A mural commemorating local artist Dan Cook, who passed away in March, has been placed on the east side of the Casselman & Henderson PC building, facing Lake Superior. (Antonio Anderson/Mining Journal photo)

MARQUETTE – A mural went up Monday morning to commemorate Marquette artist Dan Cook, who passed away in late March. This comes nearly a week before his celebration of life.

“Its quite emotional as he would have been so proud that he made an impact with his artwork,” said Marilyn Cook, wife of Dan Cook. “I am having a celebration of life at the Presque Isle Pavilion on Aug. 13 from 4 to 7 p.m. for whoever would want to come and share stories.”

Cook had been a resident of Marquette all of his life, and worked at his family business, Cook Sign Service, which was founded by Cook’s grandfather in 1936. After Cook retired from the business in 2001, he began painting landscapes of the local area.

“He always loved Marquette, so his landscapes were mostly of Lake Superior and downtown Marquette,” Marilyn Cook said. “He was also on Art on the Rocks for probably around 15 years. He sold his pieces to a lot of people who moved away from Marquette and who wanted a piece of it with them. So his paintings are all over the country. There are people who moved to Texas, California or Florida that want a piece of Marquette in their home.”

The mural commemorating Cook is that of the Marquette Harbor and is on the east side of the Casselman & Henderson PC building in downtown Marquette.

This mural wasn’t just brought about by Marilyn Cook. “Dan and I have friends, Charlie and Heidi Henry, and they own the building,” Marilyn Cook said. “They reached out to me in June that they would like to do something to remember Dan and they had suggested that we could utilize the wall on the side of the building. We talked about a mural, then we talked with Cook Sign Service and made it look like one of Dan’s paintings. It kind of mimicked the shape of the windows to the right of the art panels; it ties in with the building really nice.”

Antonio Anderson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550, or aanderson@miningjournal.net.