Alex Cook has been a professional studio artist for over 30 years. During that time he has produced hundreds of paintings, drawings and other artwork through a diversity of media that includes acrylic, oil, watercolor, collage, sculpture and more. He sells his work throughout the United States. As a public artist, since 1997 he has created over 240 murals in 25 US states and in Kenya, Nigeria, Guatemala, Australia and New Zealand. His public work focuses on community and spiritual themes expressed through storytelling and images of nature.

Throughout Cook’s career, he has taught art and creativity to people of all ages and in settings ranging from alternative high schools and court-ordered community-reintegration programs, to afterschool programs and summer camps.  While teaching in the Boston public school system, he founded a painting program for teenagers called Art Builds Community (ABC). From 2004 to 2009, ABC employed young artists in the summer and provided them with the technical skills to paint murals across Boston and the surrounding area. Many of Cook’s contemporary mural projects invite community members to add their own images to larger overall works so everything coheres within a common structure. Painting to Cook is only half of his public art; the other half is his creating environments in which community members find a love of creation and a connection to the world.

In 2014 Cook initiated a solo project titled YOU ARE LOVED, his aim of which was to produce murals that publicly proclaim the simple phrase You are loved. His project has since evolved to include residents of communities across the US who share a desire to influence public discourse on human value and self-worth. Today there are 110 YOU ARE LOVED murals adorning the walls of schools, homeless shelters, prisons and houses of worship in 15 states and two countries. Read more about the YOU ARE LOVED project, and Cook’s mural in Arlington Heights, here.