The Sower, by Chris Cook

Even when Chris Cook’s art begins as a copy of a well-known work, his ultimate purpose, he says, is “to make another observation.” The Sower was featured in his solo show, Every Time I Feel the Spirit, at the Morgan County African American Museum in Madison, Georgia. The parable of the sower has inspired famous works by artists such as Jean-François Millet and Vincent van Gogh, but Cook approaches the image with his own sense of style and color. A self-taught southern artist and commercial web designer, Cook plows through the hardened clods of old ideas to prepare the ground for new insights.