Friday, February 10, 2012

Artist of the Week No. 9

This week my students and I looked at a current artist, Caia Koopman.


Caia Koopman is a preeminent female artists living in California.  Koopman is a native of California and was born in Livermore. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Fine arts from UC Santa Cruz.  During her time in Santa Cruz she became involved in the skateboarding and snowboarding scenes.  Koopman has a fine detail for beauty, inclinations toward nature, and collectiveness of the female spirit.  She has quickly become one of the quintessential artists fully encompassing the elegance, strengths, and vulnerabilities of femininity. 



Her work is alluring and has a hint of whimsy. There is a fascination of women, in both our conscious and subconscious ideals of the feminine role in society.  Koopman consistently submerses herself in subject that matter that is ingrained and full of cultural connotations.



Koopman's work is infused with a variety of cultural, political, environmental, sociological, and dreamscape references. 


After earning her art degree, she turned her attention to snowboarding and spent many winters following the snow. It was her love for the sport that inspired Caia to strive for a career creating snowboard graphics and later branching out to become a commercial artist and finally a fine artist as well.   Caia Koopman is a native of California and was born in Livermore.  Koopman's paintings have been used commercially for many years as graphics for snowboards, skateboards and wakeboards. Koopman has shown her paintings in a number of galleries around the world and most recently at La Luz de Jesus in LA. She is currently working as a freelance illustrator and painter in Oceanside, CA.


Caia is inspired by nature, dreams, politics, and life.


Sources: http://www.caiakoopman.com 
lots of lovely images tagged here.

When discussed with my students this is what we decided about her work;
Her female figures are posed.  They have big eyes, their faces are distorted, their hands and arms are long and skinny.  Their heads are big for their bodies, eyes are big but mouth and nose are small.  They are often wearing dresses, and are fashionable.   Her pieces always contain animals.  Which might represent peacefulness, hope.  She incorporates NATURE, flowers, leaves, insects.  Many of her pieces are conveying dark emotions or are depressing.  Imagery she uses to make the viewer feel eerie include skulls, black, dark outline around eyes, facial expressions.  The female figures seem cartoonish, because they're not proportionate, almost like a caricature. They wear lots of make up; which might portray vulnerability, the make up covering up imperfections.  The Element most present is color; brings the picture together and sets the mood. The Principles most present are Unity is possible because of her color choices and Emphasis; she often will back light, white splatters or glowing effect behind the girl

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