World Class
In the spotlight: The ‘30s beach cottage in Beacon Bay that is home to geologist Peter Keller, president of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, and his wife, Signe. Prominent on the Orange County arts scene, the couple relish the laid-back atmosphere they’ve created in a home accented with collected artifacts and contemporary works. The eclectically furnished home--pieces range from an antique Irish hutch to a club chair upholstered with African mud cloth--is a haven and a showplace for cultural art.
The home they wanted: Signe was renting the four-bedroom, two-bath residence in Newport Beach when she met Peter on a blind date in 1995. He was living in a Corona del Mar condominium at the time. After their marriage in 1997, Peter joined Signe’s household.
“I love the atmosphere of Beacon Bay,” said Signe, chief operating officer of Ledgent Inc. in Torrance. “It’s a small community where people respect each other’s privacy.”
The area features a sandy beach and a spacious dock where the couple enjoy time together.
“Beacon Bay has all of the advantages of Balboa Island without the disadvantage of people walking by and looking in your living-room window,” said Peter, once an associate director at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. “Both Signe and I love being outdoors. In the summer, it’s a rule that we hook up on the dock at sunset for a glass of white wine. The dock is also a great place to read and write letters.”
Museum tour: Visiting the Keller home is like stepping into an artfully designed gallery exhibit at the Bowers Museum.
Among the artifacts on view: A Philippine tribal shield accenting a living room sofa table and a series of large, hollowed-out white clam shells (“They’re traded for brides in New Guinea,” explained Signe) displayed on a side table in the dining room.
Other treasures include a 1-million-year-old hand ax from East Africa; skulls of a New Guinea man and woman decorated with simulated skin and tribal jewelry (“In New Guinea, they decorate their ancestors and keep them in the house,” Peter said); a bronze meditation bowl from Tibet; a canoe paddle from the South Pacific; African combs; and an archer’s armband.
The shield is a piece especially cherished by Peter. “‘Signe and I had gone to a tribal art show in New York and it was what I liked best,” he said. “But when I went to buy it, it had been sold. I was furious! Three months later, it showed up at Christmas.” Signe had secretly purchased the artifact to give to her husband.
Globe trotters: The couple is so smitten with New Guinea, they take canoe trips on the crocodile-filled Sepik River. But Africa is where they’d like to make their home--or at least one of them.
“East Africa--that sounds wonderful to us,” said Signe, who did her undergraduate work in African anthropology and who, as a college student, lived one year in Tanzania.
“I’d love to have a home for each season,” said Peter, a world traveler whose motto for living is, “It’s not how many years; it’s how many miles.”
Summers would be spent on a coffee farm in Tanzania, he mused. Autumn would be enjoyed on a Revolutionary War-era farm in Pennsylvania. “I grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania and harvest time in the Amish country is wonderful,” Peter said. Winters would be spent in a chalet in Mammoth. “We both love to ski.” Spring? “A country home near Dublin,” he said.
Meanwhile, the good life in Newport Beach is on the agenda for the Kellers.
“This may not be the real world . . . but it’s lovely,” Signe said.
Ann Conway can be reached at (714) 966-5952 or by e-mail at ann.conway@latimes.com.
