Keith Boa

Home: Toronto ON
Title: The Terrestrial
Media: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 98 x 82 cm

Artist Statement

The painting The Terrestrial is a symbolic portrait of a person who is an integrated part of the ecosystem. Not a steward of nature but someone who views nature and the environment on equal terms with their own existence.

The inspiration for the painting was the idea of someone with a forest growing on their shoulders, a shoulder forest. While originally I had envisioned the painting as a self-portrait, it was ultimately modelled by my wife, Louise. Collectively, this has created an androgynous effect, which makes the painting more identifiable to any viewer, male or female.

Biography

Keith Boa, (b 1958). I’m a 57-year-old emerging/self-taught artist. I live in Toronto, Ontario. My work is representative but not dictated to by the tyranny of absolute reality. I strive to reach that magic moment when the creative process takes over. There is a presence, a sense of weight and mass, that I like to see in my art.

The goal of my work is to reach out beyond myself and create a meaningful unique vision that can be shared with the viewer in an universal way. I want to create that which has not been seen before.