Love, Life, Art
Larry and Ellen, Robin and Gerald
Take 3D tour by clicking below!
Opening Reception: Saturday Feb 8th 5:00 - 8:00 PM
Love, Life, Art: two inter-racial artists/couples exhibit together, Larry Morse and Ellen Tresselt, Robin Gilmore and Gerald Moore, at City Lights Gallery, 265 Golden Hill St, Downtown Bridgeport, CT. The artists curate their work and share thoughts about their decades long relationships and art making through recorded podcasts. Meet the artists at an opening reception on Saturday, February 8, from 5-8 pm. More info to follow about a companion exhibit at the Bridgeport Innovation Center.
Radio interview with Robin Gilmore and Gerald Moore, discussing their relationship, race, and politics as they relate to their art.
Larry Morse and Ellen Tresselt discuss their lives as artists and the epic love story of their relationship.
About the show, in Robin’s words:
“It is interesting to be doing a show at City Lights this month about love and life together as an interracial artist couple. It really has pulled up much from deep recesses of why we are together and choose to stay together. Are we co-dependent? Possibly and Yes. Do we meet each other’s needs? Yes, mostly. Do we create together? Most definitely as we are makers of worlds and environments and enjoy inviting people in, with the mission of participating in a creative community.
We have continuously been doing this for more than 26 years. We also critique one another’s art as we come from different approaches to our own art making practices. Sometimes feedback for each other has added to the final project, or has expanded one another’s viewpoint. We don’t really make as much art as we would like. The work on exhibit is all of our earlier works from the times when we first chose one another and before we met. Our Creative work now appears to be at the top of the list with teaching and bringing people together in whatever environments we create. We still strive to find balance so we can do both.”
About the show, in Ellen’s words:
“Larry and I are living proof of miracles. We almost didn’t happen. Our story began in 1970 when we met in art school. I was 19, Larry 23. Love at first sight for me. I recognized him. We were a perfect fit, intellectually, creatively, politically, spiritually, physically. Details are not important. The odds were against us. For a host of reasons, after 1977 we would not see each other again for 34 years.
When you’re an interracial couple, maybe you have to feel more than others, be willing to go farther. Maybe it has to mean more to you because you’re going against the grain, you’re swimming upstream. Even in today’s world, your security isn’t sanctioned and protected by society, isn’t handed to you on a silver platter. You have to believe in your right to be together. You have to be willing to fight for it. Make sacrifices. Confront your own biases. Even your own family may have other ideas.
I carried my love for Larry, like a little flame inside of me through a lifetime of other choices, other realities, sometimes speaking to him out loud looking up at the clouds. Are you near? Are you far? Are you alive? Are you dead? Do you see me?”
Artist Larry Morse in his studio