RyanCooper.com

Artist Statement

Appreciation of fine art has been a cornerstone of my personal ethic and a key driver in my professional career. As a graduate of the Santa Rosa High School ArtQuest fine arts program, I was immersed in a culture of art education, practice, and appreciation. My high school education featured classes exploring the arts from all perspectives and incorporating the concept of art into all subject matter ranging from liberal art studies, mathematics with emphasis on geometry, science with emphasis on visualization, and other cross-displinary studies. I was inspired by visits to many prominent art collections and installations throughout the Northern California Bay Area from the San Fransico MoMa, DeYoung Museum, DiRosa Art Preserve and other local galleries and art collectives, and extensively studied the works of Dali, Rivera, and Kahlo to recognize and appreciate the evolutionary progress of fine art in the 20th century.

As an adult, I have traveled and sought further exploration of art to view masterworks from all periods and cultures and drawn inspiration from the incredible breadth of human expression. I have found influence from sculpture, textiles, artifacts and artworks from many diverse societies and movements including pre-biblical Egypt, dynastic China and shogunate Japan, the kingdom of Mali, and Russian modernism, Bauhaus and architectural brutalism. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to visit some of the worlds treasured collections to view works from masters such as El Greco and Rembrandt, and to appreciate stunning displays of the impressionists: Monet's lily pads, Van Gogh's bucolic countrysides, and the sculptural masterpieces of Degas, Rodin and others, up close.

In my own style I have tried to draw from all these genres and influences, aiming to incorporate the conceptual space and tonality of impressionism, flow and movement of abstract expressionism, and the formalism and literality of classic period art, with emphasis on anatomical accuracy, visual depth, and dramatic composition and layout. It is impossible to deny the influence of modern commercial & comic art on my stylistic sensibilities, including the graphic novels of such illustrators as Moebius, Frank Miller, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, and Sam Kieth, and the typesetting, contrast, line and movement from movie posters, album covers and rock'n'roll show posters & handbills.

I am particularly drawn to dramatic exploration of dimensional geometry in art from the mind-bending forms of Picasso and Escher, to the outright geometric literalism of Mondrian as form devolves into the post industrial primal scream, embodied by modern abstract expressionism, in the varying free forms of Kandinsky, Pollock, de Kooning, and DeFeo.

I embrace the use of art as a bridge between the real and the imagined; a melding of exacting form and chaotic entropy.

Paintings

A selection of my paintings in acrylics, and water soluble oils, and watercolor, on canvas, paper, and wood.

Scientific Illustration

These illustrations were created in connection with a course I took from Newcastle University: Drawing Science, History & Culture - Natural History Illustration 101

Icons

These icons representing the taxonomic Orders of Mammalia were developed in connection with my HarvardX Data Science Professional Capstone project for Mammal Identification

CD Designs

CD's and Promotional materials for various local music promotion and production activities.