Cynthia Cooper (b. 1954, United States) is a painter whose exuberant abstract works deploy color, geometry, and rhythmic pattern to construct compositions that balance mathematical rigor with gestural spontaneity. Working primarily in acrylic on canvas and shaped panels, Cooper builds layered fields of repeating stripes—often ascending in curved trajectories—that create optical movement and suggest transformation. Her practice embraces contradiction: precision meets playfulness, systematic structure encounters the hand-drawn irregularity she describes as "squiggliness," and rigid patterns appear to undulate and shift. Cooper's signature vocabulary centers on upward-curving stripes that she characterizes as "moving in the right direction." These rhythmic bands function as both formal devices and metaphorical gestures, evoking momentum, optimism, and the possibility of change. Her compositions are built through accumulation: bands of vivid color stack, overlap, and converge, generating visual complexity that rewards sustained observation. The work operates through tension—between flatness and dimensionality, order and variability, the calculated and the intuitive. Her process draws on diverse sources: mathematical concepts such as prime numbers and geometric tangents, observations from the natural world (dragonflies, moths, crocodiles), and influences from artists including Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Cooper's shaped canvases and use of both new and antique linen add physical presence and historical resonance to works whose titles range from poetic to wry: what is not forbidden is compulsory (crocodile tears), A Three Poem Day, and I Am Always Tying Up and Then Deciding to Depart. These titles function as counterpoints to the visual content, introducing narrative suggestions while maintaining the work's essential abstraction. Cooper deliberately retains the evidence of her hand—lines curve imperfectly, stripes vary in width, and surfaces carry the trace of their construction. This rejection of mechanical perfection emphasizes the human presence within systematic structures, grounding the work's optical vibrancy in the physicality of making. Her palette is unapologetically bright, deploying saturated hues that generate optical intensity and emotional buoyancy. Cooper has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and her paintings are held in the permanent collections of Pennsylvania State University and the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. She describes artmaking as essential—"like breathing; it's built in"—coupled with "an intense fear of wasting time," a statement that reflects both the urgency and generosity evident in her practice. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from Pennsylvania State University and has studied at the University of Hartford Art School and Mechanicsburg Art Center. Cooper lives and works in Connecticut, where she remains actively engaged with artistic community and continues to develop work that celebrates color, pattern, and the transformative potential of abstraction.