As a member of the Vista Guild, the Koger Center for the Arts partnered with The Jasper Project to open a new rotating art space, titled The Nook, in celebration of Third Thursday Art Night. February 2026’s featured artist is Trahern Cook, also known as Easel Cathedral.
Artist Biography
Trahern also goes by Easel Cathedral; he calls his style Relational and Experiential.
Easel Cathedral has coined himself a “Jam Painter” as so much of his subject matter is musicians of every genre playing everywhere from small taverns to large outdoor festivals. In those moments he explores brush strokes and colors matching the rhythm of the sounds being played.
As a “Live Painter” of events and weddings, Trahern creates visual stories of his surroundings in his own unique painterly style, marrying a free folk recklessness with a trained and practiced deliberateness. This performance shares the space with everyone in attendance, enhancing the moment and using the moment to inform the painting itself.
And then there’s the painter and his easel, going anywhere light falls on the buildings, homes, trails and roads of towns, cities and landscapes.
Trahern welcomes anyone around to come hang out by the easel. “It just paints better.”
