Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Cook. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Emily, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I work with a medium that requires me to break my materials to use them to their full potential. It quickly teaches you not to get too attached to an expected outcome. I think being an artist in inherently challenging. I think it’s especially challenging when your medium sometimes does unexpected things. But I’ve learned over the years that sometimes what looks to be at first glance abject failure can be re-worked and re-imagined to some of my favorite pieces. It’s a good reminder to always keep going.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My artistic work is in glass-jewelry, home decor, and art. I try to create pieces that people connect to in a myriad of different ways. I’ve always loved the saturation of color that comes with glass, and often try to use unexpected color pairings for unique pieces. A number of years ago I discovered how to incorporate sand when I fused my glass, so my pieces are often a special memento of a meaningful place. For years I’ve incorporated sand from our local South Carolina beaches, but I’ve since expanded to create custom work with sand from a variety of different places near and far. I’ve also recently made work with sand and soil from hikes and waterfalls in western North Carolina (a place special to our family)
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
One quality that helped me early on was flexibility, My path to my art was not a linear one-I ended up transferring colleges, taking a year off, and trying something new. At the time, some of these changes felt like failure, but without the willingness to be flexible and try something new, I may have never found the path to create art in glass.
I also think it’s beneficial to have thick skin. Between class art critiques, to rejection from stores and galleries, to customers commenting on your work, you constantly have to remind yourself that your work won’t appeal to everyone, But what you can find is your right customer base, and some amazing local businesses who will love and support your work.
Another quality in your journey can be gratitude. I’ve found it’s good to remind myself that, even when it’s a tough day, or a tedious task, or a difficult new skill to learn, I still get to spend my day working with a material that I love, and creating art.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I absolutely love creating work in glass-big or small. I create a good bit of jewelry which, to me, is like wearable, affordable pieces of art. But I have been commissioned to create a number of larger, custom pieces that I have always loved creating. Anything from a custom bar backsplash to panels for a sliding barn door, to custom artwork-these pieces always spark new ideas and new ways to utilize glass. I’d love to work with architects and designers on more large-scale pieces in both commercial in residential settings. Any of these professionals can contact me via my website to start the design process for some very unique pieces.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elucook.com
- Instagram: @elucookdesigns
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elucookdesigns
Image Credits
Dreampop Media
