Artist's Statement

The natural world is profoundly mysterious, beautiful, and terrifying. It is my source material—a delicate balance of life and death which is now under assault by human beings. My response is to create images with layers of information about the natural world, in both beauty & crisis. I want to reveal the beauty—but not without the scars.

My work combines elemental, mythological and personal symbology from various sources—I am always working to create a new and continually changing language of archetypes. These images from nature are inhabited with individual personality—and they are the elements of primeval power.

Recently I have used watercolor as a medium of choice—watercolors are a more intimate expression of the delicacy of nature in the struggle for survival. I find the immediacy of watercolor gives me a clarity of mind—it happens so fast compared to other mediums. In the past few years, I have also been incorporating text in my work on paper—either by using the computer or by directly writing on the surface. This includes a series of large watercolors called “Wonderland”, which include handwritten excerpts from “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. 

I am primarily a painter, and my work has included oil paintings, encaustic paintings, drawings, watercolors, installation art, monoprints and a series of 3-dimensional ‘tableaus’ called “Still Life Installations”. 

Also see my Artist Registry page on the New Mexico Women in the Arts site: https://newmexicowomeninthearts.org/vicki-teague-cooper

Vicki Teague-Cooper, Santa Fe NM 2019