“Portrait of Chip Cooper” in the Alabama Art series by Nall (Image courtesy of The International Arts Center)
Nall wanted to include me in a book he was doing on Alabama art. I said fine. This was in the late seventies. He starts on my portrait with my eyes. I looked at the eyes he had drawn and went ‘holy shit’! Nall answered, ‘Yeah, those are the eyes of a drunk’, which I was. I was shocked by the yellow jaundiced eyes. It was hurtful to see. We started talking about Alcoholics Anonymous, which was my first confrontation and enlightenment about life without alcohol and drugs.
In my portrait, Nall had me looking Jesus-like with the gold halo. The white chip is my AA chip and the lens is from my camera. The wasp on my collar getting ready to bite me conveys that I am a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. The box underneath my torso is a place to put my secrets.
We next see my corroded brain placed next to the nearly empty glass of wine which I was drinking.
The slices of photos of my two children on the bottom of the portrait signifies the damage that I had done to them. Nall saw the disarray around me of two kids who loved me but didn’t know what to do. Everything in that portrait is symbolic of my life in 1997.
The biggest gift Nall gave to me was in the gentle way he told me his story…that’s what alcoholics do. It finally hit me and I got sober after that.
Chip Cooper
Photographer, Artist in Residence Honors College University of Alabama
Close Up of “Portrait of Chip Cooper” in the Alabama Art series by Nall (Image courtesy of The International Arts Center)