Vi seniors experience special art class

Rosalind Cook looks to advance self expression

BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Accomplished sculptor Rosalind Cook breathes art and passion into Vi at Highlands Ranch by sharing her love for art through teaching classes that allow others to creatively express themselves.

As Cook and her husband got into their seventies, Cook sold her art studio and home in Tulsa, Oklahoma and moved permanently to Colorado.

With a home in the mountains and her children in Denver, Cook and her husband spend the winter at Vi at Highlands Ranch, a senior living community.

Taking her experience from teaching sculpting classes throughout the country, Cook recently taught an acrylic painting class at Vi.

“I thought, you know what… they have this great art studio at Vi and they’re just a few people that come in and do a little watercolor and I thought, I want to shake things up a bit and do some big sort of impressionistic acrylics,” said Cook.

Hoping to let people loosen up, laugh and have fun, participants were also served wine, ice tea and appetizers.

Cook was so inspired by the class that she plans to do an art class each month at Vi, including a class for the sta .

“People just loved it and laughed and every one of them felt so good about their own work,” said Cook.

“A gentleman in there who has had a stroke and he could only paint with one hand, it was one of the most creative of all the paintings.”

Cook encouraged each person to do what they felt like, which is why the class was based on impressionism, not realism.

“ e rst thing I have them do is have an imaginary trash can, so all the ‘I can’ts’ or ‘I won’t be able to compare mine to someone’ - all that gets put in an imaginary trash can and taken out of the room and then we can start having fun.” said Cook.

Cook’s passion for art, especially sculpting, began after she had her rst child and she started taking classes.

“I describe it as the ‘aha’ of my life,” said Cook. “It was like something I knew was going to be a part of my life.” of a summer in Italy, studying the work of famous sculptors. Faces, emotion and movement were captured in Cook’s 30 year career.

While raising three children, sculpting was just a hobby. As the children got older, Cook took the medium more seriously and began studying sculptors such as Glenna Goodcare, who did the Vietnam Women’s Memorial.

Cook’s art career started when she entered some art shows and soon got accepted into some galleries.

“ en I wanted to move into lifesize work and so I had to go back and ll in some empty holes,” said Cook.

Among many tremendous sculptures, Cook has done com- life-size sculptures for Compassion International in Colorado Springs as well as for the Cleveland Heart Clinic.

“It’s like there was something so intrinsically ful lling,” said Cook. “I always feel like my work is coming through me and not from me.”