Arlington has a vibrant public art program, and in the past 13FOREST Gallery's series Outside|In highlighted some of the artists whose paintings and sculptures enliven the community. (If you are curious about the series, you can read more here: 2017, 2018, 2019.) This year we are reviving Outside|In with an artist talk by Alex Cook, who last November completed a new mural in Arlington Heights as a part of his YOU ARE LOVED Project.
Cook's mural was commissioned by the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture. Cecily Miller, the town's public art curator, arranged for Cook to create the mural, in addition to organizing 50 community volunteers to help complete it. Please join us on Saturday, March 2 from 4-6 pm for a conversation with Cook about his dual practice as a fine artist and public artist. A selection of his fine art will be on view at the gallery during the event.
Alex Cook
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 US. 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.
Alex Cook, Tall Trees with Diamonds, acrylic on canvas, 36” x 24”, sold
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. In 2021 Cook’s experience of this project prompted him to author the book You Are Loved, Spiritual and Creative Adventures, A Memoir, which details his lifelong effort to bring beauty and love into the world.
Alex Cook, Four Birds, acrylic on canvas, 20” x 16”, sold
Alex Cook, View Towards Melbourne from the Dandanong Forest, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20”, $700, available at 13FOREST
Alex Cook’s most recent YOU ARE LOVED mural, located in Arlington Heights on the west wall of Szechuan’s Dumpling at 1360 Massachusetts Avenue
It is important to Cook that his project’s three-word message be expressed in the broadest number of locations, and across the lines of geography, race, gender and socioeconomic status so it reflects the universal need of humans to be loved. His most recent mural is in Arlington Heights, on the west wall of Szechuan’s Dumpling at 1360 Massachusetts Avenue.
Cook's murals often give students, church congregants and residents the sole opportunity in their lives to create a permanent work of art. Anyone can join in regardless of skill or experience. Cook states that the result is always beautiful and that it instills a sense of pride and ownership among participants. Communities have many times used YOU ARE LOVED murals as their response to social afflictions such as gun violence and the rise of suicide among teenagers. In this context, Cook believes, the project's truthful statement to viewers as individuals operates on the far more complex level of the community collective.