We were lucky to catch up with Andrew Cooper recently and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

My mother has a book at her home from when I was 7 years old of a picture I drew that shows myself painting a canvas with words underneath that say “I want to be an Artist when I grow up.” She still has this after 24 years. I am now ironically doing the same thing in the photo that I was doing then.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Cooper. I am an artist / Painter living in Evansville Indiana. I went to Ball State University and studied art where I graduated. Then moved to LA and began painting and starting my own business. I worked for a record label for one year in Miami. At night I would work on my art. I would pay rent and whatever money was left I would find free walls on craigslist, go buy paint, and then paint murals. I was spending all of my money on paint risking everything to be seen and have a photo to share on Instagram to start building my own art. After one year I moved to Los Angeles California and began selling my own art. I painted for 2 and a half years in LA and then moved back to Indiana in 2020 when covid hit. I was scared at the time that everyone thought I was giving up but I just needed a change of scenery. That is where I began to paint large canvases and sell them on my Instagram. A short time later, less than a year, Guy Hepner Gallery in New York found me on Instagram and we did an online show where all of the work sold. The rest of the year I spent on commissions from GH. Maddox Gallery from London took notice and offered me a three show deal. I signed with Maddox and had my first Solo Exhibition in Notting Hill London in October of 2022. Following the sell out success of the show, Maddox asked me to have another show in Gstaad Switzerland July 2023. I just returned from the show with another sellout success.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

You always have to have goals and a vision of where you are going. I like the quote “If a boat doesn’t have a destination, it never find’s it’s harbor”. My goal was to always be able to survive on my artwork. If that wasn’t happening then I wasn’t working hard enough I would tell myself. In college I would follow ton’s of artists on Instagram and see how hard they worked daily. After my one year in Miami I had saved only a thousand dollars and decided to move to Los Angeles. After a few months of scraping buy, doing murals for free, putting up my own money, I received a very big call. I was sitting outside finishing a mural that took a week of time and I was only getting the paint paid for, I started to feel overwelmed as I could post the finished photo but I would not have money for rent the next week. I was sitting on a bucket of paint and recieved an email from PUMA. I didn’t think it was real. They wanted to pay me to paint a basketball court in Nipsey Hussles hometown of Slauson California the next week. I got on a call later that night and they wired me payment for the court the next day. They payment was enough for an entire year of rent in LA. The hard work had paid off at the very last minute. I am still gratefull today.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My only advice on building an audience has come from myself building my Instagram account. I think you need to be consistant daily in showing your process to your veiwers. It’s still extremely hard to build and keep building. I just try and continue to make better work in a consistant way and put it out.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cooperart.me
• Instagram: @iam.cooper