Kathleen Brodeur & Edson Campos
HOW DID YOU MEET?
Kathleen: I first met Edson at Festival of the Masters (at Disney). He was the first artists I bought a piece of art from 30 years ago. I really liked his art. Then I would always see him at art shows where we both were showing.
Edson: it took a while because she was too young when we first met. Ten years later we met again. I had a project at the Veranda in Metro West and Kathleen had a show at the Winter Park stained glass store. I asked her to help with my project at the Veranda - to paint on the ceiling and portray Italian art in the building. I thought she was just going to help, but I was amazed at her skill. She would contribute with ideas as well.
Kathleen: It will be 21 years we’ve been together.
WHAT HAD YOU THOUGHT ABOUT SPENDING YOUR LIFE WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR FIELD?
Edson: I never thought about it. It just happened. It was amazing. Like right now we are traveling to France and we love the same things. We are participating in the art in capital at the grand ballet. We both had to submit a painting to be accepted. The greatest thing is that we want to go to the same things. Our work is not modern, so we have a similar taste in art.
Kathleen: I didn’t think about marrying an artists. I respected him as an artist and got to know him. We are inspired by each other
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OR ISSUES WITH MARRYING ANOTHER ARTIST?
Edson: I never worked with another person. I found when we worked together she wasn’t just helping. We really worked together.
Kathleen: I had already achieved things before I met him so we were both established artists.
Edson: The art is not a problem for us, nor as a business. We are always trying to bring out the best in each other. Every time we go to the museum, we find our eye is different. Everything about our art is different although we are both creating new art with new techniques
Kathleen: We are always trying new things and staying true to ourselves.
Edson: I sometimes wait for Kathleen to make a decision related to the art that I am working on.
ANY ADVICE?
Kathleen: Make sure you each have your own space to work. Don’t critique unless they ask. Be very supportive. Always try to stay on the positive. Artists are sharing something very personal about themselves. You have to be respectful. It is a work in progress. Let each other create.
Edson: You have to be sensitive and believe in the relationship. The arts is on top of that. To live together with another artist can be very magical.
David & Morgan Russell
HOW DID YOU MEET?
Morgan: That’s kind of a fun story. I was working with SAK at Epcot. One day I was crying before a show because I’d been fighting on the phone with the person I was dating and a fellow SAKtor said, “that’s not right. You should be with someone who treats you better. The same thing’s happening with my comedy partner,” who was in MN in Law School at the time, then I said, maybe he’ll come and he and I will fall in love and get married. Dave was also coming out of a relationship and followed his friend’s advice and came for the summer. He never returned to Minnesota. And my prophecy came true.
WHAT HAD YOU THOUGHT ABOUT SPENDING YOUR LIFE WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR FIELD?
Dave: I spent zero time considering that before actually dating Morgan. For me, those thoughts developed as we grew in relationship.
Morgan: I had never particularly planned to get married. When we first started seeing each other, we wanted to maintain our professional integrity and kept our dating secret from our SAK colleagues. I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess I was always drawn to people in the arts.
Dave: We were around people in the arts so those were naturally the people we would develop relationships with and it makes sense an attraction might develop there.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OR ISSUES WITH MARRYING ANOTHER ARTIST?
Morgan: Getting to work on things we love together was great and we were afforded numerous wonderful opportunities to play together and experience wonderful things together. Issues were financial a lot. Especially being a family with kids, the financial ups and downs have been challenging. But traveling, getting to do things you love with people you love was great. Sometimes it has provided wonderful opportunities.
Dave: in addition, we were running a company together, so we were talking business half the time - co-creating our professional and personal lives together. When there was a challenge in one of those, it could bubble up and become an issue, like if one got an opportunity and the other didn’t.
Morgan: Then when we moved to LA and Dave was pursuing more commercials and film, and I was leaning more toward theater, and our family had grown. Those were some interesting and challenging times. But I wouldn’t change it.
Dave: In LA as our family grew, it was something that we hadn’t necessarily planned on, but a new reality of building a family was something we both embraced and welcomed with joy, despite any challenges or issues...
Morgan: It was before we moved to LA that I started thinking about having a family. (Dave’s eyebrows go up)
Dave: Our lives have not been the traditional path and I had no concrete vision for it. The most I had planned for my life was to go to Law School, and that only lasted one semester. : ) Almost nothing was like I had even conceived.
ANY ADVICE?
Morgan: Trust that if this is the path for you - follow your heart, follow your bliss . . . if you are having joy in serving others, that gives you a good life, even if you don’t have a nice car. Choosing experiences that are meaningful for your life, it makes a beautiful life. I’m very motivated by relationships and if you stay aligned with your motivation and purpose, you can work out the rest of it. You need to make sacrifices no matter what you do. Spend your life doing what you want to do.
Dave: Lessons learned from looking back… I didn’t have a path planned out. I respect and appreciate those that have a path and take that path. I’d say, don’t be afraid or judge yourself if you don’t. Be open to not having a path laid out and explore that. Be open to the possibilities and allow yourself to let them go where they go. You don’t have to have it planned the whole way, you’ll find it as you go. So many people I encounter, especially in the arts, are doing something for their career that they never would have (or could have) dreamed they’d be doing. I never imagined I’d be a founder of and be running a successful Improv Comedy Theater company – but I love it! Adopt and embrace the “yes and” mindset.
Benoit Glazer & Élaine Corriveau
HOW DID YOU MEET?
Benoit: I was teaching Big Band at McGill University and she was a student singing in the jazz quartet and she insisted we include the jazz quartet in the big band concert. She was relentless!
Élaine: No, but I asked him if we could team up with them and sing a few songs. He was a teacher and I was just a little student.
Benoit: Every Tuesday night there was a $5 movie. But I had rehearsal on Tuesdays. On my way to rehearsal I’d pass her and her friends and she’d invite me to join them. I couldn’t because I had rehearsal. One night we didn’t have rehearsal so I went with her and her friend. it was supposed to be a chick flick but it was a very suspenseful movie and I ednded up with a woman on each side clinging to me. After that we went for dessert. was a desert-a-holic. Dessert brought us together.
What happened on the 2nd date . . ., lets just say that Charles was born 9 months later. It just happened
WHAT HAD YOU THOUGHT ABOUT SPENDING YOUR LIFE WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR FIELD?
Élaine: I don’t think I had a vision. I remember being so quickly deeply involved with this relationship. People would look at me. I’m a reasonable person and if I get involved with someone, we could always discuss whatever came up and stick together.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OR ISSUES WITH MARRYING ANOTHER ARTIST?
Benoit: Even though we are both in music, we are not at all in the same profession. We are in the same field, but not really doing the same kind of work.
Élaine: I think we understand the need to achieve what needs to be achieved when it needs to be achieved. We understand that as performers, you don’t have a spouse on New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, etc. When it needs to be done, it needs to be done - we understand. I’m not sure an accountant would understand.
Benoit: The creation of Cirque was difficult when I was spending 20 hours a day and she was stuck at home without a car and three kids. But we knew it had to be done.
Élaine: We each have our things to do. Benoit golfs in the morning and I sing with choirs at night.
ANY ADVICE?
Benoit: Say “yes” to things. Grab the other person’s hand and cross the threshold.
Élaine: Listen to each other without forgetting about yourself.
