Monica Cook

            Monica Cook was born in 1974 in Dalton, Georgia. She attended the Savannah College of Art and Design for painting and also went to several other schools. Currently she resides in New York City making a living off of her artwork and creating murals. Cook’s work has been shown in galleries all over the world.

            Her most recent work shows oil paintings of women (Cook acts as her own model) covered and tangled in food, such as fish and fruit, creating a sense of repulsion and eroticism. She chooses food that is slimey and food that reminds her of human flesh. The paintings show off a primal sense of compulsion in humanity. The glazed skin from food and sweat and saliva are physical expressions of emotion. The expressions on the women’s faces range from emptiness to an elated smile. These impulses and emotions are what Cook wants to bring out in her artwork because it’s something that people try so hard to cover up. I find her work inspiring because it lingers in between aspects of beauty and something grotesque.