Jim Couper is a Professor Emeritus in the FIU Art + Art History Department, the founding director of the Art Museum at FIU (now the Frost Art Museum), and a full-time painter. He is also the founding director of the FIU Art + Art History graduate program and has served as the department’s chair. He retired in 2005 after 33 years and maintains residences in Miami and Tallulah Falls, Georgia, drawing inspiration from both locales. The Ringling Museum, the Boca Raton Museum, and numerous other private, public, and corporate art collections have featured and acquired Couper’s works. Artist Statement I never feel as inspired as when I am in nature – as far away as possible from any traces of human intervention. My work is a humble acknowledgement of the wonder that is being taken from us.” He made this choice because of concerns for the preservation of what remains of the Everglades. This concern is the conceptual basis for making this body of work, and the Everglades provides an endless source of visual and spiritual inspiration.