About the Mural
The Brick Store Museum’s exhibition Bold Visions premiered in Summer 2024. The exhibit featured a local transgender artist named Dominique “Cookie” Helen Louise Emmanuelle Victoria Heather Renee Dejaneairo London (1951-2007).
Cookie was born in 1951 as Coleman Davis. Like many people in coastal Maine, Cookie went to work as a fisherman. In their adult life, Cookie became a well-known figure across the Kennebunks, often dressing in feminine attire and her famous white Go-Go boots. It wasn’t until the mid-1990’s that Cookie started to paint, after a request from a local lobsterman to complete a mural on his lobster tank. That led to two more tanks being painted, at the request of other fishermen. This was the beginning of Cookie’s artistic path. While also painting in more traditional formats, Cookie continued exterior art projects that included barn-fish house doors, fences and signs. Cookie’s identity transitioned to being her true self as Dominique, a transgender woman. Many close friends described how it made her feel complete and happy.
Cookie’s life story was instrumental in the creation of Bold Visions. As part of its commitment to comprehensive history and connected community, the Brick Store Museum values the power of telling people’s stories. As the exhibit of Cookie’s paintings (all loaned by private collectors) came together, Museum staff and community partners formed a team to create a mural that would honor the public art that Cookie created.
This is how the “Cookie” Mural came into being! Four amazing regional artists – Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons, Leah Bares, KJ Shows, and Ben Spalding created the four panels that make up the entire mural. It was hung on an exterior wall of the Museum during the Bold Visions exhibit in 2024. Then another vision came into view: maybe, every season, the mural should come out of storage to be hosted somewhere across the Kennebunks, for continued public interaction as a way to continue sharing the story of Cookie Davis, someone who was part of our community and helped to better connect our community through their own courage, honesty, and artistry.
2025 Location:
The Church on the Cape
3 Langsford Road, Cape Porpoise, Maine 04014
The mural was hung on June 9, 2025 and is expected to hang there through late September 2025.
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Interested in learning more about the Mural and how to bring it to your location? Organizations and individuals should email [email protected] – we will send you an information sheet on dimensions, requirements and availability.
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From the Artists:
KJ Shows
As a gay artist myself, when I was asked to do a piece for this show honoring Cookie I said yes right away. I wanted to make her glamorous as if for an Andy Warhol portrait. I think she would like it.
About the Artist:
KJ Shows was born in Seabrook, Texas in 1965. In 1985 Shows graduated from the Art Institute of Houston. In 1988 Shows relocated to Sacramento, CA and worked for Anne Bruce Inc. Advertising as their Assistant Art Director. Shows was drawn to the creative environment and contemporary art scene in San Francisco so in 1989 relocated there and worked for David Neuman Enterprises as a silk screener.
In 1990 Shows took a job with American Airlines as a Ramper to have flexible hours devoting more time to painting. This job had the added benefit of traveling the world to experience different cultures and draw inspiration from international art shows and museums. In 2001 Shows moved to Kennebunk, and in 2012 retired from American Airlines to paint full time. Since 2008 Shows has been working on an ongoing series called Portrait of an Artist. Shows personally writes to artists all over the world asking other artists to send a pair of their old shoes, so Shows can paint them as their portrait.
Benjamin Spalding
As a child, I would see Dominique London around town, blond hair and her signature white GoGo boots, running errands, living her life unapologetically. This was groundbreaking for me. In a small Maine town, she renamed herself, created her own sense of glamour, interpreted her world through colorful paintings and became a vivid and beloved local icon.
Representation and standing out – especially in a small town, is important – but not always easy. When I think of Dominique, she changed how I thought about the town, as she embraced her own sense of beauty with grace and humor. This coastal Maine imagery of lobster boats and seaside vistas now sits alongside a pair of well-worn white GoGo boots. Every town has characters and Dominique was a unique and beautiful bird of her own feather, boots and all.
About the Artist:
Benjamin Spalding (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Portland, Maine. Spalding’s practice is preoccupied with movement and the pageantry of the body, weaving together elements of club culture, sports, and nature with narrative. Spalding received his MFA from Maine College of Art & Design in 2017 and is currently an assistant professor and chair of the Foundation Department.
Leah Bares
When I first began thinking about Cookie’s life and their vision, I was taken aback many times by one simple truth – a small fishing community in Maine supported a trans individual thirty years ago without batting an eye. Cookie was a fixture to Cape Porpoise and remained a constant to their community, whether on the stern of a lobster boat or riding their ten speed bicycle around town.
In honoring Cookie, I found inspiration when I by chance came across the cover of David Jourdan’s book, To Preserve Forever. The cover features Goat Island enveloped in an electrifying, vibrant rainbow. I remember working on my father’s boat as a kid and coming up on a rainbow after we made it to the harbor after a storm. “We’re in a state of grace, kid,” my father told me. I’m sure that Cookie had moments on the water where all the beauty of nature was revealed at once. In riding the chaos of life, in the balance of all great things, Cookie in the end, found their truth.
About the Artist:
Leah Bares is a watercolor artist residing in Kennebunk, Maine. Leah’s bloodline consists of fishermen and artists, all of which inspire her watercolors of the sea.
Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons
For the new barn door, I wanted to maintain the playful energy of the original murals and capture Cookie’s vibrant use of colors in my panel, honoring the “Come-Look-At-Me” spirit in which the original barn door was created. I aimed to reflect my younger artistic style and energy while incorporating elements that respect and reflect Cookie’s artistic body of work. Cookie worked for many years as a sternman on different lobster boats in Cape Porpoise Harbor before painting several of her own business ideas, which are reflected in the exhibition’s work. “London Ltd.” on the can in my mural nods to that entrepreneurial energy.
The mermaid is a keystone of Cookie’s art. The figure in my panel reflects her love of sirens, often painted as buxom and full of joie de vivre. As this siren jumps from the tin and into view, we are invited to share in the joy, vibrancy, and happiness she expresses with her arms wide open.
About the Artist:
Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons is a painter based in Southern Maine, drawing inspiration from life on the seacoast. A teacher and marketer by trade, Fuhrmann-Simmons honed her lifelong artistic skills in her mid-40s. She states: “I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis right before the pandemic, and the curious (and miraculous) coupling of both my own physical changes and a massive shift in how I conducted work in the community helped me focus on how I wanted to spend my time through the healing process of art-making. Painting has given me a new vocabulary and a new way of being in the world.”
Fuhrmann-Simmons is a Professional Member of the Maine Craft Association. She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Kennebunkport, Maine, along with a menagerie of animals, including a handsome rescue dog named Winslow Homer.
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Project Partners:
Sean Driscoll, BBsquared, Cape Porpoise, Maine
Sean Driscoll is currently a community partner collaborating with the Museum around its commitment to wide-ranging community storytelling.
When I started collaborating with the Museum in this space, in one of my first conversations with Executive Director Cynthia Walker I brought up Cookie Davis. My spouse and I bought a home in Kennebunkport in 2006. We never had the privilege of meeting Cookie, but from that first year of living here, we started hearing the wonderful stories about Cookie from people who had known them. Every story always wowed me – how this fabulously vibrant and unapologetic LGBTQ+ individual had been so included, so seen, and even bolstered by so many of her community peers. Amidst a current world so troubled by chaotic vitriol steeped in baseless fear, Cookie’s story should remind all of us about the importance of personal connectivity versus a virtual universe of influence cultivated by depthless strangers behind computer screens. May Cookie’s spirit guide all of us in being compassionate, authentically present within and connected to our communities, and maybe most importantly – true to who we are.
Gordon Lewis, Cape Porpoise Carpentry, LLC, Cape Porpoise, Maine
When Sean and lead mural artist Kristin Fuhrmann-Simmons realized the project’s need for someone who could creatively design and build the symbolic fish shed doors for “Cookie’s Mural”, Sean immediately thought of Gordon. In Sean’s description, a man of innumerous talents including – fine chef, musician, sculptor, and fine carpentry – Sean was most assured that Gordon would be able to imagine and then build exactly what would be perfect. We were grateful that Gordon immediately (!) said yes when Sean shared the project opportunity with him. Gordon has continually expressed how important and powerful Cookie’s legacy is to this community. We thank YOU Gordon, for creating the canvas so this mural could come to life!
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Original Sponsors of the Mural:
Rainbow Pallet Promoter
Greg Fredo & Sean Driscoll
Tom & Susan Driscoll
Penelope Gruen
Barn Panel Partner
Maureen DeLeo
Maine Art Gallery
Michael Macht-Greenberg
Catherine McMahon
Karen Plattes & Maureen Schnellmann
Deborah Randall Fine Art
Brush Stroke Supporter
Renee Arbisi
Andrew Bare
Deborah Bauman
Alice Mobley
John Riel
Friend
Lisa Drennan
Susanna Fichera
JM Michaud
Loreta McDonnell