:: Carol Pepper-Cooper

:: work

View Samples

:: contact

carol@peppercooper.com

www.peppercooper.com

:: artist's statement

When I was growing up in Manhattan I could walk to the Metropolitan Museum of art. There I saw the work of many artists whose work affected me, but the ones who spoke to me the most were Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Rembrandt. The rhythms and emotional intensity of Van Gogh are still reflected in my work, as are the forms and color of Gauguin. I would like to think the humane spirit of Rembrandt  also  exists in my work. Later, while earning a degree in English from Radcliffe College, I took courses with T. Lux Feininger and first  encountered the Bauhaus School of Art. Two years of studying drawing at the University of Illinois prepared me for the MFA program at Pratt Institute where, through my mentor George McNeil,  I was introduced to Abstract Expressionism and to Hans Hofmann's concept of space and the push-pull of the colors which create it. All my work, whether representational or non-objective, is informed by that concept and also by my focus on flow.

At Pratt I concentrated on the flow of forces in nature. Later came images regarding the flow of consciousness: the going in and out of dreams. Now I am developing paintings related to the flow of time passing, and my reaction to it.

The lyrical, sinuous line characterizing my work, along with the luminous color for which I am known, can be seen in the three 7-foot high stained glass windows I designed for Kingston's Temple Emanuel.