Paintings by Cookie Allred • Exhibit runs from March 11 to April 29, 2023
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
I’m a happily married retired elementary school teacher, I’ve lived in South America, Europe and throughout the United States. My husband and I moved to Utah about 8 years ago. We love living near our children and grandchildren and especially love the beauty of Utah. I’ve studied art through community college and various workshops and especially enjoy the Plein air community.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
I am a natural observer—someone who looks closely, has a deep passion for beauty, and who feels the poetics of shapes, forms, compositions, much of which I find in nature. My family often talks about how my eyes must be filled with above-average finely sharpened rods and cones that, where others see red, yellow, blue, I see an array of prismatic colors, shades, and hues. Brown is never just brown, but rather ochre, mustard, burnt sienna, caramel, molasses. There are some people, who through genetic variation, can smell colors, but I feel colors and feel them deeply.
This exhibition explores the depth of colors I see both in flowers and in water reflections. Some of the compositions of flowers are inspired by my love of Georgia O’Keefe. However, her work often uses paint in smooth and flat ways. I am interested in the texture and form that comes from a thick impasto application, layering the forms that, for me, replicates the richness I see in nature. Many of the flowers here were paintings from photographs I took outside the gardens at the Grand America.
I am also fascinated by the way color bends, twists, adjusts, and grows more complex within the shadows, reflections, and movement of water. I love to paint water—it’s my passion, because each time, there is more richness in the blue, more depth in the color creation. I swim a lot and what I noticed as I was watching other swimmers is how much the light reflects off shoulders, how the light bounds off the wall and the surface, and how it is constantly changing. Rivers and other natural bodies of water seem to act like a chameleon gathering and pooling into itself all the colors around.
AGE GROUP: | All Ages |
EVENT TYPE: | Exhibits | Arts & Creativity |
The Sweet Branch is the sister branch of the Anderson-Foothill Branch using the same modular design. The branch contains over 8,000 square feet of service space, including a public meeting room that can be used for a variety of community gathering needs, from community council meetings to music performances to neighborhood celebrations. Free parking is available to the north of the building, and free wi-fi access is provided throughout the library.
