Blog

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Lipetsk.  Russia has already had their Memorial Day for this year, so while you picnic, we work!  :)

Paintpaintpaint all morning, and then household maintenance this afternoon, including a trip to the market.  The продуктй магазин.  (that's prod-OOHK-tee mah-GAH-zin to you) where all things grocery can be found.  

Guess what?  Sometimes that's not enough - the found part, I mean.

Boyohboy, do I have a story to share with you, and so much for the helpful smile in every aisle on this day.

Because Lipetsk is built tall like a lot of European cities are, that means there are many skyscraper style apartment buildings.  Often the first floor of these buildings houses shops, which means there are продуктй магазин's everywhere.  Today I set my sights on the магазин that has a 5 in it's name.  It says something else, as well, but what that is remains a mystery to me.

I pushed my cart around the store and found everything I needed.  (let me tell you, we have progressed in that category, in 1.5 year's time!)

I proceeded to the checkout lady.  Here's some trivia for you:  продуктй checkout ladies  here, are seated on chairs while they work!

Anyway, focus.  Checkout.  Said checkout lady industriously scans all my items.  But the very last one, a bottle of salad oil, refuses to cooperate with the scanner.  нет price code.  I wait expectantly for her to take action.  She jabbers something at me.  I do my spiel - я говорю на английском, русском языке мой плохо  (I speak English, my Russian speech is плохо ( PLOH-hah) (bad!)

Brace yourself.  Here comes the amazing part.  She politely takes my bottle of salad oil off the check out counter and tucks it underneath her workspace.  

Out of sight, out of mind does not work for me today!  However, I am a long ways from fluent enough to suggest that she get off her chair and go find the price, so I can have a vinaigrette dressing on my salad tonight.

I know there's another продуктй магазин just around the corner - my salad du jour will still make the day's menu.

But really!  Please join me in saying, "crazy lady!"  "If you want me to buy your products, you have to give me access.  If you want me to patronize your store, you'd better share the price.  Do you want my business or not?"

Oh, wait.  This is beginning to sound familiar.  Remember that argument that artists have about prices of paintings on their websites?  Yeah, I thought you would.  Point proven, eh?  And did you enjoy my example?  I promise, true story....

Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Karen

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Lipetsk, where we are freshly returned from a grand and crazy trip to Iowa.  Yes, a good time was had by all.

And so let's continue that usage of the word crazy.

For several years, I have had paintings on exhibit at the Wine Bar Art Gallery, in that ever so coveted location of Arnolds Park, Iowa.  Yes, a suburb of the similarly ever so famous Okoboji, Iowa.  Wait - can a town of Okoboji size even have suburbs?  Maybe!

Anyway, focus:  crazy.

At this point, I should mention, being a definite summer resort, some businesses in the burg either shorten hours, or close entirely for the winter months.  As autumn 2014 waned, and winter approached, I trekked up to Arnolds Park to pick up the over/leaver paintings of the season.  And Deidre broke the news.  She was heading back to school, and the Wine Bar Art Gallery was up for sale.  Oh, heavy sigh.  Deidre, the Wine Bar and I have shared a great relationship, and many paintings have passed through the front door and on to happy new homes.  She shared that her real estate agent said to plan on a year to find a buyer.  I assumed I would not have paintings in Arnolds Park for the year 2015.  Again, heavy sigh.

But, brace yourself.  Here comes the crazy.

The Wine Bar Art Gallery sold quickly.  When I got back to Iowa two weeks ago, my Iowa phone had an important message waiting for me.  The new owner was eager to meet and talk paintings.  And so we did.  It certainly added to an already crazy schedule.  But, hey, crazy works for me!

And so, as we speak, there are new paintings hanging in the Wine Bar Art Gallery, Arnolds Park, Iowa.

Crazy!

One Hot Day On Sovetskaya, one of eleven Cooper paintings hanging at the Wine Bar Art Gallery, at this very moment!

Arnolds Park/Okoboji is a magical summer place.  And when there are great paintings to look at as well?  Go.  And have a wonderful summer!

Later, Karen

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, and WOW, we're in Iowa today!

I was called 'petty' the other day.  Ouch!  I was called 'petty' for something I said, that I never said.  Somebody read between my lines, and found HIS meaning there.  Let me restate that, just so it's not missed.  He found his meaning of the statement there, and NOT my meaning of the statement.

Isn't that the way lots of artistic endeavors end up?  You put your thoughts out there, visual, print, audio, whatever and you've got three options.

1.  They see it just like you do, and love it,

2.  They see the message in a totally different way than you do, and you wonder how that happened

3.  They don't see it, they don't get it, they ignore it - they might even tell you to go away

Variants #2 & #3 on that list might sound kind of discouraging - certainly not the ideal outcome of #1, but I think we have to consider them all good.  And here's why:  if #1 happened all the time/every time for every work of art created, we would all be part of a then totally boring collection of humanity that could not even attempt to discuss their various thoughts about anything - because of course, we just said there weren't going to be any various thoughts.

So no matter if you're on the giving end of a painting, or the receiving end, the next time you get involved in a heady discussion of it, remember it's all good, because we're all different.  Different ideas, different view points, different thoughts to share, they're all good.  Just remember to consider that the ones offered up by the person across the table from you just might be as good as your own.

Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Karen

PS.  And look what just arrived in the US (besides me :)  )

We Dance, an oil on canvas painting measuring 31 x 27 inches.  And as soon as the FedEx guy gets here, we can say "and framed in a black canvas floater frame"  These delightful ladies were dancing to accordion music at Maslenitsa festival - and just for fun, let me show you the first time one of them was painted:

Balloons.  Ageless.  Wow.  Isn't it amazing how our thoughts CAN change on a subject?  :)  

And links to both for that all important zoom-able view:  

We Dance.

Balloons. Ageless.