Acceptance

Dale Copeland
‘Acceptance’
145 x 260 x 20 mm
Collage of photographs and flakes of mica, in wooden tray
2017

"I used to do a lot of weird photography. I took a self-portait in a mirror with a bevelled edge, then partially solarised it in my home darkroom. It was all such a lot of fun. I cast the doll's head in wax with flakes of shiny foil, then laid down the flakes of mica (peeled from inside an old toaster).

Acceptance?
Yep, going down, but what can you do?
Just keep playing."

Dale Copeland describes herself as a mathematician-turned-artist. The one time head of a college maths and physics department and freelance computer programmer, Copeland, at the age of forty-three opted for a new lifestyle devoted to art and motherhood. She is now a 6th Dan black belt in Taekwon-Do and is still training regularly. Dale has often been referred to as the back bone of the Taranaki arts community, she is currently the driving force behind the artist collective called Virtual TART which shows their work online through the Virtual TART site www.tart.co.nz. In 2012 Dale was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts. Dale lives at Puniho with painter Paul Hutchinson.