Renaissance Family: The Creative Keglers
By Bob Davis
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This photomontage by Alan and Richard Kegler shows the brothers and some of their works. From left to right, Jerry, Kevin, Alan, Rich, Jim, Tom, and Denis
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The house was designed for two and a half kids and a dog. Little by little, there were add-ons. There was a room built over the garage and an addition on the back with an extra bedroom.”
“The basement was fixed up. That’s where we had our escapism rooms. Sound studio, painting rooms…”
“Eight fish tanks.”
“…a control panel where you could flip on speakers in any room in the house. If you were working in the garage, there were speakers out there.”
“The workbench, which was my grandfather’s.”
“Lots of activity.”
“All of these weird metal tools…”
“… that he made.”
“… and an anvil …”
“He made his own tools to make things from…”
“… and an anvil so we’d go down there once in awhile trying to make who-knows-what.”
“You couldn’t help but be inspired by something going on. It wasn’t like you came home, ‘I’m bored.’ The word bored never crossed my mind since I was a kid. When you came home, there was so much going on it would tweak your interest. You’d spin off and do something else.”
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Joanne, Jerry, Marie (holding Rich), Alan, and Kevin Kegler on a Fort Erie outing around 1967
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Is there any wonder most of you grew up to work and play in the creative arena?
Meet the Keglers.
There are two Kegler sisters—Marie, a pediatric nurse in Nashville and Joanne, a travel agent living in Lockport—and seven Kegler brothers, six of whom found their way into careers considered to be “creative.”
Jerry
Jerry is Facilities Director of the State University of New York at Buffalo Center for the Arts, and Managing Director of the Pfeifer Theatre. In his free time, he has overseen the conversion of the top floor of Bishop Timon High School (which he and most of his siblings attended) into a complete media center. Jerry is also a freelance theater lighting designer and glass designer (he creates stained glass for the Roycroft Inn), and guitar player.
Kevin
Kevin is Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Daemen College. He is also Project Director and Principal Designer for a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through the Buffalo Museum of Science, developing beautifully crafted hands-on science learning kits for grade schools. Kevin is also a fine artist—working largely with wood and experimental sculpture—who has been featured in the Western New York show (as have Alan and Richard), at Art Park, and in the highly respected Reinbech craft show. His wife and four daughters are also artists.
Alan
Alan is Design Manager/Senior Art Director of Creative Services for the State University at New York at Buffalo and their clients, as well as several freelance accounts. A past board member of the Art Directors and Communicators of Buffalo, Alan has exhibited his more personal work at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center, and other venues. He has received numerous national awards from such organizations as GRAPHIS and PRINT magazine.
Richard
The self-confessed “curmudgeonly Kegler” (a distinction that seems to fall apart when you actually meet him face-to-face), Richard owns P22 Type Foundry, whose unique typefaces are commissioned by such institutions as the Whitney Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art and sold all over the world through museums, specialty shops and catalogs. He is also, when time permits, a maker-by-hand of limited edition books. Richard’s work has been featured in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and The New York Times, as well as on Single Guy and Family Matters.
Thomas
After graduating from Buffalo State College, Thomas worked for a time at several Western New York area advertising agencies before deciding to pursue a teaching career. Today, he heads the art program at East Aurora high school. He also paints regularly, showcasing a realistic style, and published fine art prints of wildlife subjects when he was twelve years old.
Denis
Denis is a designer at the world-famous Jaeger, Depalo, Kemp design studio in Burlington, Vermont, where he primarily works on the Burton snowboard account. He recently directed a photo shoot with the band Phish. Denis, who started working while attending design school, helped design fonts at his brother Richard’s P22 font studio.
Jim
Jim, a Foodservice Manager for the Marriott Corporation, is also an archaeologist and anthropologist. While his occupation is less obviously what people generally define as “artistic,” it raises questions concerning the nature and uses of creativity and a creative mindset. Indeed, “creativity” and the creative management of people and ideas is a buzz concept in the current corporate culture. Jim’s brother Richard speculates that the Kegler proclivity for collecting, “categorizing and admiring beautiful little objects” exhibits itself in Jim’s archaeological inquisitiveness.
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A young Tom, Denis, and Jim, ready to go
trick-or-treating. |
Nature versus nurture
Raymond and June Kegler were active parents and hard workers. Ray owned several businesses, including a lodge in the Adirondacks, a gallery of wildlife art, a company that made finely crafted collector-quality knives, and a hunting and fishing shop called G&R Tackle—at which his wife and several of his children worked—that recently closed after fifty-four years in business. (At the age of seventy-seven, Ray Kegler decided to retire. As you would expect, it’s an active retirement.)
“A lot of people think, ‘your parents must have always had you drawing and sent you to art school and taken you to the Albright all the time.’ But there was none of that,” says Alan. “They never forced us to draw. They never said, ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ There was just a lot of encouragement to explore, to pursue what you wanted to.”
“They were always supportive of our choices,” confirms Kevin, “even if it didn’t make sense to them.”
Ray also encouraged his children in another way: by example.
“There was this one painting. This landscape painting. To this day it’s still hanging in the family room. I guess my father did it.”
“I thought it was amazing and I always considered him an artist because of that one painting.”
“Oh, the beach?”
“Yeah. I was always looking at that painting like, wow, he did that. But that’s the only painting I know of that he—”
“You don’t remember his sketchbook? From when he was a teenager? It’s a wooden book; it’s got a wooden cover and a wooden back.”
“Hmmm.”
“You open it up and it’s got dozens and dozens of sketches and little paintings. I used to look at that all the time.”
Generations
If the Kegler children inherited such a thing as a “creativity gene,” it was probably passed down through Ray by his father. Buffalo-born Peter Kegler was a tool and die maker by trade, and an inventor. A piece of a steel girder taken from a bridge that once crossed Cazenovia Creek formed the base for a lathe he constructed in his basement, from which he fashioned machines, tools, toys, kite winders, go carts, and swing sets to be enjoyed by his grandchildren.
Peter Kegler is also the subject of a rather unique hand-made, limited edition commemorative book of the type crafted at Christmastime by the Keglers for their family. It’s a remarkable example of the pooling together of their diverse talents.
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The fun thing about this is they’re collaborative efforts.”
“Kevin wrote most of the text, Alan collected objects, had photo shoots, worked on most of the design.”
“And Rich.”
“Denis helped, too. Tom. And Jerry. It was sort of like we’re going to make a surprise, but everybody’s involved in putting it together.”
“Except for my parents.”
“They didn’t know about it.”
“The book was actually bound with a tool that belonged to my grandfather.”
“Each book has a different binding.”
“In the binding there are tools. I had one with a little micrometer on it. Then we used a picture of a tool that actually had a signature on it for the cover.”
“It was well planned out, with a little bit of serendipity on the way. We wanted to do a horizontal format…”
“Kevin said, ‘How about a wood bind? We can clamp it together with some of the clamps that my grandfather designed.’”
“And Rich said, ‘How about a translucent cover—you could see the photo through the cover.’”
“The last one’s in the rare book collection of the Library of Congress.”
“We do these individual things. But I think if we actually did all get together and collaborate we could probably do some pretty amazing things.”
The creative conundrum
You can’t consider the Keglers without considering the concept of creativity. It’s instructive to compare their diverse responses to a couple of common questions:
How would you describe your creative process?
Jerry: “I don’t just create out of the blue; it is for a defined purpose. Lighting is designed for a specific show. Music is played for enjoyment, to perfect a style or tune, or to entertain an audience. For ideas, I listen to other musicians and look at others’ designs; then if I like something I work in that direction and apply my own style.”
Alan: “I listen to the problem at hand, then step away from it, clear my head, brainstorm ideas. Then when my head’s full of ideas I get pumped, and jump right in.”
Kevin: “My work is a collage of all that interests me and everything I do in life.”
Denis: “My ideas come from live experience for sure, but there is loads of research involved. I buy tons of books and magazines.”
Tom: “At times I can’t go another moment unless I can make a mark on paper and express myself. At others I go through spurts of hating art and not knowing why I do what I do. Fortunately, the former is the winner every time. There is no formula for my creative process. At times I do use the standard “brainstorm, eliminate, narrow down, decide, final creation” formula. Other times an idea just pops in my head and I go right to my final creation.”
What would you ultimately like to accomplish?
Alan: “To actually collaborate on some major projects with my brothers. Maybe even someday to open a design studio with my brothers.”
Richard: “A feature article in Buffalo Spree. Retire at 25.”
Kevin: “I would like to attack my growing reading list in the comfort of my completely finished house when I’ve used up my studio full of sculpture supplies after I’ve exhausted myself playing with my kids.”
Tom: “I am presently doing exactly what I want. I love teaching, I love illustrating, and I love painting. Other than doing more traveling I am very satisfied. One of my goals for the next year is to build a significant portfolio of oil paintings for a series of fine art shows. I am very fortunate to really love my career choices. Too many people go through life hating their work.”
The family that plays together
At its heart, the Kegler family story is a story in which growing up with drawing and painting, cooking and sewing, woodwork, homework, clothes, crafts, chemistry kits, coin collections, model rockets, practical okes, and pecking orders becomes a crucible for creativity. And for quite a remarkable bond:
“At this stage, we’re good friends. Companions. Somebody you can lean on for help or encouragement.”
“There’s that bond that you just can’t define.”
“We’re there to help each other. Whether it’s a creative endeavor or a family project or a family emergency. It just seems normal for us to help out, be involved.”
“And we all get along great. All of us.”
“Yeah, there’s no bad blood at all in any way.”
“Growing up I wouldn’t have envisioned that we’d all hang out together.”
Yes, the Keglers have a unique family. A family where Mom and Dad (and one brother) still live in that Cape Cod home, and eight of the nine siblings live elsewhere in Western New York. A family with thirteen grandchildren, where showing up for the holidays is an unwritten rule. A family that, no doubt, is the Keglers’ most creative collaboration of all.
Bob Davis, President of Wizard Creative, Inc., is a full-time business writer and father of five who aspires to be an honorary Kegler brother.
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