Hadley Hooper, Denver, Colorado. (she/her)

I work as both a painter and illustrator. There is a push and pull between assignment work and painting, and both practices benefit from one another. The two are linked by the use of the printed word for inspiration and invisible architecture it provides.

Being an illustrator means responding to a topic or voice, not one's own. Hired to find another or deeper perspective for the text, whether it's an op-ed piece or a theater poster, illustration often insists on "a little knowledge about a lot of things." The fun of being an editorial illustrator is dipping in and out of diverse topics.

Picture books offer the opportunity to spend more time developing an idea or character. Bookmaking requires creating a world over 15-25 page spreads.

And painting allows for the most sustained attention with a text, topic, place, or object.

I employ non-traditional printmaking and painting techniques, working on wood panels. The paintings are unsentimental representations of often sentimental objects. They have a layered excavated quality with the erasure and sanding of the image – its history – often visible in the final painting. Many of the works from 2011 to 2018 consist of large paintings of inherited objects, a teacup painted five feet wide, representing its outsized regard. My paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums in San Francisco, Toronto, New York, Denver, and Santa Fe, among others.

I began my illustration career in 1995. I started by sending printed examples of my more narrative paintings to ten art directors. From there, I began to get assignments, with my first job coming from the designer David Carson, who had just started Ray Gun Magazine. The second assignment came from the New Yorker. Commissions from Rolling Stone, Harper's, and Time Magazine, among many others, followed. From 2007-2010 I was a weekly contributor to the New York Times 'Style' section.

My work has been included in multiple annuals including American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators and Taschen’s Illustration Now. A poster I did for Central City’s 2006 opera season was awarded the Silver Medal at the Society of Illustrators in New York.

She lives in Denver with partner Hugh Graham and Augie, the dog.

 

representation