Greetings,

Here is where I am all week:

Pearson Lakes Art Center Workshop
Figurative and Perspective Drawing
Instructor: Dr. Danuta Zamojska Hutchins

And it could be good for the messy artist in me. Today learning exactness was emphasized, not because it's great, but because you can't be convincingly loose until AFTER you learn to be exactly correct. And if you are messy, it's hard to tell which you are :)

Later, Cooper

Spencer, Iowa, Parks

Greetings,

My goal here is to write about "what makes artists paint the way they do". Hopefully, I won't pick up a paint brush yet today. Let me explain.

Spencer, Iowa is a pretty darn great town to live in. Right at the top of the pretty darn great list is the wealth of city parks the town holds in it's proper.

A few years ago, the Spencer Park system, specifically "East Leach Park" gained a beautiful in-ground (concrete) skate park. Note the word "skate". That means the rules board bolted to the post says ONLY skate board or inline skates. No BMX bikes allowed. We've heard various reasons/excuses/rumors as to the logic of this ruling, trust me, they're all weak.

Today, my husband and I were on a bike ride through East Leach Park. We stopped to watch the kids at the skate park. There was one skate boarder present, there aren't many skate boarders in Spencer. Ironic, hm? Several people on bmx bikes are present, there always are. Out of the corner of my eye I see the car with the lights on top. People yell, "Cop"! One kid wasn't quick enough. It cost him $63 dollars. Yup, that's the price of a ticket for riding your bike in the park.

So a multi-thousand dollar park facility, restricted to the majority of the people wanting to use it. Just doesn't make sense, does it?

Sometimes don't you just want to take somebody by the head and give'em a good shake? And we are so glad I'd already decided not to pick up a paint brush yet today!

Later, Cooper

November 9th, 2007, Sanford Gallery Photos

Greetings!

I seem to have omitted from this page, photos of the current event. The Sanford Gallery in Cherokee, Iowa has my paintings for a solo exhibit for the month of November:). So my life, or at least my head is going in circles, as that has been duly noted on the blog attached to my website, but seemingly not here. To make ammends, I have a few photos of said exhibit to upload at this time. As you'll note, it's a grouping of figurative works, many from the ongoing 'reader series'. Thanks for looking!

Cooper