"My school books from grammar school onward all had drawing of eyes in the margins. I couldn't sit still without doodling--still can't."
Bob Miller, an art collector and longtime friend of Keane, explains his and the majority of America's attraction to Keane's paintings and comments, "There was a certain magnetism about the paintings"(Citizen Keane: The Big Lies Behind The Big Eyes by Adam Parfrey and Cletus Nelson pg. 6).
"We do not need New York…our real strength…is in the interior, in places like Boise!"(Citizen Keane pg. 4).
Walter Keane justified his behavior by convincing Margaret, "…that, among other things, a woman during that time could never taken seriously as an artist"(https://keane-eyes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/JUXTAPOZ-July20141.pdf).
Many people assume that 'kitsch" art is tacky and superficial, while Odd Nerdrum, a Norwegian painter, could disagree because he "…made it his life goal to elevate kitsch from being an insult to a badge of honor"(Citizen Keane, Preface, xii).
At the height of Keane dynasty and her abusive marriage, Margaret painted children that she claimed pondered deep questions like, ‘Why are we here? What is life all about? Why is there sadness and injustice?'…Those children were sad because they didn't have the answers. They were searching"(http://www.biography.com/people/margaret-keane).
