Artist Statement:
My current work explores landscape as a framework for process and abstraction. Rather than seeking the picturesque or romanticized landscape, I am drawn to places where nature feels tangled, overgrown, and resistant to clarity. Masses of branches, limbs, and shrubs create dense networks of lines and gestures, obscuring the vista and interrupting the possibility of a clear or peaceful view.
Within these environments, I look for evidence of drawing in nature—rhythms, marks, and structures that suggest new possibilities for abstraction. These observations become a starting point for improvisation, where forms disintegrate, shift, and are reconstructed through the process of painting. This transformation echoes the nature of memory, where places and experiences become fragmented, altered, and reassembled over time. I'm drawn to the complexity and disorder of these environments, where the promise of a peaceful landscape remains elusive.
Artist Bio:
Kyle Cook lives and works in Seattle, WA. He currently teaches visual art at Lakeside School. He is married to artist Melissa Dold. Kyle was born in Albuquerque, NM, and he received an MFA in Painting from Boston University.