Brad Cooper Gallery

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

I am a compilation of my heritage, society and time. I was estranged and intimately connected to both dominant and dominated communities. I am an eighth generation Chicano who can trace our family back to the 17^th century, from the Jaun de Onate expedition into present day New Mexico. My grandfather said we were Spanish, but we roasted chiles and ate tortillia de maiz. My Father called us Mexicans out of indignation towards my grandfather, not recognizing how his own parents were mestizo Apaches.

My family is now privileged enough to call ourselves Chicanos, benefiting from a legacy of intellectuals and advocates who have contested identities. This heritage is married to my mother’s Oregonian Mormon roots where all is one color but contradicts itself. Living in a predominantly Mormon town my grandfather was a farmer and a Mormon, yet made his living driving the local beer truck. My grandmother’s father was killed after a late night poker game and my mother went off to BYU where she met and married a catholic Mexican. It’s these contradictions and connections that feed my life and my art.

Born in 1968 in Salt Lake City, Utah and after living my early formative years with my Chicano grandparents, and extended family, we moved to south eastern Idaho. It was here that I grew up loving nature and good minded people but disliking the oppressive nature of a closed minded society. My love of art and desire to live in a society that was open and inclusive brought me to Seattle, Washington to further my education. The society was liberating and the environment was lush and beautiful all year around. Everywhere I looked and everyone I saw became a painting before my eyes but I had not spent the time to comprehend and voice this culmination of people being part of their society and the nature that surround them.

After a year at art school an opportunity appeared to paint for the dominant outdoor companies, Ackerley Communications. This was a dream for an artist who wanted to hone his craft of painting. The billboard is an interesting product to paint and live around. Like a mural it tells a story but only in commercial (POP) way. Additionally it is very large (14x48 ft) but the painter can’t step more than a couple of feet back to see the work, and the work must look exactingly realistic from the street so the painter learns to envision his work as if a quarter mile back. This envisioning led me to the idea that a paint stroke could be anything, cats, dogs, toy cars or flowers, and when combined to form a portrait these connections and contradictions between the pop images and the face of society speaks of our time.

At the time I was coming of age as an artist in Seattle, there was the birth, life and ultimate death of the Grunge music scene. My work emulated this energy and I integrated themes of music and musicians in my work. “Francis Farmer got her Revenge on Seattle” is a culmination of the period, and integrates the myths and traumas of Kirk Cobain at the time of his death. During this time I was Art Director of The Seattle Writers Guild where I was responsible for creating a visual aesthetic and producing shows as diverse as Allen Ginsburg, poetry slams, and drag queen jello wrestling. The time spent around writers and performers added a literary and theatrical aspect that I dwelled on through the 1990’s.

By the mid 90’s my Ackerley career had transformed from painting to technology then project management at a corporate level. Ultimately in 2001 the corporation was purchased and I left to pursue my passion full time. The time spent working in offices and cubicles led to my desire for more beauty in the world and less POP. So I ventured around my neighborhood gardens photographing the flora and fauna and integrating them into the portraits of my society so that neither is dominant or dominated in the way I hope our communities can be.