Article January 12, 1974 Issue

An Interview: with an artist

with contributions from Barbara Cook

At the age of seventeen, Barbara Cook's paintings were already being shown in several New York galleries. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, her study and research in the fields of painting and sculpture took her to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and Tokyo University of Fine Arts. Three years ago Mrs. Cook began sculpturing jewelry, and her work has been displayed at America House in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Your rings are beautiful—and unusual. Does being a Christian Scientist have anything to do with the quality of your work?

Yes. The word "original" is perhaps the most important in my artist's vocabulary, because Christian Science has taught me to think of myself as an original—an original spiritual idea in Mind, God. There is no other idea like me, and understanding that fact makes it possible for me to do what no one has ever done before.

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