Andrew Cook

Self Love (or something like that I guess)
15 October, 2019

For a long time, societal pressure kept me in a place of dishonesty with myself about who I am to my core. I have recently come to a place where I am no longer doing that. In celebration of this fact, I am out to create work that breaks all of mainstream society’s rules. Rules of language, of gender, of sexuality, of imagery and design, I am here to challenge the things that my brain has for so long told me are “right” or “proper” about being a human being. This is not meant to be an act of Vanity or Conceit but rather An exploration of self love and what that means through the embracing and celebration of traits that general society tends to attempt to stomp out or tell us is "wrong".

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Breaking the rules (yes all the rules)
August 29, 2019

My journey through Montserrat has helped transform me as a person in many ways. I believe the most significant change I have gone through is that I have become far more in tune with and honest about my emotions. Through this journey of self-discovery, I have found that who I am cannot be contained within any of the standards that exist within society. I often disagree with the stereotypes that exist around what it is to belong to identities that resonate with me. I have also found that I often attempt to force myself to fit into those societal standards.

For a long time, this societal pressure and collection of imagery and language related to societal stereotypes kept me in a place of dishonesty with myself about who I am to my core. I have recently come to a place where I am no longer doing that. In celebration of this fact, I am out to create work that breaks all of mainstream society’s rules. Rules of language, of gender, of sexuality, of imagery and design, I am here to challenge the things that my brain has for so long told me is “right” or “proper” about being a human being.

I want to show the harmony that exists within the act of breaking the rules in order to be ones true self by mixing imagery and language that society typically tells us doesn’t belong together. I hope that through this self-expression, and a sort of visual celebration of breaking the rules I can create a visually harmonious relationship between a typically inharmonious representation that will help ignite the feeling of personal wholeness I find in the acceptance of who I am and the complexity of the relationship I have between self and society.

My research of this topic will begin with a study of societal norms and their origins. This will be followed on studies of other groups of people who have openly expressed the damage these societal norms has caused them, as well as researching groups who feel as though those same norms have been positive in their lives.

I intend to gather information on how to break the rules. And finally allow myself to do so.

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Ebb and Flow
May 2019

My journey through Montserrat has helped transform me as a person in many ways. I believe the most significant change I have gone through is that I have become far more in tune with and honest about my emotions. Through this journey of self-discovery, I have found that the root of my internal struggle came from growing up in various masculine cultures. Skate Culture. Metal Culture. My home life living with my father and two brothers.

For a long time, these masculine cultures influenced my habit of bottling my emotions and changing myself for others.

I want to show the harmony that exists within being both masculine and feminine by mixing imagery that typically belongs to only one or the other. I hope that through this self-expression I can create a visually harmonious relationship between a typically inharmonious representation that will help ignite the feeling of personal wholeness I find in the joining of two parts of who I am — the masculine and the feminine.

My research of this topic will begin with anecdotal responses; my own experiences as well as the experiences of others. Once I create a base knowledge through recorded anecdotal information I will then refer to articles and documentaries, mixed with a gathering of any and all advertising and informational pieces geared toward the specific cultures I have mentioned above. I also want to explore and research the general world of advertising to tie in the way we as a society market heavily to the gender binary, and how this contributes to the extremes that exist between what imagery is considered masculine or feminine.

I intend to gather this information from all perspectives of gender identity, not just that of my own, being that of a cisgender straight male. I believe this diversity in perspective will help me understand and better express [for whom, what purpose] how these cultures effect [affect] all walks of the gender spectrum, thus helping me create the harmony in my work as a series that I hope to find within each individual piece on its own.