Today’s All Indiana Artist, Dawn Cooper, is a painter who specializes in acrylic works.
Her pieces will be on display Friday night, March 4th, at the Full Circle Nine Gallery in an exhibit titled “Le Studio Del La Luna.” That translates to “The Studio of the Moon.” Cooper says the title is fitting because she describes herself as an insomniac hippie artist who creates her work by the light of the moon.
She talked to “All Indiana” hosts Randall Newsome and Alexis Rogers about the inspiration behind her art and how she found a new way for fans to appreciate some of her work after feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch the video for more.
Catch Cooper’s work during “First Friday” at the Full Circle Nine Gallery. It’s happening from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Admission and parking are free.
More About Dawn Cooper
A deadline-driven paralegal by day and an artist by night (well, always, really), Dawn Cooper feels a connection to the show title, “Le Studio de la Lune” (The Studio of the Moon), throughout many aspects of her life. Cooper describes herself as a “huge fan” of the Canadian band Rush whose recording studio is called “Le Studio,” and she will often listen to their philosophical tunes while creating. “La Lune” stems from Cooper’s other self-description as an insomniac hippie artist, a June Moon Child, creating her work by the light of the moon. There’s a bit of a resounding theme.
“I like to see the progression of my subjects,” Cooper said. “I kind of see where I was in my head when I look at the older stuff. I like the lightness of my newer stuff. It’s proof that life is good and getting better and I can just let my whimsy fly.”
“Stop and smell the roses. That’s my purpose in art. I want my work to be something that takes you away from reality and your deadlines and lets you…Just be. It’s a Zen thing. It’s good to let go.”
“2020 took me by surprise; I really got stuck creatively,” Cooper said. “2022 is promising some new directions for me. What started as an escape from dealing with hard decisions evolved into an ebbing tide of passion. I enjoy creating. I’m never sullen when I paint. Painting and the opportunities and few friends that have come along with it just feel like home to me. You never feel like a second-class citizen around artists because we are just so damn happy for each other and to be out there making the world a more interesting place.”
For more information visit, fullcirclenine.com and fullcirclenine.com/portfolio/dawn-terry.
If you aren’t familiar with Bean the Astronaut, you will be now!
The Full Circle Nine Gallery (FC9) will feature Joy Hernandez with “…Is Bean” as part of the First Friday art tour, 6 – 9 pm on Friday, January 7th.
The show will spotlight Hernandez’s character Bean the Astronaut in a variety of activities and adventures. Hernandez joined us today to share more about this exciting exhibit.
Admission is free.
“I have a lot of friends that can do some pretty impressive things, activities that I know I could never pull off without hurting myself or making a mess,” Hernandez said. “I’ve said for a long time that Bean is all of us. In this show, Bean will be those friends, doing those activities I admire but that I can’t personally pull off.”
About Joy Hernandez:
Originally from Illinois, University of Indianapolis alumna Joy Hernandez is the founder and president of the Full Circle Nine Gallery, and an aerosol and acrylic painter and muralist. Her character, Bean the Astronaut, named in honor of the only artist to have walked on the moon, Apollo astronaut Alan Bean, has become a very popular mural subject around Indianapolis and recently branching out into towns around Indiana.
“I’ve been fortunate, in that it seems that everyone loves an astronaut,” Hernandez said. “I think there’s something hopeful about looking to space, and an element of living vicariously. We can’t see who’s under the helmet, so Bean can really be any of us and that means we can all go on these adventures.”
During 2020’s March Madness, Hernandez painted Bean as a basketball player with a jetpack as one of the four Court Murals organized by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and was featured in the New York Times. Hernandez was selected to be a Jiffy Lube Mural Project artist, painting a skateboarding Bean at the 64th and College Broad Ripple location. She also often participates in group shows around Indianapolis, including the Arts Council’s TINY, the Harrison Center’s annual color-themed shows, FLAVA Fresh, and Arte Mexicano en Indianapolis.
About the Full Circle Nine Gallery:
The Full Circle Nine Gallery operates as an artist cooperative gallery, with each of the member artists and the board dividing gallery duties and artists roles. The artists will work together to help each other advance in skill and practice, as well as to bring success to the gallery. With over two dozen artists occupying a large, three-room space of the more factory-reminiscent portion of the Circle City Industrial Complex, Full Circle Nine offers a wide variety of art forms, media, and approaches.
The gallery has resumed weekend hours, 12-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Full Circle Nine Gallery is located at 1125 Brookside Ave., Indianapolis, IN, 46202, in the South Studios section of the Circle City Industrial Complex. For more information, or for artists interested in joining the Full Circle Nine, please visit fullcirclenine.com.
The First Friday art tour is getting spooky for October! You can kickoff the month with a Spooktacular feature from out friends at the Full Circle Nine Gallery.
Mike Meares, organizer for the show, joined us today to show off some of his art and share more about the Halloween-themed group show.
This event is part of the First Friday art tour, and it’s happening 6pm – 9pm on Friday, October 1.
This group show will see member artists expressing their love for the holiday, portraying their favorite parts about it in their art.
“Halloween is a holiday that celebrates us challenging and changing the perception of who we are,” Meares said. “It invites us to embrace our whimsy, our humor, and our darkness. It celebrates the need to escape from daily life. When you think about it, art serves a lot of the same purposes and desires.”
About Mike Meares
Mike Meares is an Illinois native, arriving in Indianapolis via San Francisco in late 2019. He joined Full Circle Nine Gallery in search of artist camaraderie, a few months before the pandemic shut down much of art gatherings and social life in 2020.
“We have a talented group of artists here at the gallery,” Meares said. “When you look around, you see a diverse mix of art, both stylistically and by medium. This show provides us an opportunity to showcase that diversity within a specific genre. Prior to the pandemic, we would typically have one featured group show each year. The last group show was in December of 2019, and there has been some turnover in artists since that time, so we thought it would be fun to bring back that community spirit of doing a group show.”
About the Full Circle Nine Gallery
The Full Circle Nine Gallery operates as an artist cooperative gallery, with each of the member artists and the board dividing gallery duties and artists roles. The artists will work together to help each other advance in skill and practice, as well as to bring success to the gallery. With over two dozen artists occupying a large, three-room space of the more factory-reminiscent portion of the Circle City Industrial Complex, Full Circle Nine offers a wide variety of art forms, media, and approaches.
The gallery has resumed weekend hours, 12-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Full Circle Nine Gallery is located at 1125 Brookside Ave., Indianapolis, IN, 46202, in the South Studios section of the Circle City Industrial Complex. For more information, or for artists interested in joining the Full Circle Nine, please visit fullcirclenine.com