.png)
Donnette A. Cooper
Artist
Bio & Statement
I am a textile/fiber artist who uses the quilt form as my primary medium of expression. I am influenced by African textiles and the individual, cultural and spiritual messages they encode. My work integrates African cloth, self-dyed, stamped and painted fabrics, commercial fabrics, recycled scraps, beads, cowry shells and other embellishments to tell stories and explore cultural values and collective memory. I particularly like working with scraps and recycled clothing. I enjoy reconstructing and reconnecting the torn, disparate pieces into a new form that is different from the original yet connected to it.
Covid-19 upended normal existence. At the heart of the catastrophe was fear and profound loss. The urban poor across the globe were especially vulnerable. Already living on the edge, they were extremely susceptible to sudden disaster. Their heath was immediately compromised.
Conversely, the pandemic also released that indomitable spirit to survive, to express love and preserve hope. We adjusted, innovated and developed ways to do the things that mattered.
I render the paradoxically beautiful representation of the virus using bright silks and wool, adorned with seed beads. My feelings of loss, hope, love and fear surround the penetrating spikes of the deadly corona. I trust that we will survive this crown of thorns and rise to a new way of existing and thriving.
2020
Donnette A. Cooper
Hyattsville, Maryland
Jamaica/USA
