Terry Cook Will Inspire You To Get Creative With His Out-Of-The-Box Projects

If there’s a silver lining to COVID-19, it’s the return of hobbies. Being homebound means reintroducing ourselves to pastimes like baking and knitting—and Terry Cook has been doing just that.

A self-proclaimed tinkerer and doodler, his hands are often busy with something: anything from the more traditional watercolor, acrylics, and inks, to the more experimental robotics and high voltage items. And then there’s also his experimentation with balloons.

Using balloons as sculptural material, he recreates humans and birds. “I am obsessed with birds (Mostly British and European) and have been since I was a child,” writes Cook on his website. His balloon heads came later, taking inspiration from the material itself.

“I thought it would be cool to use the creases that form naturally on the balloon surface as the latex begins to degrade and lose its form,” he writes. “I made heads and then photographed them over a period of weeks as they began to deflate. Some went quicker than others.”

Other creative endeavors are more traditional, and include illustration and paintings. “I paint whatever I like,” writes Cook on his website, “but usually things relating to my hobbies and interests. I have also painted things relating to pop culture icons even though I have little interest in them, purely for the joy of painting!”

His other interests include animals, insects, physics and biology, robotics, automatons, and magic tricks. His Instagram page is worth following for its experimental quality alone. He might just inspire you to get your hands dirty…