Mapping The Exhibit

Good morning,

Welcome to the Cooper studio.

Sometimes it takes a long time for the light bulb to turn on. I have been exhibiting at art fairs for 18 (?) years, and just now happened on a really great time saver. Let me share.

Being a 2D artist, painting, I am very determined to have a cohesive, well organized display. In the past, I would hang a couple of paintings, and then experiment to fill in around them. I could easily spend an hour moving paintings from one side of the exhibit to the other, before I was satisfied with the results.

The light bulb turned on (yea!) and now my average "hang" time is fifteen minutes. How, you say? A day or two prior to the event, while still at home, I make a map. How simple is that? All it takes is a sheet of white paper, in scale to my propanels, with correspondingly scaled images of the paintings I intend to display. Do you know how much easier it is to move paintings around when they are 3 x 3 INCHES and hung with double stick tape, than when they are 3 x 3 FEET and hung with metal hooks stuck into propanel fabric?

Once I get the "map" du jour completed to my satisfaction, I roll it up and stow it. Once at the exhibit, I set up the propanels, get the map out, and hang the paintings. Piece o'cake, right? Absolutely. Why-oh-why didn't I think of this sooner? But I've got it now, and it's a gem. Try it for yourself.

Later, Cooper

Artist Relocation

Greetings,


Welcome to the Cooper studio, in it's new location! Yup, we are painting in Jefferson, Iowa, now. Jefferson is a nice little central Iowa town, of about 5000 people, on US highway 30, just west of Ames, Iowa and Iowa State University. If you were born in Huskerland, that's not quite so relevant. Ha!


Regarding packing up a household with studio, and moving it, I have this advice to share: moving and child birth have something in common. There comes a certain age in a person's life when you just shouldn't do it anymore. I know we've reached it for the latter, and I'm beginning to wonder about the former! We have experience with moving the household---this has to be our slowest un-pack ever. In defense, I did leave a block of time open midsummer, which the housing market did not cooperate with. Rather we hit midAugust and September, when the schedule was packed to the gills. We'll survive, and I'm sure it will be much more interesting than if it had gone according to plan!


However. The studio is set up, and even though needing some new flooring, that's not stopping me from painting. I have a really fine painting coming along on the easel as we speak. And if you haven't been to my website lately, here's a painting that you might not have seen yet. It's currently hanging out at the Wine Bar Art Gallery in Arnolds Park, Iowa.



So, Which One Is Your Favorite? is an acrylic painting on a 40 x 40 inch canvas. A larger image can be found here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper