Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcy Cook.
Marcy, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I have my BFA in painting + graphic design from Baylor University – After graduating, I wasn’t ready to become a full-time artist so I started searching for other creative careers. That search led to a position at a small floral design start up called Stems of Dallas – I joined on as an intern in May after graduation and a little over 6 months later bought into ownership. For the next (almost) 7 years I worked as the creative director and co-owner – My work as a floral designer informed (and still informs) the work I do as a painter and the study I devote to floral. At the close of 2016 my business partner and I made the decision to close our floral studio so we could move forward in new directions – this opened up the doors for me to begin painting full-time.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am an abstract expressionist painter with a focus in floral abstraction- I work with mixed medias but primarily acrylic, charcoals and pastel. How? – to be an expressionist requires a certain level of surrendered control. So, my work is really approached with no plan – it’s more of a discussion or conversation with the piece as it moves forward – a push and pull until I feel like it’s made it to a place where nothing else can be said.
Why? – I think there is, of course, great purpose in art and for each person it looks very different – for me, I hold a really deeply rooted belief in the power of beauty to heal, a belief that art can and will find the eyes of someone who needs it, that colors can connect and move and breathe new life into a person. Reading a poem is a lot like looking at a painting – the reader/viewer either gets it, or they don’t. But man, when a poem connects, it cuts through so much, right to the core – and there is healing there. Absolutely. So I’d say that’s why I do my work. There are also the elements of the need for self-expression, a feeling that I have something to say worth sharing, etc.
Inspiration comes from everywhere but primarily floral. The texture and light and color that can be pulled from floral + landscape – Remembered landscapes, experience, conversation, the complexity of human relationship and how multifaceted and layered it is to simply live. Beautiful music, and the written word – and pulling all of those things together, my inspiration is really just a response to my relationship with God, almost a reply to the way I see and sense and interpret Him in the world. I’d want others to see HOPE in my work the light and love of God and ultimately healing for those in need of that.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
Great question: I think one thing I feel pretty viscerally right now is just a lack of understanding in our culture of the true, hard work that creating art really is. It is a job and it’s not easy and I think sometimes people misunderstand that – The work of an artist is just as necessary for our communities and cultures as an accountant or nurse or educator. All contribute in such multifaceted ways and I hope and look forward to the day that artists are seen as valuable and necessary on that same level.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My Instagram (@marcycook) is the best place to watch my work as it’s evolving and get a glimpse into the day to day. My website (www.marcycookart.com) is the best place to view available pieces. Being a member of my newsletter is really the best way to get an inner look at what goes into the pieces I’m working on and how they come together.
Support – gosh just knowing people enjoy my work is such an encouragement. Of course, purchasing artwork is what keeps me going and the way I make a living, but I love to just hear from others that they’re inspired by the work I’m doing and especially I love when people tell me that I’ve inspired them to learn how to paint or to start creating in some way. That makes me the happiest!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.marcycookart.com
- Email: marcy@marcycookart.com
- Instagram: @marcycook
Image Credit:
Jess Barfield Photography
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