Interview with Alika Cooper
Q)Something about you...what you want.A)I live in Oakland, California. I play soccer. I liveright on a big lake in downtown Oakland. It’s a lakethat is really the ocean. There are seagulls and wildbirds that hang around my apartment. I like to playgames and dress up in costumes when I play them.
Q) What are your main goals when you create?
A)I try to make something I haven't seen myself alreadydo. I try to invent new techniques as I go. I try tomake something complex. I try to evoke.
Q) Do you rule by any tendency in your creative work, or you only follow what comes in your mind?
A)I work with very specific subject matter and sourcematerial. Like a specific scene in a film. So mypreparation is very thought out and labored. When Iactually paint, I am very loose and open to whateverhappens in the process of painting an image.
Q)How has the internet and your website helped you spread your artwork to a wider audience?A)Artists and Art Directors and Art enthusiasts frequentArtist websites which creates a community andconnections you wouldnt otherwise make.
Q)How do you define your style and how would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?
A)My work is similar in style to Luc Tuymans and EdwardHopper. I paint portraits of actresses, some of whichare quite strange and eerily decapitated. I paintrural landcapes, which in some cases are disconnectedand simple and stark.
Q)What materials do you use to realize your creations?
A)I work with gouache on printmaking paper. I also usefilm stills that I make from movies and photographs Ihave taken of my aunts property.
Q) What is your favorite a) taste b) sound c) sight d) scent e) tactile sensation?
A)Sight
Q) What are you doing now.Your current projects.A)I’m working on an illustration for the New York Times.I have a solo show coming up this summer at MarkWolfe Gallery in San Francisco. I’m doing the LA/ART inNew York Art Fair this February with LightBox Gallery.
Q) Do you listen to music while you're creating and what do you listen and what do you like to listen?
A)Sometimes. Silence works too. I love soul. Anythingdancey or dramatic. I love Nina Simone.
Q) Do you draw influences from a wide range of artists, musicians, books.?
A)Books, I would say Hemingway, Steinbeck, ToniMorrison, Dostoyevsky, Raymond Carver. I get prettyobsessed with movies. I watch Grey Gardens alot.
Q)Name 3 things you couldn't create without?
A)Health, peace, desire
Q) Where have you show your art.?A)Lots of alternative spaces. Im represented by Lightboxin Los Angeles and Mark Wolfe in San Francisco.
Q) What haven't you done yet that you definitely want to try someday?
A)I would like to make a documentary film.
Q) How important is self-promotion for an artist nowadays?
A)It’s very important, you have to be visible in order tobe found and to find people that make sense to workwith you.
Q) Would you say that your work consciously reflects characters and situations found within your daily life?
A)Definitely not consciously
Q) Favourite book?A)The Secret History by Donna Tart and The Idiot byDostoyevsky, and Sula by Toni Morrison
Q) Designers/Artists you admire?
A)The Ashcan school, Robert Bechtle, Marlene Dumas,Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin
Q) Your contacts..e-mail.links.
posted by Claudio Parentela | 5:36 PM
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