Artist Rita Cook creates art through the means of lyrical abstraction constructing the essence of the soul through mirrors and canvas topped with a cacophony of acrylic paint colors. Mirror is the way to look into the soul be it a colorful expression of light or the haunting places that call for expression during the dark night of the soul.

The reflection of the viewer looking into the painting allows the art to touch an essence of the unconscious. The art reflects a truth – and we learn even the darker pieces of truth can be full of light.

This truth is what fuels Rita’s art.

The contrasts of a soul navigating through an unused sense, using mirror, repurposed frames and canvas as backdrop to a culmination of energy swirling to create life that is the “now” for the artist and the audience.

Rita’s inspiration; the meaning of a dark soul fused with the vibrancy of light and the wind blowing through one’s hair in the spirit of duality.

Rita Cook is a Dallas-based artist who creates art by using acrylic paint on mirror and glass, and to a lesser degree on canvas and paper.

Her style offers a hint of Lyrical Abstraction meets Orphism using colors and expressions that echo infinite forms and reflections. It is a swirling combination of what one of her strong influence’s Wassily Kandinsky (a pioneer of abstract modern art) offers as he said, “the artist training not only her eye, but her soul.”

Considered sustainable in her art, Rita’s mirrors and canvas are recycled using discovered and repurposed material, thus giving each piece a new life through her creations.

“Of all the media I have used to paint and create this year the mirror has finally been the media with acrylic that is where my creation belongs right now,” Rita adds.  “The mirrors have become the easiest way to create my magical artworks because mirrors do not lie. Each mirror has a history with the frame that has protected it for possibly years. When the owner of my mirror art piece looks at the images on the mirror - the mirror reflects back exactly what the owner is meant to see, but the soul and the ego can be friends and the mirror will reflect what will be will be, but each person can change that destiny. The mirror changes with the story of the owner.”

Rita’s recent show “Self Portrait” in Dallas, Texas at E Gallery in the Dallas Design District featured 40 of her mirror and glass pieces with a six-month exhibition that closed in February. 

Her work is also on loan at the City of Glenn Heights, Texas; and her Wolves & Ravens Art Gallery pop-up is featured in two shops in the Dallas area. 

Rita is also well-known in Texas and around the globe as a travel/auto/lifestyle writer; political journalist; author of 10 published books and a former press secretary for a Texas State Representative. She has visited 108 countries, all 50 states and previously lived in Los Angeles, California; Long Island, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Paris, France and she spent six months traveling in India as the means to find the energy of the goddess Kali.