When I first saw Julian Cooper's paintings of the Carrara quarries I felt, among many new emotions, a sense of shame. I had lived for seven months in the shadow of the Alpi Apuane, the marble mountains that loom above the stonecutting town of Carrara at Tuscany's northwest corner, whose stone has supplied the world's sculptors and builders since the late days of the Roman Republic. I'd trod the quaries, studied them and photographed them, occaisonally even sketched them. But when I viewed Julian's work I felt as though I'd never really seen them before. (Eric Scigliano)