Polly Cook

Love has inspired poets, musicians, and artists throughout history.  It’s the emotion that connects us with the sublime.  Texas based artist, Polly Cook is also inspired by the theme of love, and it is at the heart of all her artwork, along with the accompanying emotions of longing, hope, loneliness, desire, joy and regret.  Her work is not to be taken as literal stories but as emotional narratives, visual poetry.  They are meant to be experienced as well as seen.

Her love of Romantic Poets such as Byron and Keats and the Pre-Raphaelite artists took her to England when she was sixteen.  There she was also introduced to the German Realists of the 20s, whom also influenced her work.  She studied art in England, California, and in Portland, Maine, and received a BFA in ceramics and sculpture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

For ten years she sold her one-of-a-kind ceramic art all over the country, represented by craft galleries and having one person exhibitions.  A few years ago she began oil painting and has been very successful in this medium.  Since then she has been in many national group shows, as well as one person shows in Nashville, Atlanta, Portland (MN), Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Winston-Salem and in Soho, New York.  She has won Best of Show in the Columbus Arts Festival and the Tennessee Crafts Fair.  She has been featured in the American Craft Museum and on CNN.  Her murals can be seen in Vanderbilt University and in prominent homes in California, Nashville and Chicago.  Her work has also appeared on two CD covers, one being the MCA Olympic CD.

"Off Duty Angel" - ceramic vase

$300

Detail of "Party Scene", ceramic vase

$600

"Cherub" - ceramic wall hanging with heart tiles

"Head Vase with Blue Hat " - ceramic vase

$140

"True Love" - small angel ceramic vase

$115

Bridal trays and candy dishes

$25-$65