Here Comes the Sun
Graphite Drawings from Dan Keegan
Whitcomb’s Gallery
July 2 through September 5, 2026
Gallery Hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11am-3pm
Opening Reception Thursday, July 9 from 5-7:00
Artist Talk at 6:00
Whitcomb’s Arts is pleased to present, Here Comes the Sun, Graphite Drawings from Dan Keegan. Dan Keegan is an artist of rare patience and purpose. Working in graphite on a large scale, he transforms personal photographs of the natural world into images that are at once intimate and vast — grounded in direct observation yet reaching toward the cosmic. In this exhibition, Keegan turns his attention to the sun: as a subject of beauty, a force of almost incomprehensible power, and a mirror for some of the most pressing questions of our time.
The exhibition runs from July 2nd through September 5th with an opening reception on Thursday, July 9th from 5-7:00, with a talk by the artist at 6:00.
Dan Keegan - Exhibition Statement
These large graphite drawings are inspired by observations of nature assembled from composites of my own photographs. The Sun Series references both the beauty and power of the sun—the ultimate source of energy for life on Earth. The series grew from a longstanding interest in environmental issues and climate change. The Shadow Series drawings are abstractions of sunlight and shadow patterns observed on forest paths. They are intended to evoke both the ground beneath our feet and the limitless universe beyond.
The sun has occupied a central place in human mythology, religion, and scientific inquiry for millennia. Today, modern astronomy reveals a universe containing trillions of galaxies and an almost unimaginable number of stars and planetary systems. In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake proposed the Drake Equation, a thought experiment exploring how many technologically advanced civilizations might exist in our galaxy. His work, and humanity’s enduring curiosity about our place in the cosmos, inspired the drawing Drake’s Equation included in this exhibition.
The sun is far more than a source of warmth and light. It is an immense fusion reactor, approximately 1.3 million times the volume of Earth. Every second, more solar energy reaches our planet than humanity consumes in an entire year. Yet despite this extraordinary resource, we continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels, with profound consequences for ecosystems, climate, and human health.
Though life may exist elsewhere in the universe, Earth remains the only world humanity will ever truly inhabit. The distances between stars are so vast that our future will unfold here, on this planet. Astronomers estimate that the sun will continue supporting life on Earth for another billion years or more. Whether humanity enjoys even a small fraction of that future depends largely on the choices we make today.
Ultimately, these drawings are not illustrations of science or environmental policy. They are meditations on light, scale, time, and our relationship to the universe. They invite reflection on the extraordinary star that sustains life on Earth and on our responsibility to care for the only home we have. It is my hope that these works inspire a moment of introspection, reflection, and perhaps action. As George Harrison famously sang, “Here comes the sun.”
Dan Keegan is an American artist living in Westport on Lake Champlain in Upstate New York. He holds an MFA degree from Southern Illinois University and has been drawing on paper for 30 years. He is a former art museum director including, most recently, at the Milwaukee Art Museum.