Tuesday, September 2, 2008 9:13 PM CDT
Bloomington neurosurgeon rediscovers his love of painting
By PAUL SWIECH, Lee News Service Writer
Keith Kattner painted green on top of blue to give his painting a deeper, layered sensation.
“I’m thinking about calling it ‘Summer Heat,’ ” he said of the colorful painting he was working on in a makeshift studio in the Bloomington home he shares with his wife, Nita.
Kattner is an artist in a hurry to make up for 25 years of not painting — years spent going to college and medical school and saving lives.
Kattner is Dr. Keith Kattner, a neurosurgeon with Central Illinois Neuro Health Sciences in Bloomington. He has practiced neurosurgery in Bloomington-Normal since 1995 and continues to do so.
But he took up the paint brush again about a year and a half ago and hasn’t slowed down, painting 100 to 150 pieces since then.
“There’s no stopping me now,” he said as he layered ‘Summer Heat,’ surrounded by other paintings. “I can keep this pace up forever.”
On a typical day, Kattner, 46, practices neurosurgery from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., then comes home and paints until 1 a.m. On weekends, he paints 20 to 30 hours.
“I don’t know where he gets the time,” veteran Bloomington painter Harold Gregor said. Kattner credits Gregor with convincing him to get back into painting.
Kattner is more than a doctor who likes to paint. Many doctors are creative people who enjoy art.
“Doctors at this level are few and far between,” Gregor said of Kattner as an artist.
“There is some real strength there,” Gregor said. “He had an earlier interest, he knows a lot about painting and he has a real passion.
“It takes about 10 years after graduate school to realize your individuality as an artist so you’re not like every-one else,” Gregor said. “He’s a couple of years into it. He’s better than a lot but he has a long way to go.”
Kattner understands that, which may explain his drive to paint as much as possible.
“He’s in a little bit of a hurry,” Gregor said with a chuckle. “I’ve even said to him ‘Slow down. Smell the roses here and there.’
“For me, painting is not a form of relaxation,” Kattner said. “If I want to relax, I’ll go surfing or drink a beer. For me, painting is all about expression.
“It’s been in my marrow since I was a kid.”
He took his first lessons at age 10 while growing up on Omaha, Neb. In ninth grade, his family relocated to Bloomington. Artist Ken Holder was a neighbor.
“He looked at my painting and gave me an easel. It was my prized possession,” Kattner recalled. His plans were to pursue art.
But he also liked science. While studying biology at Illinois State University, he discovered that he had neither the time nor the space for painting. So he stopped.
That self-imposed exile from painting continued while he was in medical school, as he was building his neurosurgery practice in Bloomington and as he helped to build the BroMenn Healthcare Neurosurgery Residency program in Normal.
Over the years, he continued to study art and art history by reading and by visiting art museums with Nita.
“It got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore,” he recalled as he painted in his studio and listened to a Jimi Hendrix CD. About a year and a half ago, he began painting again, at Gregor’s urging.
“I looked at some of his paintings and thought ‘He’s got something,’” Gregor recalled.
Kattner starts by taking photographs of scenes, mostly in Central Illinois. “I like to paint life around me.”
The everyday life that’s in the photograph is merely the start. “I try to find scenes that I can play with, techni-cally. I play with the colors to see how it works out. I use my imagination.”
“He’s beyond his art looking like a photograph,” Gregor said. “He knows about metaphorical extension. He knows about painting an image which offers a larger meaning beyond itself.”
Kattner likes scenes that allow him to play with light and dark, shadows and a variety of colors. He uses powerful diagonals and complementary colors to draw people into the art. Sometimes, he will have a subject in his art look at the viewer to draw him or her in.
Gregor, knowing Kattner is a busy neurosurgeon, encouraged Kattner to pursue the layering process, which allows him to work on a piece a little bit at a time and improve it.
Kattner paints in oils because he does multiple glazes to achieve color intensity.
“I like to move around (different styles),” he said. “I’m painting a lot and experimenting with expressionism.” But he knows he needs to be a good realist first, with sound texture, lines and color.
Gregor likes that Kattner keeps painting and improving, knowing that his pieces aren’t perfect.
“He’s learning the steps without demanding perfection of himself,” Gregor said.
Kattner isn’t interested at this point in selling his art.
“I just want to do a good job and keep improving as an artist. I want to intrigue people. I think art should be beautiful and should inspire people.”
Kattner said if his art does that for some people, he will be satisfied.
You have accomplished something as an artist, he said, “when you get someone to connect with your art, when they feel something.”
Contact Paul Swiech at pswiech@pantagraph.com
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