Artful Business

Jen Cooper: Jeweler

Looking for something beyond mere jewelry to embellish your persona?

Maybe a one-of-a-kind necklace of metal hoops that encircle head and shoulders like halos would frame your individuality just perfectly.  Or, how about trying on an oversized ring of pivoted discs that spin rainbows of colors with every movement of the hand?

Sculpture you ask, or are such far-out adornments futuristic jewelry?
That’s the selling point that RGC’s Jen Cooper is working around.

“My jewelry designes are sculptures for the body and the style varies for each woman I have in mind,” she declares. “While designing, I contemplate how the piece will fit the woman and how she will interact with the work, itself.”

That concept helps put Cooper in a select league. But where this aspiring artist really separates from the pack is her determination to support her enterprise with a strong foundation of business and marketing knowledge.

During her undergraduate studies in fine arts at Texas State University, Cooper, a Del Rio native,
got an insider’s perspective on success in the art world that most practitioners don’t see until it’s too late.

“My professors made a point of inviting professional artists to our classes tell us about about their works and careers,” says Cooper. “What I kept hearing was how most of them had wished they’d started with more experience in business management and marketing.

“So, I made up my mind to come back to Del Rio and get an MBA at Rio Grande College before I step out on my own,” she says.

Cooper, 28, resides with her parents and works toward earning her master’s in Business Administration next spring. She and her RGC professors, Dr. Edison Moura and Ifrain Adames are mutually complimentary.

“Jen is the kind of student we most enjoy in our classrooms,” says Dr. Moura, a business marketing specialist. “She has a strong desire to learn and not just pass the course and get a grade.”

“My RGC professors are among the best I’ve ever had,” Cooper exclaimed. “When I started my business courses I was like, ‘hey, where’s the color…where’s Picasso.’ But my teachers have made my transition from art to business so much easier.”

Beyond class, Cooper focuses on metal smithing, devoting about 30 hours a week to combining copper, aluminum and sterling silver into her individualistic designs.

She works out of a small studio space donated by Del Rio’s Firehouse Art Center, where she was named artist-in-residence last November.