Don't miss it....Cooper Sanchez at "The Gate Called Beautiful"

Georgia-boy artist and meadow-maker Cooper Sanchez has an easy knack for making what's old seem new and what's fresh seem relic.  His style?  Something of an unselfconscious interpretation of classical aesthetics and refined nature themes, with a visceral take on nostalgic Southern folk art.  His work shows an obvious reverance for creatures other than the human kind and a sense of humor towards the human kind.   Cooper's mixed media work is playful and elemental and seems a reflection of someone creatively navigating the modern South.

He's a thoughtful and talented gardener in all that free time and has wowed Atlanta's gardenati with his evocative meadow plantings at his Clarkston home and historic Oakland Cemetery.  There he's sown old-fashioned reseeding annuals, redolent of vintage meadows, making something fresh by literally rooting into a Southern folk ethic.  Click here for a video from Cooper's dramatic plein air installation in Oakland Cemetery's greenhouse ruins.

Meadow planting at gate of Oakland Cemetery, image courtesy of Creative Loafing

So I'm pretty jazzed and not at all surprised that he's gained access to the mysterious Decatur property with "The Gate Called Beautiful" for his next plein air installation, this Thursday and Friday nights (October, 18th & 19th, 7-11pm, 426 W. Ponce de Leon, Decatur, GA 30030--next to FarmBurger on Ponce).  In the spirit of making this old place seem new, Cooper will be debuting paintings, drawings, and a light installation.  When I popped by the site last week, he was hard at work getting the property navigable for the event:

Don't miss the Agave parryi that he's planted out front