By Lisa Ellis '82
drawings by Marshall Kean

Take a stroll through almost any building on the Colorado College campus and you are likely to see the work of Marshall Kean adorning the walls. You can view and appreciate Kean’s detailed paintings and drawings in Spencer Center, Cutler Hall, El Pomar Sports Center, Tutt Alumni House, Barnes Science Center, Worner Center, Armstrong Hall, Palmer Hall, Tutt Library, Shove Chapel, KRCC, and the CC cabin, to name a few.

Keep your eyes peeled in Colorado Springs, as you’re likely to run into Kean’s pencil drawings and oil paintings of presidents, founding directors, trustees, and superintendents at places like the Humane Society, Junior Achievement, and the Myron-Stratton Home.
The next time you receive a college invitation, program, or brochure, check it out. It probably features Kean’s fine handiwork.

Kean, who has worked in the college’s development office since 1983, says painting and drawing are “a creative side” of his life. His talents are also of huge benefit to the college. Back in 1986, Kean couldn’t afford to make a cash gift to the college’s capital campaign, “so I did a painting of General Palmer instead that still hangs in Cutler Hall.” He’s been drawing and painting for the college ever since. “It’s not a part of my job description, but it is a part of my job that I enjoy,” says Kean.

But painting and drawing haven’t been the only art forms Kean has pursued while working at the college. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in theater, drama, and English, Kean has performed in numerous CC plays over the last decade.

In 2001, Kean played the narrator, a role that he was invited to audition for, in the “Rocky Horror Show” on campus. He thinks he was the first adult non-student to be in a regular CC production in perhaps a generation. For former CC President Kathryn Mohrman’s inauguration during arts week in 1993, Kean joined alumni, faculty, and staff in the play “Six Degrees of Separation” and has appeared in the alumni summer theater.

Kean has discovered a relationship between creating a character he portrays on stage and creating a character that he is about to paint: “You must create a portrait of the entire persona, and the process is similar for drama. You analyze the character and get to know the subject’s personality.”

Kean, who recently bought a new home complete with a roomy, well-lit art studio, looks forward to focusing only on art after he retires, “as my second career.”

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