CELESTE KELLER

The Space Between examines the shifting territory between control and surrender, recognition and abstraction, what is revealed and what remains unknown.
 

These paintings begin with photographs taken while I am submerged in water. I can position myself before the camera, but I cannot control the water’s movement. It bends the body, obscures the face and transforms familiar forms into something unpredictable.

 

In the studio, I begin to regain control through the deliberate process of painting. I isolate and closely crop the figure against a stark white ground. Repeated stripes create structure and movement within an image that hovers between realism and abstraction.

 

Although I use myself as the model, these works are not self-portraits in a traditional sense. As I paint, the figure detaches from my identity and becomes a subject I interpret through my own experience. By withholding familiar visual cues, I leave space for viewers to complete what is missing through their own perceptions and experiences. The work ultimately resides in the space between the imageI carefully construct and the meaning I cannot control.