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I painted a mural a couple years ago called “Ain’t I A Woman.” It was intended to educate uplift black women worldwide who had been adversely affected by institutional racism in criminal, medical, and various other contexts. After making the mural, it was completely vandalized twice. We had to scrub and peel the paint off, the first time. Then, the second time, they used a latex paint, so we were fortunately again able to peel it off. Now it’s completely restored, and hasn’t been touched since.

I really can’t wrap my head around why someone would do that. I don’t know who could possibly have the free time, energy, and balls to deface a mural. It was probably the timing, where the nation was at that time. It was the Summer of Reckoning (2020), so there was a lot of protests going on not far from where the mural was. It’s funny, because I didn’t have the chance to go to any of the protests, because of COVID, and all that came with it. The mural was kind of like my form of protest. Seeing the impact of my words on a community and how, in spite of the vitriol, the mural remains up, has been really great to see. It’s a form of preservation, and it kind of captured that moment in history.

My Watson project was inspired by this. It deals with murals depicting or resulting from political events and social movements, and seeing how they impact and serve as a source of cultural preservation in the communities they depict. I’ll be visiting England to look at some of Banksy’s stuff, and then Belfast. After that I’ll be going to Italy, where there are a lot of cool, contemporary murals, and then I’ll be visiting Mexico, which has a very rich history of public art. All of the art on my trip will be public. There are a few in Mexico that are commissioned by the government, the government, because that’s not uncommon in Mexican muralism, but they’re still centered around unity and empowerment.

AGS [Arkansas Governor’s School, a state-funded program for Arkansas high-school juniors that, up until 2018, was held every summer at Hendrix] definitely gave me the technical skills to paint, and generally helped me to begin turning ideas into something physical. Hendrix’s Art Department has really helped me to combine both of my passions together. It’s shown me that I’m not just a painter, but someone with a voice. Hendrix has engaged me within its community, with my involvement with the NAACP, Art Club, and Revolutionary Reads. It’s helped me find like the intersection point of activism and art, which I hope to explore further with my Watson Fellowship.

I’ve seen much more murals popping up around Conway and Little Rock over the past few years. The crucial, and to me, defining thing about muralism is that once you create it, it’s kind of out of your hands, and it becomes property of the city or community it depicts. It’s up to that community to take care of it, and to maintain an interpretive, storytelling aspect. Because of that, you have to take what you paint very seriously in murals, moreso than usual, and use the space for good. So, if go to Seventh Street, and you see all the murals, they all have different points of view, but the essential message is very clear. It’s all in the interest of peace and justice, and making sure that the world is becoming a better place.

Honestly, my mom really thought it was a good idea. It helps with ensuring I’m not too far in the red - supplies cost a lot of money. It also came in handy with the Watson, when I had to make a budget for the entire year. Also, it’s good to be a well rounded person, keeping my math skills up to date. I know how to count still. It can be intense to get wrapped up in a creative project, it’s helpful to have a little break and do something that’s - well, not practical, but just concrete.

So, my favorite color is orange. Any type of orange really, pastel, blood, Hendrix, neon, I like all types of orange. It comes up a lot in my work, because of that, and also because orange is one of the base colors for painting Black people. The compliment to orange is blue, so naturally, I use a lot of blue too. Aside from that, I’m a figurative painter. I love to paint people in different positions and use their positions to tell a story.

Most of the time, my inspiration is internal, I pull from memories. I try to draw memories first, and then try to replicate it through a photo, and then try and pick the photo. That process is something I’ve definitely explored this year. I also take a lot of inspiration from Kehinde Wiley. So, if that’s your purely aesthetic inspirations, then what about your philosophical or cultural inspirations?

I’ve explored the cultural aspect of art a lot more this year, with my Senior Capstone. The body of work that I did for that was about how water has affected Black people, in a broad sense. Most of it is pretty light on personal memory. A lot of the paintings that I’ve been have done before have been very on the nose, like, you know exactly what it’s about. But with memories, I didn’t realize going in how much history plays into what we do today, especially with water. As far as philosophical inspiration, to be honest, I don’t think very hard about like my art until it’s done. Usually, I realized what I did after the fact, and get a headache. This is especially true when it comes to naming pieces.

I’m gonna say that Ain’t No Sunshine is my favorite right now. It’s orange and blue, an identity piece, both for who I am and what type of artist I wanted to be at the time, whether those two meshed well together. That’s definitely my favorite: every time I think about it, I feel a different way.

There’s the art majors’ senior show. It’s gonna be April 14. All five of us seniors will present on our art from this year. It will be held at the Windgate, where I work. For the Watson I will definitely be starting a blog, to document the year. All that will be on my website: https://adaja-cooper-studio.myshopify.com/. You can look at some of my paintings there.