Keating spent several months on the piece, trying to work only in the coolest hours of summer days because the can was too heavy to transport to her home studio. The piece, inspired by a photo Keating saw of the Baltimore skyline, was created from more than 500 pieces of glass.
"It's beautiful; it's a glass mosaic, with a very artistic view of the city skyline," Bernhard says. "Very impressionistic and very beautiful ... and very heavy."
Luckily for Baltimore's waste management personnel, the can has an easily removable insert.
Bernhard says the response has been great, and he has been receiving e-mails from residents requesting cans for their corner. He has already seen the difference in the amount of trash on city streets.
"It's definitely doing its job," he says.
Some of Keating's work can also be viewed and purchased at the American Craftworks Collection on Main Street in Annapolis. "She is really quite a leader in the fused-glass field," owner Kelly Richard says. "She combines the elements very well. She explores every direction. She really thinks out of the box."
In addition to Keating's artistic pieces, Richard also admires Keating's work in the community.
"She's very generous with that sort of thing," she says. "She's high-energy but very laid-back and gets along with all ages."
Keating is planning for the start of another school year, though she does not know yet what this year's school budget has in store. She says some years she has visited as many as six schools, but it always depends on the funds available.
In the meantime, Keating plans to work on commissioned pieces and continue to develop her craft, which she says is ever-changing.
"I think it has to evolve or you go nowhere," she says. "You have to keep changing with the art world."
jasmine.jernberg@baltsun.com
