Mary Sewell Cooper-About Me

ABOUT ME - fine art

MARY SEWELL COOPER is an abstract expressionist painter with basic education in art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Ph.D. in Anthropology. For the past ten years, she has studied with Peggy Zehring, a Kandinsky inspired abstract artist and founder of the La Veta School of the Arts (LVSA) in Southern Colorado. Mary is on the LVSA Board, where she also teaches classes. Her latest paintings begin with collages of charcoal on paper and texture. They are then covered with layers of acrylics on unsealed wet canvas. They are later put on stretcher frames and sealed. Cooper says, " The amazing thing about this technique, which sometimes begins with the artist blindfolded, is the spontaneity and symbolic content of the art. It seems to come directly out the Universal Unconscious.” Many of her images are of animals and other beings, who are thought to have spirit power in shamanic consciousness. Shamanism is the earth’s oldest religion and involves direct contact with higher levels of consciousness and spiritual beings. It believes that everything is alive and interconnected and is practiced by Native American and many other world cultures.

ABOUT ME - jewelry

MARY SEWELL COOPER designs and constructs jewelry with an ethnic flair for women & men. Her anthropological background informs her designs, which incorporate elements from cultures around the world. They include her own constructions in Precious Metal Clay (PMC-silver, BRONZclay, and copper and brass fabrication, as well as beaded jewelry. She has studied BRONZclay and PMC jewelry making at Rio Grande Education in Motion classes in Albuquerque, NM, as well as basic fabrication techniques.

MARY SEWELL COOPER has created several series of Bronzclay jewelry, including:
Viking Bling, based on ancient Viking and Celtic designs
The Tread Series, designed from tennis shoe and wheel tread stamps
The Wahatoya Star Series, based on the night sky over the Spanish Peaks in Southern Colorado, where I am so lucky to live.

The native people in this area called the Spanish Peaks Wahatoya, which means Breasts of the Earth in Comanche. This two peak formation is only found in two places in the world, here just south of the town of La Veta and in Tibet. They are volcanic formations that did not erupt, but that formed cones under the earth, with cracks radiating out for up to 8 miles from the peaks. As the earth eroded, the two peaks and radiating volcanic dikes, which appear as huge rock walls, emerged. The peaks were (and are) considered sacred by the 5 tribes who lived here in the past, Arapaho, Comanche, Cheyenne, Apache and Ute. They often fought each other, but came together and agreed not to fight because the wahatoya were considered to be a place of peace and healing. The town of La Veta continues this tradition, and is the home of many artists, musicians and writers, as well as the cattlemen who first settled the area in the 1850s.

There is a wonderful illustrated book called Huajatolla: Southern Colorado's Ancient Legends of the Land by Kristen F. Naeyaert, which is available at the ruralwideweb.com General Store.

Some of my jewelry is for sale www.etsy.com/shop/marysewellcooper. My jewelry can also be found at the La Veta Fine Art Gallery, Casa de Pajaros in La Veta, Colorado.

All rights reserved. Copywright 2012© MARY SEWELL COOPER