Rachel E. Cooper

BFA New Media

ARTIST STATEMENT: “Once upon a time…” Four simple words that begin most childhood stories. The narrative that follows usually involves a hero that saves the world from a monstrous creature or deed. Through these stories, as children we are taught to fear and to see things in terms of right/wrong, pretty/ugly, and good/evil. As we grow from childhood into an adulthood, our “once upon a time” learned behaviors are applied into more concrete things like interpersonal relationships and social interactions. As we face our old fears, we develop new ones. We hide our true feelings and learn to put on a “brave face”.

In my creative process, I turn people inside out to personify and portray their inner-feelings by using monstrous imagery. I create worlds that reflect today’s societal problems and brings light to the hopes of tomorrow. To create these worlds and creatures of the night, I normal draw them out on a character sheet that displays front and side view of the character. From there, I scan the sheet into photoshop to color and shading it. Once the shading is done, I can then 3D model the character in 3DX Max to animate the character. To give the model color and texture, I have to UV it, which the process of flattening the 3D model on a sheet for a photoshop file. At the end of the day, I am a monster maker who create them in multiple mediums.

The work represented here is a small snapshot of the mythical world of sirens that I am creating. The subject is the Siren Queen, a misunderstood monster. Surface dwellers see her as a trickster and a creature who loves to kill for no apparent reason. The Siren Queen sees the fishermen and other seafaring folk as creatures that pour poison into the sirens’ home and pulls all the food out of ocean. The installation consists of two parts – the fully animated 3D model for the Siren Queen; second is an accordion illustrated booklet, that I made myself, that provides character details such as magical abilities.