Donna Cooper is a performative photographer whose interdisciplinary work spans photography,drawing, and sculpture. Born in Roanoke, VA, she recently returned to the Blue RidgeMountains, where her connection to the land inspires her art. Cooper holds a Master of Fine Artsfrom The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2005).Best known for her series Fire Talks, Cooper engages fire and other elements—water, air, andearth—as active participants in her creative process. Her work fosters transformative dialoguesbetween humanity and the natural world, examining the deep interconnection between the humanbody and elemental forces. Using fire and water as both subjects and collaborators, her practiceblends ritual and performance. Cooper’s choreographed photographs capture these ephemeralexchanges, while her paintings and sculptures reflect fire and other elements as regenerative andexpressive forces.Her work has been recently featured on the VC Project podcast, a Los Angeles-based platform,and exhibited in solo and group shows at venues including the Chicago Cultural Center, the NewOrleans Museum of Art, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, and the Virginia Museum of FineArts. Cooper has participated in numerous art residencies, such as the Atlantic Center for theArts, and was awarded an Oak Spring Garden Foundation Fellowship, further deepening her eco-conscious practice.