Mary Cook

When applying for a VSC residency for painters, her requests were simple: a desk, and enough room to begin to work with a new format.

In fact, Mary applied to VSC because of the “huge amount of private studio space.”  She brought long stretches of paper with her from Brooklyn in anticipation of taking greatest advantage of her Vermont studio’s light and wall space.  Now, that space contains a continuum of graphite marks, undulating in rhythmic patterns like the sea. 

“When I walked into the Chapel of Venice, I had the sensation of being under water,” said Mary. “The rhythm of the ocean is an organic thing… calm and chaotic all at the same time.  It always forms to what’s around it.  I articulate that movement with my drawing.” 

Actors in Fastbinder’s film, “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” are caught mid-sentence in color photographs that litter her studio floor.  “I’m attracted to theatricality,” she said, so the images and gestures on the floor inform the marks she makes on the wall. “My work is about things you see in between action and non-action.”

In film, action has a beginning and end; in visual arts, participants can enter and stay as long as they like.  Both mediums, she claims, are making time permanent in different ways.

Current influences include Pratt Institute instructors Sheila Pepe and Joe Fyfe, and Carravaggio and Bernini are among her favorite artists. Cook is one of three NY artists funded at the Vermont Studio Center this year by the Robert Lehman Foundation. 

photo courtesy of Howard Romero