TAOS ART MUSEUM’S MEET THE ARTIST EVENT TO FEATURE WORK BY FRANCESCA MORALES COOK & JOEL “EMEKA” DRAGONFLY COOK
Francesca Morales Cook was born into an artistic family and was encouraged to embrace her creativity. In her youth, she found jewelry making to be meditative. In 2003, Franchesca left her twenty-five year career and began to teach others how to create wearable art, as well as to prolifically handcraft her own designs. With regard to her process, the synchronicity of gems and melting metal hypnotized Francesca. She describes her work as “funky, as well as timeless” and explains that they “exude boldness and gentility”. Joel “Emeka” Dragonfly Cook states that his “style is not style.” He explains that he will use any style necessary in his oil paintings (Abstract, Impressionism, Realism) to make “tangible that intangible image that I have in my mind.” He calls himself an “energist” painter. Emeka explains “it is the sense of that primal pulse, beat, vibration, movement, rhythm that in the beginning was the pulse and rhythm of the Creatress/Creator which harmoniously manifested itself into all matter, humanity, and life that I am trying to convey.”