Born and raised in Honesdale, PA, Sheila O’Keefe Braun lived a dibble of her adult life in Brooklyn, N.Y., California, and eventually landed in Lancaster. Born to create, in the past few years her work has transitioned from using brushes, portraying an intentional defined object or scene, to reaching for an unknown while provoking the eye. O’Keefe Braun paints from a spiritual perspective while listening and then using her fingers, at times, along with palette knives as her brushes. She layers paint, removes paint, and layers yet again. She hides stories as one story builds into another. Sheila believes that in the rapid movement and stillness happening simultaneously on the earth there is an underlying continuous shifting between the seen and unseen realms. Unnoticed, this can occur so swiftly that our resplendent dreams may drift away and that which touches deepest falls asleep. O’Keefe Braun prefers viewers “visit with her work” and largely view from the perspective of what they are experiencing. She appreciates hearing others insight in order for her to have a greater understanding of what, she calls, the continuous river running through. Sheila teaches listening art in an addiction recovery facility, paints in her studio, during weddings, events, in worship services and by commission. She is also composing a TBI (traumatic brain injury)/PTSD series as well as a series on Jerusalem / Israel.
