Let’s get out there and enjoy the natural world

Lauren Cooper can’t say that she was meant to be an artist in the traditional sense, as can many of her artist peers who, from an early age, knew that they wanted to portray the world through canvas and paint. But she has always had an insatiable desire to create things of beauty. Lauren’s dream was to become an architect.

This dream was realized early on in her career. 

She then planned, designed, reshaped and oversaw the construction of multitudes of large projects on the campus of San Diego State University as well as planned and oversaw development of a variety of satellite campuses over a 30-year timeframe. The last eight were spent overseeing the complex campus development department.

Lauren is also an athlete or more specifically, a wilderness runner, where she readily seeks out opportunities to surround herself in nature (pictured above). She finds great enjoyment in getting far away from the beaten path where she can be immersed in interesting aspects of the natural world. Her version of “being wild and free”.

Upon retirement, Lauren found she wished to fill the “creativity void” of not building buildings or creating new campus plans anymore. 

She began taking painting and drawing classes from Drew Bandish, Erin Whitman and others, as well as participating in many of the Foothills Art Association and San Diego Watercolor Society’s Workshops and Demos to help her learn to translate her free and natural world into landscapes and active scenes that could be recreated on canvas. She particularly enjoys painting projects that evoke physical movement, geological expressions and vibrant colors.

Her current project theme, “Let’s Get Out There”, seeks to display these qualities and encourage viewers to get outside.

Her large mural of the southwestern U.S. (12’ x 6’) plays with the natural forms and features one might see when traveling eastward from San Diego throughout the southwest desert in a highly colorful and playful manner.

Companion paintings complement the mural and zoom in on desert life by suggesting activities in which one might participate to find and enjoy the freedom, beauty, solitude and “wildness” of nature from a variety of different “out there” perspectives.