitchen with its yellow, purple, green and blue
cabinet doors covered in metal appeared to be the perfect
habitat for the artist. Mostly because his art was everywhere
reflecting his personality, he rested his teacup on
the countertop he had installed last summer, completely
made of metal.
Renee Raber, wife and metal that
centers Keller, said, "I like him because he is not
like other people." She said he thinks differently and
that allows their relationship to evolve. She claimed
that she was a grounding force for Keller, much like
his path to art. She helps him return to a centered
place and stay focus on the final vision.
He began to talk about one of his
pieces and the path it took him down before he realized
its vision. "I was making something for somebody, I
don't remember what the hell it was now, but it was
for someone. I had a piece of metal that I cut two pieces
out of, it left two long legs like this."
He draws in the air two 3 foot pieces
jutting out from under the negative of two semi circles
each 3.5 inches that were the bottom of the 4 inch by
6 inch square that sat on the top.
"I saw this piece and thought
it looked like a chick with long legs, the beak was
the positive of the circles and the eyes the negative."
He continued saying he had kept the piece for sometime,
trying to decide how to use it. As he was forming the
metal into a chick he saw a heart in the shape and realized
it was a chick -a woman- with long legs. Keller said,
"It led into something completely different."
"I wanted to do an Iris, but
I have no patience for oil painting." Keller said he
tried a few different ways of representing the flower,
and finally said, "You have to go boldly forth into
the unknown."
"I was too tense. What is an
Iris? It's lacy and soft, like a nighty on the most
beautiful woman in the world. How do you capture that?"
He continued explaining everything he tried was uncomfortable,
it wasn't him, it was tight, "like I was constipated."
Keller began looking for a piece
of paper and a pen. He took a notebook and flipped it
over. With a pen he scribbled on the paper. A circular
pattern with a few intersecting lines became the top
and two ellipses that crossed, crashed and then formed
the stem of his iris appeared on the paper.
"It was kind of cool, people
knew what they were without any explanation. It was
a new way to look at an Iris. Irises are confusing and
it captured that chaos," Keller said referring to his
artwork.
The animation in his voice and gestures
followed the tones and attitudes of his speech, rising
and falling as every new idea evolved. Every new idea
meant a new direction, a new concept to explore, a new
possibility.
"Art is bullshit," Keller exclaimed.
He explained, "There is so much garbage
being produced. Everything is snapped out of plastic.
You only have to look at Wal-Mart to see it. Art is
whatever you want it to be. It's kind of blurry. Even
a lawnmower can be art, if he mows in a diagonal or
does it his way."
"I wish more people tried to
make art. They might find some inner joy. They might
look at the world differently." Keller is an entrepreneur
in Logan who took up sculpting later in life. He spent
the greater part of his life dedicated to the bicycle
and what it can mean for the environment and community.
He even has art projects dedicated to that end. He often
uses recycled objects as parts of his projects and sometimes
keeps things around just in case he can reuse it in
some way in the future. What most would see as clutter,
he sees as possible art pieces.
"I'm gonna quote someone,"
Keller continued. "Alexander Calder, the father
of mobiles, said, 'Art is controlled accidents.' I feel
a connection to that. You're following something, tuning
in, tuning into a path, like the Chick with long legs."
He explained that it had to flow,
it was something different. "You have to follow the
path, work with the path. Having a direction is the
opposite of being overwhelmed."
On Keller's front lawn, in front
of Sunrise Cyclery, sits a big black ball made of used
bicycle inner tubes. The ball sits 4 feet tall and weighs
1200 pounds. He has paid people over the past few years
to stretch tubes over the ball. He has watched it grow.
When asked what his favorite piece
was, he responded, "I kind of like the damn black ball
right now. It's dumb enough. People ask about it, ask
if I'm trying to be in Guinness [Book of World Records].
And no, it's not like here to Wal-Mart. I'm doing something
different. It's the piece that needs the most explanation.
It's a big black ball and when you look at it, it is
so complex. Maybe it is so bad cause it needs the most
explanation."
The ball is more than used tubes
to Keller. He has used it to demonstrate how the little
things add up quickly. He explained tubes are small
and light, but when put all together they become this
huge almost immoveable ball. He likes to explain that
air quality is the same way. The short local trips are
the ones that add up to be a big problem.
Keller looks at life through the
eyes of an artist but also likes to say something with
his art. The big black ball is an example of his ideology
coming through his sculptures.
To finally get to the reason for
his art and bring his path full circle he explains a
psychic once told him, "You can starve your body or
starve your soul." Without art he said he felt he was
starving his soul and he would never do that again.
He said art is what gives meaningful relationships to
the everyday things around us. According to Keller,
it is his path. It is life.
MS
RR
|
