Helena Cooper, visual artist
BIO
Helena Cooper was born in Brazil, where
she lived until the age of 25. She grew up in a family of 
artists, surrounded by
sculptors and painters, designers, jewelers, and photographers from an early
age. She studied painting at the Escola Brasil Dois Pontos, the prestigious art
institute of Brazil which has launched many of the country's greatest
contemporary artists, including Fajardo, Bavarelli, and Rezende. In 1982, Helena
married and moved with her American husband to Ithaca, NY, where she raised two
children and continues to work in her studio, finding unlimited inspiration in
the bucolic beauty of the local landscape.
Her photography has recently
been shown at Damiani Winery, Tompkins County Airport, Rasa Spa, and Madeline's
Restaurant. Since 1975, I have been a full-time artist.
ARTIST'S
STATEMENT
I see my work as a
process through which inner landscape becomes mirrored
on the canvas. True to my
Brazilian heritage, I am drawn to deep, bold, earthy colors, sensual textures,
and strong, rhythmic forms. Drawing upon mythical, archetypal dimensions of
consciousness, my art connects viewers to their dreams and intuitions, but also
to the realms of primitive, instinctual consciousness that lie beneath the
surface strata of the conscious mind. One viewer comments, "I am quickened by a
sense of aliveness that is raw, vibrant and exciting. One is transformed by the
sheer authenticity of [your art]."
I've always loved walking in nature.
At some point, I bought a digital camera. I started looking, seeing, noticing,
and perceiving nature as art: The way the interplay of light and water creates
shapes, the dance of light on water, the translucent sky, the fluid,
ever-shifting mystery of water itself. When I take a picture, I experience a
moment of true communion with nature which, through the photograph, is
transmitted to the viewer.
