Art Exhibit by Ursula Keen, Thursday, September 3, 2009 from 6 – 9 pm

Miss Keen could draw and paint before she learned to read, this caused problems, as you can imagine, and she had to repeat the second grade. During her high school years, Miss Keen studied art under Cheryl Dragoo at Reicher Catheolic High School in Waco, Texas. Her freshman year, a charcoal and pencil piece took best in show at the Heart of Texas fair. Then in her senior year, an abstract water color of a nude woman in a chair took fifth in the State of Texas at a competition of private and public schools.

Also, in her senior year Miss Keen sold her first large scale oil painiting to a Baylor law school student. Apparently, the law student bought it becasue while strolling Austin Ave. with his girlfriend, they saw the painting and fell in love with it and each other. The young man purchased the painting, suprised his girlfriend with it, and got down on one knee and proposed to her in front of it. I am happy to report that the couple is still married, the husband works at a firm in Dallas, and the oil painting is in their dining room.

The oil painting was a Christmas mural assignment in her senior art class, and took a month to complete as it was 5 by 8 feet long. Upon completion, all of the Christmas murals from Reicher were on display at the MCC Art building’s windows on 8th Street at Austin Ave, Waco, Texas. The canvas had to be custom built and Ursula had to stand on a ladder to paint parts of it. Miss Keen’s version of Chrismas was of a modern day nativity–of a New York street corner with skyline which included the Christmas star, Mary as a bag lady living in a cardboard box holding the infant Christ, the three wise men were “bums” huddleed around a trash can on fire, a prostittute as an angel, and a faded angel on a soda advertisement on a brick building announced the birth of Christ. Of course, the painting was racy for a Catholic school, and the nuns were quite happy to see it go.

Miss Keen graduated from Baylor School of Law on February 6, 1999. She received her undergraduate degree on May 14, 1995 in Economics from the University of Dallas. During her career, Ms. Keen has drafted an appellate brief to the Fifth Circuit regarding the ADEA. She has also filed cases for federal employees before the MSPB. She has previously practiced employment and family law in a number of counties including Bell, McLennan, Coryell, and Lampasas.