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POMEROY–A couple of years ago, local artist Mary Cook discovered "The Sketchbook Project" online which is "an independent company that organizes collaborative art projects and tours" and exhibits the efforts of artists–famous or unknown–from around the world via the Brooklyn Art Library. Begun in 2006, the nonprofit Sketchbook Project includes more than 55,000 books from over 30,000 "creative people" in its regular library. It also has a mobile library that travels to cities and towns across the country although that is on hold due to the coronavirus. She has contributed three sketchbooks to the project already and is working on a fourth one.

Mary's first three books are titled, "Scenes from a Story (portraits and profiles about her pets and friend's pets), "One More Story: Flight of the Honeybee", and "I Believe, Do You?" featuring a spaceship and aliens. She has not decided for sure on the title for her latest book, but is considering "Creatures in Print." Contributors have to register their name, book title, and a short biography. There is a nominal fee of $35 if the author wants to have their book digitized so it is available online."

Mary, a 1993 graduate of Pomeroy High School, attended Walla Walla Community College before transferring to Eastern Washington University where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003. Her main interest in college was mixed media and she said she "dabbled in a little bit of everything." One of her college projects was to do a bronze sculpture. While most of the other students were making simpler items such as pieces of fruit, Mary chose to make a sculpture of Chief Joseph, which she still has today.

She says he parents inspired her, as "Dad was always crafty and Mom sketched a lot." She also said there was always music in the home and "I listen to a little bit of everything." While she has tried a little bit of everything, her preferred medium now is probably acrylics. Mary uses one side of the garage as her studio and she also has a pottery wheel and kiln.

Mary's entries have won top prize at the county fair several times, and she has shown at Cheney, Moscow, Spokane and Walla Walla as well as teaching some classes in Cheney. Some of her creations have traveled as far as Argentina, Beijing, China, and Ahedabad, India. One of her exhibits, titled "Broken Orders" utilized part of the scorched material used by her brother and several other local U.S. Forest Service firefighters to protect themselves when they were trapped by-and survived-a forest fire. She has refurbished several signs around town, designed a tee-shirt for the Pomeroy Ranger District Trail Crew and created a dress made by sewing pull-tabs of soda pop cans to paper. The dress was later donated to the Ronald McDonald House, which collects the pull-tabs.

Mary believes many people are hesitant to try painting or other artistic endeavors since they are afraid of making a mistake. "Don't worry. If you think it's a mistake, it's not a mistake. There's no such thing as a mistake."