Meet the ambassadors: Eileen Cooper

Another day, another ambassador. As part of our What I See Campaign, we’re joining forces with 18 high-achieving women. They’ll be contributing to our What I See…Features Series, so you can hear a bit about their experiences.

Today is the turn of Eileen Cooper: a painter, printmaker, and the first woman to be Keeper of the Royal Academy of Arts – a role that has been male-dominated since it was introduced in 1768.

She studied at Goldsmiths College, London, and the Royal College of Art, London, and was made a Fellow of the Royal College in 2006. 

The What I See team love that Eileen's empowering work focuses on the female form in all its glory. But it was her use of mirrors in her artwork that got us really excited. Mirrors get a raw deal, poor guys. Far from instruments of vanity, Eileen sees them as “a gateway to the self and self-knowledge”.

So what does Eileen see in the mirror?

“The obvious thing is I see somebody looking out - and I know that my job as an artist is to look and observe, take things in, absorb them and translate them in some way. Art is a means of communication to me. So I think I see somebody who is perhaps taking a bit of a back seat, watching and listening and looking in order to, hopefully, do something. Make something.”

You can hear the rest of what Eileen has to say here.  And don’t forget to check back tomorrow for another ambassador!