Hey Layne:
Found his story listed on a site. Thought I would post it here so everyone could read it.
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APRIL 2001
Gordon Keith: A True Original
There's a slate grey-blue building at 141 E. Goodale Street - Gordon Keith Originals. It's nestled right behind the new blue, green, burnt pink, and orange side of the Convention Center. Presently, the construction fills the street with debris and bulldozers, but Gordon Keith got there first - 15 years ago to be exact! This is the fifth factory he has opened in Columbus. He also had a retail store in the alley near Lazarus downtown where you might have purchased beads, baubles, and decorative items from all corners of the earth.
So what's behind those gray walls? Offices, metal fabrication, an art gallery and a full-color printing studio. Upon my visit, Mr. Keith looked every inch the man of color and style. In his jacket pocket was a gold handkerchief, his tie had gold/black/blue squares. For over 55 years his designs have been transformed into steel, wood, plastics, papier-mâché, and plaster for large displays in major department stores in the U.S.
Now the factory specializes in custom-made metal fixtures to display merchandise in stores. I saw shelving and tables of original designs. I also saw handmade boxes in many colors to simulate merchandise and enhance the Waterford Crystal displays. Other accounts include Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Saks, Neiman Marcus and most major department stores in the United States.
Following the yellow line around the factory-floor "tour," I viewed areas for steel to be: cut, washed, ground, assembled, welded, finished, ground again, washed again, polished, and painted. The Keith factory employs 20-40 workers, depending on the season. If a New York or California-based company comes up with an idea that is "UPS-able" the unit can be designed, built, painted, and in the cutomer's hands within 18 hours.
Now, the art gallery. Gordon Keith is a prolific artist. He creates on the average six paintings a week: watercolors, gouache, temperas, acrylics, and oils. They line the walls, fill the bins, and are stacked to the ceiling: portraits, landscapes, abstracts, cubism, still life, color study, playful, expressionist, involved, humor, along with metal sculpture. A stunning silver metal angel that stands 8 feet tall dominates the space. It is to be installed in a Columbus church. (The factory gallery is open by appointment only.) Gordon's wife Bette organizes his art sales, and works for charitable organizations associated with Pilot Dogs, Grant Medical Center, and the women's auxiliary of AFAR-OA, Inc. (American Federation for Aging Research-Ohio Affiliate).
Greg Keith, Gordon's son, creates multi-metaled mannequin/robot futuristic sculpture; one I saw in centaur fashion. The family oozes art through its pores. Greg also manages the factory. He attended Upper Arlington High School, Otterbein College, Columbus College of Art & Design and spent a year abroad studying in Florence. Both Keiths are tall, affable, and have imaginations that spread out like blue dye in a summer rain.
I heard many stories. One of the senior Mr. Keith's favorite stories is the day the street turned blue. One grain of an aniline dye they used would make a plateful of the sky-hued stuff. However, the dye was not permanent and would disappear in strong sunlight. A rusty can of dye, left behind after a factory move from Hague Avenue, got hauled up the street and down the alley to a dumping site. Came a summer rain. The street was blue, the alley was blue, the cars of local residents and a nearby shoe factory, all were smeared royally. An insurance man employed by Keith arrived and handed out two dollars to everyone who wanted a carwash (the price in those days). Then the sun came out and the blue disappeared.
Mr. Keith and my father, Ben Hayes, were friends. (My father frequented the factory because he liked to smell sawdust.) Ben said Mr. Keith could not sell Christmas decorations to the city in July. Mr. Keith said he'd buy my father a birthday cake if they did buy. Well, Gordon sold the city half of the job, so he had half a birthday cake made for Ben. Another Keith-made present to Ben was a rubber-molded pigeon mounted on a wooden block, complete with droppings and a tear in the bird's eye, ostensibly crying because my father had an anti-pigeon campaign going in his Columbus Citizen column. The bird remained on my father's desk until the day he retired.
Gordon Keith's visions always sprang 3-dimensionally out of his mind. He grew up in Columbus, attended Medary Avenue School, Indianola Junior High, and North High School. He had many scholarships to the Columbus Gallery of Arts School (now Columbus College of Art & Design) when World War II called him away. He was assigned to the 1621st Engineer Model Making Detachment. The 21-man unit made the invasion models for the Island of Elba and southern France. He personally made the city of Niece, France on a 1/5000 scale. Sitting in a slit trench outside Oran in North Africa when "Bed-Check Charlie" flew over every night, he and a friend planned a display business. After the war was over and Gordon did a short stint in the display department at Lazarus, he went to Boston to his friend's home, but his friend could not remember any of their conversations. So, while in Boston, Gordon sold a job to Kennedy's Men's Stores by impressing the owner with his paper sculpture animals. And, Gordon Keith Originals was born.
Now Mr. Keith has transformed many of his visions to inspirational 2-dimensional prints, with a virtual art gallery at www.signatureartcollection.com. "One Thousand Artists in One Man's Art" and "Every Print Tells A Story" are his mottos. He would also like to mention that his works are his way of sharing his God-given talent to give joy to others; he wants to pass along thoughtfulness and caring.
One more story. My family attended a Keith factory employee Christmas party when I was a child, an extravaganza with the very best decorations, of course. On the way there, my mother twisted her ankle in a parking lot. Gordon Keith gave her a cane painted like a candy cane, which we kept in our family for years. We also have little statues that keep us reminded of the diverse output of the Keith imagination: a goat's head here, a dove there, little nuggets of generosity and delight.
