Rebecca Cook
Author, Illustrator | Friday Harbor, WA |
Website
Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, I was taught to cope with extremes and to persevere. Since childhood, I’ve wanted to be a professional artist and have kept that goal in sight throughout my career starting as a receptionist for an ad agency. Within several years, I moved to media buyer, then media director.
As an entreprene.... more
Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, I was taught to cope with extremes and to persevere. Since childhood, I’ve wanted to be a professional artist and have kept that goal in sight throughout my career starting as a receptionist for an ad agency. Within several years, I moved to media buyer, then media director.
As an entrepreneur on the Kenai Peninsula in the 1980s, I established the first frame shop and art gallery on the peninsula. Then came Hawaii where my husband and I created one of the first digital print shops. Later at John Muir Publications in Santa Fe, NM, I learned the intricacies of book design and went on to become art director for NAPRA Review, a New Age trade publication in the San Juan Islands, WA.
At age 53, while employed full time, I earned a degree in Illustration at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA. There, I honed my drawing and painting skills and discovered the wonders of children’s book illustration. The completion of my degree was a pivotal point and the beginning of many pencil sketches and hundreds of brush strokes, culminating in my debut children’s picture book: Calvin Splinter & His Splendid Splinter Ideas, a ten-year project.