‘You Are Loved’ : An artist’s message to the world
A mural by Alex Cook on Cherry Street in Burlington, Vt. (Photo Provided)
For Alex Cook, art is all about sharing love and healing with the world. And in recent years, he’s been doing that through a direct message meant to uplift and inspire: “You Are Loved.”
Cook has created “You Are Loved” murals at locations in Vermont — including several recent ones in Chittenden County — and throughout the U.S. and internationally. The idea is to touch the heart, whether it simply puts a smile on someone’s face, or provides a warm embrace for a person during a tough time. In the latter example, Cook explained, this healing message can be a “very intimate interrupter”, and you never know who it will help.
The best example Cook remembered was from a man who emailed him five years ago. He wrote that he had seen one of his murals for the first time.
“It was the day he decided to end his life, and he’d gone for a walk,” Cook said. “He related that he felt (the mural) was speaking directly to him, and he intimated to me that it was what helped make him decide not to do that.”
Cook, who is based in Boston, has created over 180 murals in the U.S. and abroad — that includes over 70 “You Are Loved” murals. Since beginning the “You Are Loved” Mural Project in 2014, Cook has brought this message of love and inclusivity, with its 14-foot letters, to various settings, including schools, homeless shelters, prisons and libraries.
Alex Cook has created over 180 murals in the U.S. and abroad, and just penned a memoir inspired by his "You Are Loved" project. (Photo Provided)
Cook shared that earlier in his career as an artist, his murals included more subtle images.
“I really had a feeling that this is a way to put my best ideas, which for me were spiritual ideas, into public thought,” he said. “For years it was just pictures, using pictures as a way of communicating wonder, or spirituality, or love.”
But later Cook decided to simply just say it, and directly include this message of love that’s so important for well-being.
“That was a real breakthrough for me. … I just had this insight, that we could just skip all the subtleties and go straight to the very central, and I feel, foundational, message to human health,” Cook said.
The beauty of this message is that the mural makes it unavoidable, and it can help anybody, especially in the darkest of times. With that hope in mind, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Burlington, Vermont, commissioned Cook to do a “You Are Loved” mural in the city in 2017.
“That was specific to their work with human trafficking and human trafficking victims,” he said. “They wanted to reach out to women being trafficked; we put (the office’s) contact information in that mural.”
Cook has worked in many different settings when trying to reach the public through his art. Earlier this fall, he came back to Vermont to collaborate with two schools in the Essex community in northern Vermont: Essex Middle School, and the Albert D. Lawton School (ADL). He worked with about 50 kids from both schools during a visit in September, incorporated ideas from the students, and then completed the two murals — one for each school.
A mural by Alex Cook, finished in collaboration with students, at the Albert D. Lawton School in Essex Junction, Vt. (Photo Provided)
This week, these pieces are going up on exterior walls at the schools, highly visible to traffic going in and out. The ADL mural says “You Are Beautiful”, and the middle school mural states, “You Are Needed.”
Michelle Badji, the art teacher at ADL, said this was a particularly meaningful project at this time.
“You never know what’s going to hit people in the moment when they need it the most, and kids got that coming out of COVID,” she said.
The project also gave kids a chance to interact with students from a different school who they might not get to see as much. Many kids couldn’t wait to return to work on the mural the next day during Cook’s visit in September, Badji said.
“We’re really happy with the end result,” she said.
Cook has had a number of school projects in recent years, and he enjoyed being in Essex this fall.
“The kids were full of ideas, full of enthusiasm,” he said.
A mural by Alex Cook at the Essex Middle School in Essex Junction, Vt. It was completed in collaboration with local students this fall. (Photo Provided)
And the enthusiasm for his work is growing. In California this fall, Cook completed his first trilingual mural — “You Are Loved” in English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Not long after that, Cook was interviewed on Fox’s southern California morning show, “Good Day LA,” reaching by far his biggest audience to date.
He also came out with his first book in 2021, “You Are Loved: Spiritual & Creative Adventures. A Memoir”. The book tells the story behind the artwork, by sharing the story behind the artist, including the tough times of overcoming fear and lack of confidence.
“I wanted to disabuse people of this notion that somebody who makes beautiful art was just born making beautiful art,” Cook said. He explained, “I wanted to write a book that would be really transparent about the creative and spiritual journey that I have been on to bring about the public good works that people see.”
To check out more “You Are Loved” murals, visit this page, and click here to see more artwork by Alex Cook. Any school or community organization wishing to reach out to Cook, can contact him on his website here.
— Gareth Henderson
This is Alex Cook's first mural with three languages in it. Here, "You Are Loved" is expressed in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. (Photo Provided)
