The Camp Verde Community Library is featuring a new exhibit, “Double Take,” showcasing the collaborative art of husband and wife team Larry and Debbie Gallagher.
The show consists of nature and landscape photographs taken by Larry paired with acrylic paintings by Debbie that reinterpret the photos and are displayed side by side.
Debbie said that she always had a love of art and won her first art contest in the third grade. She studied fine arts at the University of Portland and later became a teacher. She painted with oils before turning to watercolor, creating what she called non-traditional portraits and focusing on color. About five years ago, she switched from doing portrait work in watercolor to landscapes in acrylic.
Larry took up photography around 1980 when he purchased a basic film camera, which he kept using until the 1990s when his work became more time-consuming. He didn’t return to shooting until he retired three years ago and taught himself how to use a digital camera. He mainly photographs landscapes, or small scenes within a landscape.
“I love being out in the early morning and late afternoon in the blue hours looking at how the world wakes up and goes to sleep,” Larry said.
Both of the Gallaghers find inspiration in nature. Larry observed that nature simplifies your life with its calming and centering aspects. “I’m just amazed at nature, the complexity and interrelationships of everything, how they are so delicately balanced and then when they’re thrown out of balance the effects can be pretty dramatic,” he said.
“We love to camp and hike and Arizona is just so beautiful,” Debbie said. “I started using Larry’s photographs for resource information and that’s kind of how we started doing our collaborative work together.”
While for some, creating art is a solitary endeavor, the Gallaghers have been exploring a more collaborative process. Debbie had done collaborative art before with another artist, passing a painting back and forth with each of them taking turns adding to it.
“With that kind of collaborative art you have to have a lot of trust and have to be able to really let it go,” Debbie said. “It was very powerful.”
While Larry photographs an area, Debbie will sketch or paint plein air. Later, she will look through Larry’s photographs and choose one to reinterpret with her own palette and in her own style. He gives her the photos in black and white, as she does not want to be influenced by their colors.
“It’s important in that process of having that level of trust in the person and for me to say to Debbie, I don’t care what you do with the photograph I give you,” Larry said. “I’m really just waiting to see what interesting, colorful and unique ways you can create some derivative piece of art from it. The photographer has to completely release their preconceptions of what would be done with it and say, I can’t wait to see what you do with it.”
The Gallaghers feel that this collaborative form of art and trust has strengthened their relationship even more.
“I do think it brings us closer,” Larry said. “We have a similar interest and so that makes the time for us to be together to do things, but also that exchange of information builds trust, not that we didn’t have it to begin with, but it’s just another layer of it.”
The Gallaghers moved to Camp Verde in 2003 and recognized the importance of meeting other artists. Debbie joined a group of fellow painters, feeling that meeting other artists broadens your perspective and encourages you to keep painting as well as to experiment. Both Debbie and Larry are members of El Valle Artists Association, which brings together artists in the Verde Valley.
On the photography side, Larry said, “Get out and experiment. Don’t wait till you feel like you’ve learned everything. Get out there and start learning by doing it.” He facilitates the Verde Valley Photographic Society, which meets monthly at the Camp Verde Community Library. He stressed the importance of being able to talk to other photographers and to see their work, of learning from and being inspired by others with a similar passion.
“It gets you that connection to other people who like doing what you do, and you both get better by doing that together,” Larry said.
