Don Keenan
Painting a subject without their knowing it, a surprise portrait, is always fraught with danger… and in the case of Don Keenan, doubly so. A larger than life character, electrifying, the trial lawyer community with his “Reptile Theory” of practice, a TV personality, renowned children’s advocate, often to be found unshaved wearing shorts, T-shirt, and always those sunglasses. An ex-marine of Irish blood and creator of the Kids Foundation and Bono aficionado. All this and more went into this painting. It was with relief that I saw it was warmly and enthusiastically received at its unveiling in Houston. Kudos to the courage of the man brave enough to commission this painting!
Painting a subject without their knowing it, a surprise portrait, is always fraught with danger… and in the case of Don Keenan, doubly so. A larger than life character, electrifying, the trial lawyer community with his “Reptile Theory” of practice, a TV personality, renowned children’s advocate, often to be found unshaved wearing shorts, T-shirt, and always those sunglasses. An ex-marine of Irish blood and creator of the Kids Foundation and Bono aficionado. All this and more went into this painting. It was with relief that I saw it was warmly and enthusiastically received at its unveiling in Houston. Kudos to the courage of the man brave enough to commission this painting!
Don Keenan
Keenan, Don. 16" x 20". 2015. Collection of Keenan Law Firm. Atlanta, GA. Portrait on canvas. Commissioned by HMR Funding, Dean Chase.
Keenan, Don. 16" x 20". 2015. Collection of Keenan Law Firm. Atlanta, GA. Portrait on canvas. Commissioned by HMR Funding, Dean Chase.


Even when there is no law, there is conscience.
Conscience, or "knowing together", is a word coined by Stoic philosophers to reflect the divine presence in the human mind. The idea developed from Oriental teachings of fusing man with
God, woman with Goddess.
My painting is based on one of the most remarkable images from the Iconologia, a series of handbooks illustrated by the Italian iconographer Cesare Ripa. Used by journeymen sculptors and engravers throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the book is full of personifications of different aspects of the human spirit: virtues, vices, arts, and sciences.
Conscience walks a narrow path for us all, here represented as a path bordered with flowers and thorns. The former symbolize the way of an all too easy conscience while the latter represents the difficult route of a peace above all earthly dignities. As Conscience walks, she attentively considers in her mirror that little spark of celestial fire in her breast: human conscience.
Conscience
Conscience. 24" x 32". 2016. In the private collection of Marion, Munley, Munley Law