We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful April Cooper. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with April below.
April, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
I’ve always wanted to be an artist. When selling and making Art I’ve seen that I aspire a new generation into being a creative. That will always bring me happiness. Anytime I think about when I held a different job, I reflect on how incredibly unhappy I was. Years ago I was working a customer service job. It was a dark and depressing time for me, I had a full time position and no time to create even as a hobby. That’s when I realized that Art was a coping skill for me. Anytime in my life that I stopped creating, life became dreadful. So I made a change, I started to create art, and started to share this online with friends and family. My grandmother told me that I was given this gift, and to ignore it was only going to make me unhappy. After this I started sharing my art journey on Instagram, YouTube and then TikTok. Eventually, people started asking to buy my art, today I’m on the journey of making my art into a full business. I want to see my art bring joy to others all over. It’s one thing to bring happiness to myself by creating, but when I see people open my art and cry tears of joy. That’s what my career is about. I have aspiring artists asking questions about art methods and art history . Talking and discussing these topics bringing educational value to the world also brings me joy.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I’m April, an artist, who works mainly with oil painting, depicting images of black culture, black woman and black hair. I’ve been drawing since the age of 11, I went to University of Maryland Eastern Shore as a double major for Art & Education. I show my painting process and my thought process online, through social media. Representation in Art is rarely seen by the masses. I’m trying to infiltrate the art community which mainly occupied by the white, hetero male. Adding diversity to the main stream art market is proving to be a great challenge.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
The main thing you can do is support living artists. Share their work, buy their work originals or prints. Go to art shows and art festivals. Billions of dollars goes into the Arts Business and next to none of it goes to the artist. Especially not the living artist. Mostly that money goes to Auction Houses swapping artwork with Multi Millionaires.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I built my audience on social media though consistent posting, but things took off when I started providing education on Black Art History. That’s not something provided to you in public schools. So I was fulfilling a whole in the education system. Then I also try new methods of painting, I stumble over topic of under painting. Under Painting is the first layer of paint and it helps with tone and balance, usually done in one paint color. It’s visually stunning, and there are many ways to do it. When it comes to building an audience I try to Inspire, Educate or Entertain. If you are not doing one of these 3, ask yourself would you be interested in this content, if you came across it on your social media page.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ArtbyAprilCooper.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbyapril/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/ArtbyApril
- Other: TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@aprilbydesign