My wife Sandy and I met artist Joe Hopps many years ago at his studio gallery in Edom, Texas. At that time, most of his works were bird castles, and we loved them. We re-visited Joe's studio year after year, and in 2022 he had transitioned from bird castles to abstract impressionist paintings. We were very impressed by Joe's paintings, but it wasn't until a his gallery closing sale in 2023 that we were able to purchase one. The choice was hard because each of Joe's pieces used different palettes and structures, but they were all very strong compositions.
In 2024, Joe Hopps and I were invited by Aaron Hinds to be founding artists in a new artist collective in Tyler, later named the Tyler Fine Art Gallery. I was delighted that Joe was going to be part of the collective, and I've enjoyed seeing Joe's many new paintings as they have been installed in the gallery since we opened.
As a fractal artist, one of my goals has been to create mathematical works in a style similar to Joe's impressionist abstracts. At first this seemed impossible. After a year of trial and error with no success, I finally came close with Hopps Inspired One in September, 2026. Joe Hopps approved the image, as shown to him on my iPhone, during the gallery's re-opening event on October 3, 2026. By mid-October I had produced three mathematical compositions that I consider Hopps-inspired. The image illustrating this post is Hopps-Inspired Two. You can view the others by visiting my fractal art gallery.
Joe Hopps has moved on to adding heavy textural elements to his latest artworks, and that's impossible for me to do with my favored medium, dye-sub on aluminum. But I plan to continue developing mathematical artworks inspired by the impressionist abstract style of Joe Hopps.
Artists of the Tyler Fine Art Gallery inspire one another. We don't copy, but we are free to try new things that the other artists have awakened us to. We raise each other's bars like Joe Hopps has raised my bar.