{"id":29244,"date":"2018-06-15T03:57:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T10:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=29244"},"modified":"2018-06-14T13:57:04","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T20:57:04","slug":"painting-a-lasting-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/06\/15\/painting-a-lasting-impression\/","title":{"rendered":"Painting a lasting impression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diana Zoe Coop stands beside her painting \u201cFrida Kahlo\u2019s Garden.\u201d (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Diana Zoe Coop paints gardens. She paints them on canvas and paper. She paints them on costumes and wall panels. Her new show at the Zack Gallery, The Artist\u2019s Garden, is an explosion of colours and shapes that sprout not only from nature, but from the garden of the artist\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my life, I painted,\u201d she said in an interview with the Jewish Independent<\/em>. She studied for her bachelor of fine arts at the University of Manitoba, continued her education at Syracuse University in New York and finished her postgraduate specialty training at Saint Martin\u2019s School of Art in London, England. She graduated with a degree in printmaking and thought herself more a graphic designer than a painter, but, as time passed, she gradually switched to painting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t always have access to a printer studio and equipment,\u201d she explained. \u201cWithout it, I gravitated towards painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her favourite subjects are gardens and flowers. \u201cPeople send me photos of beautiful gardens, the places they live or the places they travel,\u201d she said. \u201cThese photos feed me ideas and often become paintings. My own travels also result in paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her most recent trip to Mexico, in 2016, she visited Frida Kahlo\u2019s home. Again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve visited Frida\u2019s home many times,\u201d said Coop. \u201cI always loved her art, felt an affinity for Kahlo\u2019s work. She painted what she knew, even when she couldn\u2019t move from her bed. I also paint what I know: my garden or the forest behind my house. Someone sent me a photo of a fiord, and I painted it\u2026. Many of my paintings have a distinct blue colour. It is the colour of Frida\u2019s house. She had walls painted with it, and this particular blue bleeds into my paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coop\u2019s paintings explore far beyond blue. In the gallery, her pieces are an explosion of hues and forms, bright arabesques of brushwork interspaced with dazzling sprinklings of gold and silver. The collective work is the representation of a garden through the lens of the artist\u2019s perception.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, I read an interesting quote that I felt really defined the creative process,\u201d said Coop. \u201cIt was written by Gordon Atkins, the renowned Canadian architect. He said something like this: \u2018I don\u2019t think we create. I think we interpret and I think our interpretations are the result of all the visual and actual experiences we go through.\u2019 This seems to me to be an accurate definition of what happens when we paint or draw or sculpt. We are the storytellers of our generation. We make real and tangible our thoughts and emotions, our visceral interactions with the landscape around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the images in the show are mixed media collages, with pansies applied to the paint and bright crystals bringing sparkle to the compositions. \u201cI grow pansies in my garden. It\u2019s not easy to care for them, especially through the winters, and I do need many of them for my paintings,\u201d Coop said.<\/p>\n

Coop also uses art to convey her memories of \u201cthe myriad experiences of decades of relationships. And, most sadly, the profound losses of people I loved,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were friends who passed away before their time, far too early and far too young.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoberta Mickelson inspired me to paint the wild gardens of my discontent and my anger, an anger directed at the unfairness of her life cut short. She was a talented artist herself, and it pained me to think that she could not paint anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my friend Shelley Dyer, who passed, tragically, a year ago, was a beacon of brightness, beauty and creativity. Shelley loved the garden and all creatures great and small. Her laughter still echoes in my mind, and these paintings bear witness to the questions I asked myself every day, as I struggled to comprehend where she was now. One day, it just came to me: she was right here with me, in my paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coop\u2019s works hang in private and corporate collections in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Serbia, France and Finland. But painting pictures is only part of her creative journey. She also designs unique costumes for rhythmic gymnastics, dance, circus, aerial and skating. For years, many Canadian athletes wore her designs at international competitions, including at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cA girl gymnast once saw my paintings and said naively that they looked like her costume. I didn\u2019t have the heart to tell her it was the other way around,\u201d Coop said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Her costume design business started as a personal necessity. \u201cMy daughters were gymnasts when they were young. I made costumes for them. Their friends on the team saw the costumes, liked them and asked me to help them with their costumes. And the word spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to making costumes, Coop volunteers as a judge of rhythmic gymnastics. \u201cI studied for it, took an exam. Since 1997,\u201d she said, \u201cwhen I became an internationally qualified judge, I\u2019ve traveled all over the world to judge the competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But art remains her passion and her joy. \u201cI can\u2019t stand when I don\u2019t paint,\u201d she confessed. \u201cI become very cranky. Painting for me is as much a physical release as an emotional one. I need it. I don\u2019t like being still. That\u2019s why I enjoy working in my garden when I don\u2019t paint. And I dance. I dance salsa and zumba, with their lively music, but I paint in silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coop sees her paintings as a reminder to the ones who come after her. \u201cAs we grow older, we hope to leave a part of ourselves behind,\u201d she said. \u201cThrough our interactions, our deeds, our love of family and friends, and the people we meet, even briefly, we all attempt to be remembered. I consider making art the definitive memory-maker. Centuries after I depart from this visceral world, my art will still be a testament that I was here now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artist\u2019s Garden exhibit continues to June 29. To learn more, visit the artist\u2019s website, dianazoecoopartist.com<\/a>, and her costume design site, zoeycouture.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diana Zoe Coop stands beside her painting \u201cFrida Kahlo\u2019s Garden.\u201d (photo by Olga Livshin) Diana Zoe Coop paints gardens. She paints them on canvas and paper. She paints them on costumes and wall panels. Her new show at the Zack Gallery, The Artist\u2019s Garden, is an explosion of colours and shapes that sprout not only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[8201,6691,40],"class_list":["post-29244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-diana-zoe-coop","tag-painting","tag-zack-gallery"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}