Featured Student Artist | May 2024

Catherine Cooper

Catherine was a student in “Winter Seed’s Promise,” held at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, NM, in March 2024. She is a recipient of the The Martin Ray Young-at-Heart Scholarship.

What did you enjoy about your experience in Winter Seed’s Promise?

"Winter Seed's Promise" was an opportunity to put aside electronics and spend time reflecting, growing, and creating. The experience was nourishing, from the food, to stretching me artistically and connecting with a community of creators.Each lecture felt like a little doorway with a big flashing welcome sign beckoning me back into the studio. So affirming. I felt that the exercises were gentle and doable, and also left room for my own interpretation. I appreciated Laurie’s reminder that words could be used as a bit of a scaffold for actually making marks on the page, which can sometimes be so mysteriously difficult.

What did you find difficult?

There were two particularly challenging things for me--first, to work at such a large scale and take a brush to a whole sheet of paper. The second was to let go of a need for everything to be perfect and to be alright with not necessarily liking what came out of each exercise or experiment. It was incredibly freeing.

Tell us a little bit about your practice as a maker. Where do you thrive? Where do you struggle?

My practice as a maker is probably best described as experimental, I use art and making to understand how things work. I thrive when I'm curious.I struggle the most with “making” time for creative practice, which I know is possible even in the midst of this vice-phase of life with young kids and aging parents. That said, I also know the kids will grow up and move out eventually, and there will be more time for making, contemplation, and writing. “Making” peace with the many demands of the day feels like perhaps the most potent practice I can engage in. Luckily, the kids are usually game to make with me, so I’m stretching to see how I can open up more time and inspiration for that (the messes! Oh, the messes we make!).

What is one intention you have as a maker this year?

An intention that I have for my practice this year is to bring some of the breathing space that I found during "Winter Seed's Promise" back with me.I also want to spend more time this year harvesting all that I’ve learned to date about living life as a maker. I want to look back over my notebooks from many years of classes and write down what I know now, in my own words. Laurie’s essays have been a big inspiration to me, in this line of inquiry.