Ashley Cooper's Latest Paintings Depict
Husband's Deployment Bridged By iPad
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to allotsego.com
COOPERSTOWN
In 2012, the Coopers' seemingly serene existence, in their Lake Street home that backs up on Glimmerglass, was jolted as the father of the house, Bassett's Dr. Shelby Cooper – he is also a lieutenant commander in the Navy – was deployed to Afghanistan for nine months.
"All of your paintings are about anxiety," said his artist wife, Ashley Norwood Cooper, sitting in her backyard studio the other day amid her latest creations. "You have to paint about it."
But how to capture absence?
While the doctor was physically gone, he was present via texting – "You left your scarf at the Moglias last night," he reminded her his first day away. And once he was established at the NATO base in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan, FaceTime enabled the Coopers, via iPads, to see each other's faces – a bit distorted – and talk, often for hours through the night, from across the world.
