Featuring the work of: Paul Kiefer, David Kiefer, Stephan Kiefer, and Serena Kiefer Boschert

The four siblings, born between 1944 and 1949, have made their way into creative endeavors various ways. Serena, the fourth of four, may have had the most direct route, beginning with doodling at an early age (copies exist), continuing through college, and surviving several years of teaching, was able to turn to artistic work full time. Christmas is always associated with handmade art from Serena. Stephan, the third of four, doodled in the margins of textbooks and sent craft postcards to family and friends. With retirement, he has been able to devote more time to still and motion photography. David, the second of four, directed much of his early art in writing. He, probably due to librarian genes, excelled in finding odd, arcane, and interesting facts and sharing them. With his retirement, he has been able to devote time and energy into artfully crafted projects. Paul, the first of four, wowed his siblings with his own ShopSmith and exemplifies their slogan of Dream It! Build It! Share It! He now wows his grandkids with his art, especially his hand-carved creations.

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Paul Kiefer

Paul Kiefer, known as TPaul (don’t ask, it’s a creole thing), is a retired school teacher. He has been carving since the early 1980’s and finally perfected his production of wood chips and sawdust. TPaul dabbles in other art forms while recovering from cutting himself. He is a St. Louis native currently living in Trinidad, Colorado with his wife of more than 50 years. She keeps him grounded and improves his ideas. Without her, he would still be whittling toothpicks!

David Kiefer

David has had an interest in art from an early age, as attested by the dusty collection of pencil and crayon drawings from his youth. As life progressed, doodling in high school and college notebooks moved to the forefront. In the middle years of his career as a librarian, he started doing watercolors. He took art classes at community colleges and with friends formed a weekly session of creating/critiquing each other’s work. Since moving to Leisure Village in Camarillo, California three years ago, he joined the Village Arts group and Studio Channel Islands.

David has also begun working in acrylics, clay, and photography and he is currently President of Village Arts. He views the world around him filled with any number of pressing issues. In his artwork, he tries to create awareness and bring attention to some of those issues that are more important to him in the hope that future generations won’t be dealing with the same. And for a change of pace, some of his paintings are for his own amusement. 

Stephan Kiefer 

Stephan A. Kiefer is the third of the four siblings, and is the East Coast anchor for the sibship. In 1974, he and wife, Molly, moved to North Carolina to pursue careers. The idea of living there for two to three years turned into a permanent stay – a great place to live and work. He worked in prisons for 32 years as a Psychologist – inmates would joke that he would probably serve more time than most inmates prior to being released.

In addition to spending time with his kids and grandkids, Stephan and Molly travel frequently. Many in his family are his unwitting photographic subjects. In retirement, he finds it amazing how much art can be generated when full time work doesn’t get in the way. He is catching up on art projects that he started over 20 years earlier, mostly short videos on a variety of topics. This exhibit focuses on still photography and several craft projects.

Serena Kiefer Boschert

As a kid, scrap paper and magazine margins were fair game to Serena’s doodles…and, hmm…even high school/college class notes sported little sketches!! Serena started creating art full time in 1981 after teaching middle school art for six years. She lives in St. Charles, Missouri and is known for her hand painted ceramic art décor and ornaments. Serena also creates paintings,
collages, and mixed media art and has her work in private and public collections across the US and in 12 foreign countries.