Sandra Cook, Artist of the Week

The dominant ingredient in all of Sandra Cook’s creative endeavors is bright, playful color. Her expressive and whimsical use of color is evident in her ceramics, hand dyed and spun fiber, painted papers and handmade books, and watercolor and pen paintings.

Sandra came to watercolor painting by way of her ceramics. While producing her earthenware pottery, she worked with a Majolica glaze (white glaze) on which she hand-painted whimsical flowers and designs with colored stains. As people commented on her colorful work, she responded: “I am a frustrated painter.” It was an easy transition from the clay studio to her painting studio.

In pre-pandemic life Sandra taught art to homeschoolers, held Raku firing events, and taught a variety of art classes at the Art Café and her own studio. As Covid-19 became a pandemic, a new norm was created, a daily art practice. The daily practice of painting lifted her up. She thought this might lift others. On May 1, 2020, Sandra started posting paintings to her Facebook page. She committed to 100 hundred days, a painting a day. She completed and posted over 365 paintings, in 365 days.

Sandra lives in the agricultural community of Palmer, Alaska with her two cats, her garden of flowers, magnificent scenic views, and a life filled with imagination and color.

Sandra Cook exhibited her work as an Artist of the Week on July 2, 2021.