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Jessica Cook: Capturing the fabric of our Valley

By Vicki Hillhouse

There was a period when fabric artist Jessica Cook was so captivated by the process of hand-dying textiles that she almost forgot to make anything out of them.

“I just kept dying more and more fabric, until finally I said to myself, ‘I need to do something with all of these beautiful colors that I’ve made,’” she says.

So, she began to cut, piece and stitch the cotton shapes together into abstract representations of the beauty around her. The process drew from her experience making quilts.

A nonprofit executive and fundraising professional, she creates her own colors and textures in the fabric creations that depict the landscapes around her, including the changing seasons of Walla Walla’s vistas. It is a way to translate how she sees the world, she says.

“I think that being an artist means you are taking something of yourself, and you are giving it visual representation.”

Watch a video to learn more about Jessica Cook by clicking here!