Just as I was preparing for my previously scheduled exhibit and workshop in Tunis last winter, the revolution in that North African country launched the Arab Spring—and temporarily postponed my travel plans.

With the Tunisian exhibit on hold, I’ve had a very prolific year. I’ll exhibit new paintings simultaneously this fall at Fountainhead Book Store and the Starving Artist, both in Hendersonville, NC.  These acrylic paintings are abstract works informed by nature that present the beauty of seasonal change in Western Carolina’s woodlands.  The challenge with this series of paintings has been to work with spontaneous handling of materials while remaining within the parameters of seasonal change.

The two exhibits combined are a preview of the exhibit sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the American Embassy of Tunisia that will be held after the democratic elections in Tunisia scheduled for October.  The working title for that exhibit is “Pieces of the Sky.”

The Fountainhead Book Store’s exhibit runs from September 1 through November 30 at 408 N. Main Street, Hendersonville, NC.  The date of the reception is September 2 from 6-8 p.m.

The show at the Starving Artist runs from September 1 through October 15 at 814 Kanuga Road, Hendersonville, NC.  An opening reception will be from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, September 9.

In Paradise, the paintings are by Raoul Dufy, the music by Gabriel Fauré, and the angels are the work of Sandro Botticelli. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Down here on Earth we have the modern paintings of Zao Wou Ki, the late work of Cy Twombly, the earth and light constructions of James Turrell, and the spiritual blue paintings of Pierre Soulages.

These significant modern artists are not yet sufficiently known in the U.S., so Google-search them.

Please revisit my home page from time to time to see how my artistic quest is progressing. This art looks toward the light, curious about the nature of existence. Hoping to understand something. It embraces Charles Darwin, and Jesus, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I seek the transcendent within science.

“Both + And,” forsaking “Either – Or.”

Left to right: Hamadi ben Saad, artist; Ray Cooper, artist; Professor Cathy West, Converse College; Hamadi's assistant. Tunis, January 2010

Just returned from Tunisia where Converse College Professor Cathy West and I helped Tunisian artist Hamadi ben Saad select his new work for our upcoming exhibit, Transatlantic Voyages, at Converse College, February – March 2010.

Part of this Converse College student tour included a collaborative art project for the students with Hamadi. He works with found materials – paper, rags, cardboard, anything – to make collages. Using American papers that I had gathered as found art material, Hamadi led the students in a group collage project.

My origins are rural northeast Washington State, near Canada and the Columbia River in the 40’s and 50’s. I first encountered painting when I took the train, at sixteen, to Seattle to see the Vincent Van Gogh retrospective in 1958. Before that I was a cartoonist. After that, never again a cartoonist. I began to see the world through the process of painting. (My parents were disturbed by Post-Impressionist early modernist influences in my first paintings.) It was a calling, a life long journey.

After high school I traveled, first to California for an episode in art school. Then Mexico to see Orozco’s murals. Later, Amsterdam for Rembrandt, Florence for Masaccio, et cetera, and in my maturity, Paris, Rome, and Tunis. Subsequent trips to France, Italy and Tunisia further ignited my creative process. But it would be years before I finally resolved to focus seriously on my painting.