Essays by Jessie Cook

"Essays" Art Exhibition by Jessie Cook

3rd FLOOR
Jacksonville Main Library
303 N Laura St. Jacksonville, Florida 32202

EXHIBITION: July 24,2026 - August 24, 2026

ARTIST BIO / STATEMENT
My first solo show was also in a library. A solo show in the Valley Cottage Library in Valley Cottage, New York, introduced me to the experience of sharing my art with the public. (Thank you, Amelia Kalin!)

What follows is the artist statement that I composed for that show, also titled Essays, almost 40 years ago.

No doubt, like many before me, I went off to college with the instruction to study something more sensible than art. And since I was convinced that a “real” artist had to have a message, well, I caved in and majored in French literature. Which prepared me to . . . go into book publishing as an editor of popular fiction.

After my first child, I returned to painting, which I have found to be an uphill but wonderful journey. I’ve been lucky enough to take courses and workshops in both watercolor and oil painting at Rockland Center for the Arts, Woodstock School of Art and the Ridgewood Art Institute. I’ve never had a “bad” art teacher. But among those whose generosity I found particularly noteworthy in my early efforts are Sherry Camhy, Ric del Rossi, Mary Anna Goetz, Marge Kubach, and John Phillip Osborn.

Portraiture was a short-lived interest. I switched to still life, both out of a lack of affinity for portraiture and as a practical matter. Inanimate objects have a flexible schedule. Fruit might rot, cups might break or accumulate dust, but they’re available when you are and not inconvenienced by breaks for laundry, carpooling or whatever helps pay the mortgage. As evidence of too much time spent with inanimate objects (or perhaps as evidence of my gratitude for their quiet, uncomplaining nature), I have felt that objects observed over time seem to develop a pulse almost, as if, when you look away and then back, they just might have moved ever so infinitesimally – in friendly fashion, of course. I have a dog who shares these same attributes.

My still lifes often include objects that I associate with particular people or with events that have meaning for me. But just as often they’re of what’s available, pleasing, amenable to interesting lighting. I have no particular message to convey. I see images in my mind as I’m falling asleep. I see images when I read a book. So painting seems to me a natural thing to attempt, a means of visually walking around objects or a scene. Sort of like writing an essay – you only find out what you have to say once you’ve examined the thought you started out with . . . and you frequently end up somewhere quite unexpected. I’ve been lucky enough to pursue painting in between other necessary pursuits. It is sometimes maddening, sometimes a focus that, in retrospect, helped me to get by, and always something I want to go back to.

PIECES CAN BE PURCHASED ONLINE BELOW. ONE OF OUR CURATORS WILL MEET YOU AT YOUR CONVIENENCE TO PICKUP YOUR PURCHASED ARTWORK AS SOON AS YOU WOULD LIKE.
PLEASE CONTACT [email protected] TO COORDINATE PICKUP OR ASK QUESTIONS.