Artist defends mural of Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason

Much of public art is done to create conversation, but muralist Michael Cooper never meant to start a political dialogue with his painting of Vanderbilt football coach Derek Mason.

Cooper said he didn't intend it to be controversial, and the accusations that he was prejudice "hurt a great deal."

The refined version is better than the original, said Cooper, who on Saturday updated the Vanderbilt coaches mural that includes Mason's likeness, but "I didn't feel it was something I needed to change, period," Cooper said.

"From a public art standpoint, you can't rush out and change your work simply because someone has a comment about it."

In fact, the request to do so — which came from Vanderbilt University's NAACP chapter — was "quite surprising, because everything (with the original painting) was approved, basically," Cooper said.

"I had nothing but positive comments — from the public, especially. … 'Excellent.' 'Great job.' 'Fabulous.'

"Then to say that what I did was basically racist, it absolutely floored me."

Cooper has worked on the painting of Vanderbilt coaches, which is displayed on the side of a building at the corner of 28th and West End avenues, since 1991. He has been a Nashville muralist for decades.

He is the man who created the clouded leopard and hyacinth macaw perched on columns along Nolensville Road near the zoo. He composed the construction workers placing puzzle pieces on the building at Church Street's Pocket Park.

And right now he is painting cliff-scaling figures on the side of a new Climb Nashville building on Charlotte Avenue.

As a veteran of public art creation, Cooper knows that the open-air setting makes every passerby a potential critic.

And plenty of art stirs public debate.

"There's lot of abstract stuff that people go nuts over, that they hate, but that doesn't mean the artist should rush out and change it," Cooper said.

For example, Cooper said, there's the statue on Interstate 65 of hard-charging Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, and the red roller-coaster-like creation on the east bank of the Cumberland River known as "Ghost Ballet."

And then there's "Musica" — the bronze statue that features nine naked dancing figures in the grassy knoll at the Music Row Roundabout — which, Cooper said, people call "hillbilly porn."

"But that doesn't mean (sculptor) Alan (LeQuire) is going to rush out there and put bras and shorts on it to make people happy.

"That's public art."

Casey Summar, executive director of the Arts & Business Council, said she can see both sides of the discussion.

No piece of public art is going to make everybody happy, she said, and "an artist has to know their integrity and know what pieces are critical to their body of work and what changes will alter the integrity of the work."

The Vanderbilt coaches mural is a little different, she said, "because it is representative of a living, breathing person and something that is commissioned."

"It does change the understanding," she said. "It's not so much an artistic statement as it is portraying a real person in the community."

It falls to the artist's judgment of what he or she needs to do, Summar said.

In this case, Cooper decided — after conversations with the clients who paid for the work — to make a few changes to the mural.

"I am not a controversial artist," he said. "I am not out there on the edge. I am not out there to make a statement. The stuff I do is fun. I want people to smile and have a good time and enjoy what I do."

For the updated work, Cooper took the same photo he had been given when he did the original painting and added a few highlights. He worked on some reflection, facial features and details.

He was happy with it when he left the first time, and this time: "There were some things I felt I could have changed to make him even better, and I did.

"Of all the portraits on the wall, I think he turned out the best. I am really proud of it."

Reach Jessica Bliss at 615-259-8253 or on Twitter @jlbliss.