ARTIST STAT & BIO & CV
My expressions is of delving deeper into what I am made of, an inner deep dive into the waters of my humanity. By utilizing the powerful tools of emotion and intuitive feelings, I extract the patterns and fractals that created my life path. I am shaped by the events and people that have walked the path with me. I am the sum of those experiences and emotional responses to them. I paint the flow of my life, the rhythmic heartbeat of my steps upon this planet Earth. Gaia is my muse, I am intrenched with her soil, entangled in her vines, deep in her oceans. I have left an impression of each footprint upon her, and she reveals to me the inspiration that she has made upon my soul. I recreate my impressions of this planet and atmosphere, both in reality and in abstraction. Her shapes, textures, and colors are visually played out on my canvas to pay homage to her movement through our galaxy. As we evolve together, I play out stories in surreal settings as stage scenarios narrate my life through poetry and haiku, ever the artistic expression of me.
I draw with texture, paint with my fingers, and sculpt with my tongue. My work is a mixture of oil, watercolor, charcoals/pastels, and poetry. I am always moving, mixing, layering a variety of media and technique to stay on the edge, keeping it fresh in the now.
I see our world as a dreamscape hologram. We work out all kinds of relationships within this framework of a shared environment. I play with concepts of existence and imagination in surreal interactions that provoke the power of us. I am translating our possibilities of potentials through a language of emotions in a poetic fashion. I am creating the world as I want to see it, as big, beautiful and mysteriously spectacular as it CAN BE.
I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. I lived in NYC for the bulk of my 20’s and 30’s, and I now reside in Sarasota, Florida. I am an art teacher and I continue to create my collections in my studio. My artwork can be found in public and private collections in the USA, UK, Canada, South America, Ireland, and Japan.
Thank you for following my journey!
BIO
The artist Carla Cope is from Miami, Florida, but now lives in Sarasota, Florida. She has travelled the world many times over. Her work can be found in collections in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan and South America. Carla has studied art in Ireland, Japan, and United States of America. She received her degrees from the colleges of Miami Dade, Purchase College in New York, and Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida. She holds a AA & AS in fashion design, a BFA in visual arts (sculpture and painting), and a certificate in Art and Healing/Expressive Arts (emotions through visual art). Carla now teaches art in Sarasota, Florida.
Carla has won numerous awards in art, her first was received when she was six years old for the regional art competition for the state of Florida. From this first recognition, Carla has excelled in her artistic accolades. Carla has participated and won awards in countless juried competitions and shows.
Carla has received inspiration from some of the great artist like, Georgia O’Keefe, Anish Kapore, Carravagio, Cy Twombly, and many contemporary artist today. As she began working for others in fashion design and costume design, then moved into concrete furniture/architectural object design, she developed her sensibilities for 3D spatial relation and sculptural appreciation. She majored in stone carving and bronze casting at Purchase College. All of this immersion into three-dimensional practice set a foundation for her appreciation in pushing the issue of “depth of field” in her paintings. She is always stressing the light that shines from behind an object or the depth of a vortex as it emerges from the dark. Carla is pushing the illusion of depth in a “trompe l'oeil” passion. This with a lust for the environment and weather conditions, stems from her father’s passion as a meteorologist and growing up in Miami. The tropics were a great source inspiration that illustrated the quick shifts from sun to storms on a dime. This dichotomy has lasting impressions on Carla’s subconscious and way of thinking about life.
CV
Carla Cope
Studio: Lakewood Ranch, Florida USA
Born: 1966 Miami, Florida USA, lived in New York City, Ireland, & Japan
Education: 2012 Ringling College of Art & Design, Cert of Art & Healing
1998 Purchase College, New York, BFA
1986 Miami Dade College, Assoc Sience/Art Fashion Design
Exhibitions:
Feature Artist for the Month of July 2019, https://www.artisthighlight.com/
Healing Power of Color Exhibition – Award of Excellence www.healing-power-of-art.org/the-healing-power-of-color-exhibition/
Create! Magazine – Summer 2019 Print Issue
Venice Art Classic, 18th Annual Juried Art Festival, March 2019, Howard Allan Events
St. Petersberg Fine Art Festival, Juried March 2019, Paragon
Downtown Sarasota Fine Art Festival, February 2019, Howard Allan Events
Lido Beach Holiday of the Arts, Art Festival, November 2019, Paragon
Let’s Create Art, ongoing art space 2017 – present
Sarasota Art Center, juried group show, “Elsewhere” 2018, August
Sarasota Art Center, juried group show, “Possibilities” 2018, July
Sarasota Art Center, juried group show, “New Realities” 2018, March
Sarasota Art Center, juried group show, “Art from the Heart” 2018, February