Bio

Jessica Cook contributes to a landscape of curiosity and inquisitiveness through her art. Sparking interest through aesthetics. Plying images for pertinent messages. For inspiration she draws on site-specific natural-world motifs and cultural references with living stories to tell - what are the implicit narratives beneath our feet, above our heads, and within an arm's reach? What do we find when we look a little deeper into both the beauty, and the muck?

Jess is a 10-year East Bay community member, Vermonter at heart, Californian by desire. Her artistic style is rooted in printing techniques, interpreted through the lens of social justice art traditions by leveraging bold hand-cut stencil and water-based spray as her medium.

Red Tide

With this piece for Emeryville, Jess references the hyperlocal ecosystem in flux - and the pull between history and now. She interrogates the wildly contrasting versions of our future that residents hold, as they navigate the tensions between nature, humans, and capital. This piece speaks to leveraging the ocean’s knowledge, and the potential for more congruent and consequent living. As a mother, Jess invokes this question -- for whom are we designing the future?