Capturing Essence: Greg Cook

Ingenious- clever, original and inventive.

Fresh - full of energy and vigor.  

Bright- intelligent and quick-witted. 

Noteworthy- interesting, significant and usual. 

Extraordinary- remarkable.

Astonishing- impressive and amazing.

All of these words describe one person and his work. His name is Greg Cook, an 18-year-old artist from Conyers, Georgia who is bursting with high energy, an amazing spirit/personality, and a whole lot of talent.

Cook is capturing the spirit of people by creating eye-popping portraits drawn in ink on Strathmore gray toned paper.  

His style only developed 2 years ago. As cook explains, “It was my junior year of AP art in high school and we had to focus on a concentration. Basically we had to follow one central idea over 12 pieces of work. I decided to do self-portraits and my teacher suggested I do it in pen and at first, I was hesitant. Pen is really hard because when you mess up, that’s it, there’s no going back. However, when I started, I realized I was pretty good. 

Cooks’ style can't really be summed up or explained. When you look at it you can't categorize it. The way he draws, from his lines, and organic shapes to the paper he draws on. Everything he does makes it its own little thing.

Another thing about Cook's art is that he captures the people he draws in a unique way. As he explains, "I’m interested in people, especially the side profile. It’s like you're capturing a part of them. Everybody has the same face: eyes, mouth, nose and so on, but with subtle differences. It's like everyone is connected by countless stories. All around us people are living vivid lives that we’ll never know about. That's why I like to draw people without their eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul, drawing them without their eyes is like drawing them without their ego." 

Cook has a beautiful way of taking regular people and making them look God-like. He brings out their individual beauty while also reflecting himself in every portrait. 

Cook's work is unfiltered, expressive, unique, and completely captures the person who created it. I think that's what makes his art, and any artist's work, so great.  They can literally draw anything and still express themselves in their work. You can see this with artist like Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Andy Warhol, Vincent Van Gogh and now Greg Cook. 

He's young and still developing his talent, but trust me this is not the last time you will hear about him.