Greetings,

Attached please find the first half of my submission (I can't send all
files at once through my system.)

Thank you for your consideration and for launching this important show.

Sincerely,
Kristen Copham

Written Description, Works 1 - 3  (two images for work #1)

Inside/Out, Ceramic (40” x 24” x 22”), installation will
use chains,
feathers, miscellaneous  (2 images sent, one showing a plant, the 2nd
showing an installation using crumpled advertisements spilling from the
figure.)
This piece will be installed in the gallery using the Inside/Out ceramic
figure, who is kneeling down, opening her torso.  Her head is also open in
the back of the piece.  To convey the ideas of social liberty and democracy
in the installation, she will be wrapped with broken chains.  Down feathers
will be pouring out of her insides and spilling onto the floor.  If I can
attach fish wire to the ceiling, small paper bird wings will be flying from
inside her head and fanning upward.  Or, objects of expression will be
spilling from her head to the floor, including pens and pencils, brushes,
instruments, etc.

Alone at the Party, Oil/Canvas, 48” x 36”, 2003
This piece speaks to America’s go-it-alone policy in Iraq and the way
in
which we have alienated ourselves from the rest of the world during a time
when we had so much international goodwill.  Instead we have made ourselves
vulnerable.  We have to be at the party because we are all interconnected,
yet we have put ourselves in a difficult position through our arrogant
interpretations of democracy and our desire to impose our values on others.

La Guerrillita, Oil/Canvas, 30” x 40”, 2002
This piece speaks to self expression and the act of being bold, of speaking
out as individuals, as groups and as artists inhabiting a confusing, war
torn world. We must use whatever tools we have, in this case, brushes and a
palette, to fight our own war, a war in which we protect our rights and
where we refuse to be silenced.

(See attached file: InsideOut_Copham.jpg)(See attached file:
InsideOut2_Copham.jpg)(See attached file: AloneatParty_Copham.jpg)(See
attached file: LaGuerrillita_Copham.jpg)


Here are the final 5 of the 8 pieces I am submitting.   The other 3 (four
images) were sent a few minutes ago

Thank you,
Kristen Copham

The End, Oil/Canvas, 36” x 60”, 2003
This painting expresses exhaustion and yet a determination to be true to
oneself in the face of adversity.  A small figure in a semi-fetal position
is curled up at the bottom of a meandering line, the expression of a
personal path.  A violent red surrounds the figure and her path; the
environment is difficult and foreboding.

It’s Not Easy Being, Oil/Canvas, 36” x 60”, 2003
This work speaks to the experience of being a sentient trapped in a
physical body during a short period of time, life.  As the figure struggles
upward, her body is cut, chopped up and repeated horizontally by sections
of organic matter.  Our rights include freedom and law, but ultimately it
is difficult to be alive and do the right thing, and the ultimate law which
no one escapes is the law of nature.

Disturbed, Oil/Canvas, 36” x 60”, 2003
This work expresses mental anguish and the fracturing of a life.  The
figure is first contained in a small bubble, which is later enlarged and
fractured.  She becomes larger as she gains in knowledge, her world
expands, but she is also broken, because so many events are outside her
control.

Self Portrait, Acrylic/Canvas, 20” x 24”
This work shows the many inner lives, or multiple decisions, inside one
person.  The individual is tormented, frightened and frustrated.  This
piece was chosen by Planned Parenthood for a poster commemorating the 25th
anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a central compelling issue concerning the
freedom of a woman’s body vs. the rights of a human fetus.

We’re Fine, Everyone’s Fine, We’re Okay, Oil/Canvas,
triptych, 30” x 24”
each, 2001
This work reflects a reaction to the events of 9/11.  While the words make
false assurances, dismembered hands float in a violent background.  Hands
are a meaningful metaphor for community, and during the attacks, the
community was both shattered but then, more importantly, strengthened.
This idea is also expressed with the central hand in the pink circle, which
is made into a powerful fist that re-asserts humanity’s victory over
oppression.