Creative Couples Exhibition

Columbia College, Columbia, SC

Mark and I are honored to be part of this unique exhibition. We will join 11 other creative couples.

Several years ago we held an exhibition in the Goodall Gallery at Columbia College, entitled ‘Related Separates.’ The title reflects our working relationship. After 39 years of marriage, we are clearly related. Although we are both visual artists, when it comes to our portfolios, we are clearly separate. That distinction remains important to us.

Collaboration

We also relate in our collaborative approach to life. Not just art, but life. We take a 50/50 approach to pretty much everything. For most of our 39-year teaching career, we shared teaching positions. We also divided household chores, childcare, financial responsibilities, and studio time. Our intent was not to be the same but to be balanced and empathetic. ‘After all, the goal is not making art, it’s living a life.’ Robert Henri

Creative Life Partnership

We both knew at an early age that we wanted a career making and teaching art. We were already on that track when we met. Sharing the undergraduate and graduate experience shaped our priorities and our goals. We have never needed to explain or defend our need to be in the studio.

Combined, we have a wealth of information about methods, materials, and technology. We often serve each other as a ready resource for information and feedback. We respect each other’s opinion and eye at those moments when the creative process bogs down and input is needed.

Now that we are full-time artists and part-time teachers, we enjoy the balance of time that we worked for and the studio we dreamed of. We are the most content when we’re both at work in the studio.

We like each other’s work.

Mark and Kristy

On behalf of Columbia College, thank you for accepting the invitation to participate in the college’s O’Keeffe Centennial exhibition, “Artistic Alliances,” opening February 14, 2016, in the Goodall Gallery at CC. We are excited to present this important exhibition that commemorates the historical time when Alfred Stieglitz took note of Georgia O’Keeffe and the work she created while at Columbia College, creating one of art history’s most dynamic Creative Couples.

Curatorial Statement:

Creative Couples of South Carolina

The bond between painter Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz represents one of the most important artistic alliances of the 20th century. Stieglitz’s response to O’Keeffe’s early abstract drawings done while she was a teacher at Columbia College became the catalyst that prompted the eventual development of a richly complex personal and business relationship.

The partnership of O’Keeffe and Stieglitz is the inspirational springboard that will launch the exhibit Artistic Alliances: Creative Couples of South Carolina, scheduled to open February 14 in the Goodall Gallery at Columbia College. The exhibit is in conjunction with the 100th-anniversary observance of Georgia O’Keeffe’s time at the college where she experienced her breakthrough artistic epiphany, setting her on the road leading to her becoming one of the 20^th century’s most recognized and celebrated artists.

Creative Couples Exhibition will feature eleven contemporary couples who are professional artists working in a variety of mediums and disciplines, all with strong ties to South Carolina. The exhibit will feature one work by each artist that is representative of her/her current style and exemplify each individual’s mature level of conceptual, expressive and technical skill.

For more information about the O’Keeffe Centennial, visit www.ideasofmyown.com.