It was tough to say what, exactly, bothered Martha Rock Keller about "Cedars," why the painting was stuck in the studio as others were created, displayed and sold.

But when Keller was asked to round up her best pieces for a retrospective now on display at the Ann Arbor Art Center, something about "Cedars" struck her. The piece hadn't actually changed, but it was finally ready.

"When a piece grows on me, it's a good one," Keller said.

Art as experience

Martha Rock Keller has been a part of the Ann Arbor art scene since moving to town in 1960 with her husband, Robert. She's been making art since the early 1930s, when her parents signed her up for painting class, and has amassed hundreds of paintings in her Main Street studio space over the years.

Keller, a grandmotherly figure who smiles in the manner of someone with a funny joke in her head, boils down her philosophy into a short phrase: art as experience. "Remembering the Days," as Keller's exhibit at the Ann Arbor Art Center is called, is a retrospective on a career that spans more than a half-century.

Life as an artist has been more fulfilling than lucrative, Keller admits. There is a reason she calls it art as experience and not art as business. Keller agrees with Jay-Z that one can't make art with business in mind. When art touches people to the point that they're willing to lay out money, great. But in Keller's mind the connection matters more than the transaction.

"When I'm making art, I'm not myself. I'm transcending - or at least trying to," she said.

Keller, a former Ann Arbor News freelance writer, might work from a studio on Main Street but she draws little inspiration from it. Keller lives down the street from one of the most successful college football programs in America, but you'd hardly know it by the influence of the Wolverines on Keller's art.

Among the hundreds of paintings in her studio, only a handful include buildings. As Keller explained it, a building is already someone else's artistic vision. There is little room for her unique contribution.

But nature is different.

"I am completely in awe of nature," Keller said. "I try to convey my connection to nature to other people in my paintings."

Remembering the Days

The art center exhibit is a multi-decade look at Keller's works. While there is a section featuring Keller's paintings of family members, another on her computer-aided work, and still another on works inspired elsehwere, the bulk of Keller's portfolio features Ann Arbor places like Nichols Arboretum, West Park and the Huron River.

"Remembering the Days" is a fitting name because Keller's art reflects how she spends her time outside of the studio. Keller works seven days a week, but whether that work happens in the studio or by seeking inspiration from nature is a matter of mood, weather and taste.

Sometimes a long walk in the Arb knocks something loose. When the feeling hits, Keller photographs or sketches the scene, then returns to her studio to re-create it. That process can take days, or, as with "Cedars," it can take years.

Last Sunday, Keller gave a talk at the Ann Arbor Art Center on her exhibit. One patron asked how Keller knows that a piece is done.

"You don't. It's never totally done. I come back to pieces sometimes," Keller explained. "There is no perfect piece, at least that I've made. I'm still learning."

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.