Excited to be participating in a group show at the Wayne Art Center in Philadelphia.

One of the New Jersey State Council of the Arts and Mid Alantic Arts Painting Fellows for 2024.

looking forward to more time in the studio, reading and promoting my work during my creative activity/research leave.

Proposal:
I am applying for a sabbatical in the Spring of 2022 to devote more concentrated time to completing a series of 10-15 large narrative oil paintings based on drawings I have been working on since the beginning of 2018 to the present. These narrative images are open-ended, semi-autobiographical, and metaphorical. They often start with what is close at hand. They open and unfurl like dreams in protective, intimate spaces of home such as a bedroom, a bathroom, a backyard or a kitchen. The images I am currently working on represent a kind of personal, mythological interior-scape, literally and figuratively. They emerge out of a fictional imaginary world distilled from the familiar, from the banality of everyday life, from rituals and routines, and from the trauma of life-altering events like the death of a spouse. The paintings like the drawings will synthesize observation, memories, and dreams to draw upon the interior spaces of private feelings and associations to distill psychological or poetic truths. Although grounded in the particular, these images address broader universal themes of our shared human condition such as trauma, pain, death, desire, transformation, and hope in ways that are life-affirming.

Hanging out with the wife and kids on opening night. Enjoyed socializing and talking with fellow artists and patrons.

Wonderful show, thank you to all who purchased my work. sold 4 drawings and an oil painting. Thank you for the invitation to participate.

I am happy to announce the first issue of my zine project. The first issue was conceived as a collection of my poems and dream narratives coupled with a series of drawings I did from 2003 to 2010. The poems mimic or echo the drawings by relying on overlaid text, iteration, and allusions to dream imagery and personal symbols tied to autobiographical events. The writings try to tap into the unconscious mind, memory, and fantasy and are very much inspired by dreams and the drawings presented. Looking forward to working on issue two soon.
The zine is just $ 5.00. DM me with your address and I will send you a copy. The supply is limited. 1/9/23

Drawn Together Exhibition hosted by the University of the Arts, School of Art, curated by Charles Cooper, Marcelino Stuhmer, and Michael Grothusen.

Two of my collages will be on display as part of a show at the Columbia Art Center Gallery in Maryland during the month of February 2016.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 18, 2014 Willingboro, NJ 08046

PASSAGE: MY JOURNEY FROM GRIEF TO RECOVERY
Charles Cooper • Poems and Drawings

Charles Cooper, who is a visual artist, graphic designer, educator
and author, has self-published a book of his poems and drawings
that collectively paint a heart-felt portrait of his journey through the many stages of grief and the pain of loss after the death of his wife of 18 years from cervical cancer. The book comes out of his desire to transform pain into healing through the creative power of poetry and art and to encourage and inspire others struggling to recover from loss or disappointment. The poems and drawings in the book provide an intensely personal journey, a passage from the dark emotional landscape of grief to a place of acceptance, transformation and hope.


About the Artist/Author
He has taught at various institutions, including Moore College of Art
and the University of the Arts. He has a BFA from the University of
the Arts in Philadelphia, and an MFA from the Yale Graduate School of Art in Connecticut. He has exhibited his work nationally in various galleries and museums. His artwork is in various private and public collections, including the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts and the Newark Museum in New Jersey. Currently he is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of the Arts and lives in Willingboro, New Jersey with his two children and dog Alphie.


-ENDS-

I received a grant in the Spring of 2011 from the University of the Arts to create an experimental animated short based on my current drawings and collages.

This project will allow me to explore the implications of time/movement and transformation implied in my current drawings and paintings. Also I intent to explore integrating hand drawn, stop motion and computer base animation techniques as I try to translate my intuitive, working process into animated images.

Like my current work, I will draw from fragments of dreams and personal experience and observations to suggest fragmentary narratives, and unconscious content.

The grant money will be used to purchase a copy stand with light kit, animation software (Digi Flipbook studio 6), Animation Disc and table, and animation paper.