She wanted to graduate in math but reconsidered and became fine arts major instead. And that was a really wise decision as Caia Koopman is nowadays one of the most appreciated young American artists. Born in Livermore, USA, Caia earned a BA at UC Santa Cruz, a place that also lured her to the local skateboarding scene.
Caia Koopman, The White Rabbit
Still, her career in this direction was limited to skateboard graphics and T-shirt prints for Santa Cruz skateboarding teams. Her next artistic step was working as a commercial artist, for numerous national and international print media including Surfing Girl, Mademoiselle, Details, Girl's Life, Snowboarder Magazine, Teen, Teen Style, Teen People, J-14, Fine and many more. She also designed T-shirt graphics and promotional illustrations for companies as Quiksilver/Roxy, Hurley, Op, AT&T, and Casio.
Her paintings, though, prove she is a complete artist. Caia's acrylics on canvas or wood artworks were shown all around the world and most recently at La Luz de Jesus gallery in LA. She is currently working as a freelance illustrator and painter in Oceanside, CA. Every painting is based on the idea that humans are part of nature and cannot live separately from it.
Caia Koopman, Auspicious Herodias
This is why Caia characters are mostly dollish girls and fairies (perhaps a humanized nature?) surrounded by every form of life, by beauty yet also by death. In her creating process she is influenced by different famous artist. Frida Kahlo inspired her to tell stories that include personal elements in every painting, Mark Ryden completed her vision and convinced her to really focus on painting, Joe Sorren inspired her to paint in layers, and, recently, Blaine Fontana convinced her to think bigger than one canvas.
Her paintings are, by extension, a beautiful combination of personal feelings, passions, and philosophic ideas, hidden under a cute portrayal of young, sensual, beautiful girls. Now that's an extremely original point of view!
