About Elizabeth Ming Cooper

A native Coloradan, Elizabeth “Beth” Cooper, was born in Durango, but raised in Oklahoma City. Her main roles in life have been as a wife, mom, “Bebe”, world traveler, former congressional staffer, interior designer and artist. She and her husband currently live in Santa Fe, NM with their three dogs and three horses.

She graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a major in History and a minor in Fine Art. While her two children were grade school and junior high age, Beth was the owner of MURA, a faux finish business, serving private homes and local businesses in the Denver area.

Once the Cooper home was an empty nest, she went back to school to study interior design at Arapahoe Community College and worked in the profession for a few years, but her heart was always in making her own art.

Beth continued her art studies attending conventions, classes and workshops around the country. She taught art classes for a home-school group. For Christmas one year her students gave her a gift certificate to a local art store. Not knowing what to specifically purchase she found a box of Rembrandt pastels for the exact amount of the gift. She purchased it and quickly found a pastel workshop near her home. The moment she put down her first stroke of the saturated pure color she was hooked and
so began her new passion.