A small home in Oak Park filled with colorful artwork, novels and flowers is home to the meetings of Jacqueline Lakely, Galen Garapolo, Kelly Donahugh and Mary Jo Parker O’Hearn, a place where the mixed media artists discuss their work and life experiences.
Nearly two decades after the artists initially started meeting, the group is now having its first show under their collective identity, the Groundwater Collective, on Oct. 12 and 13 in the Carriage House Gallery at the Oak Park Art League.
The show is a “full circle,” moment according to Lakely, with the board of the Oak Park Art League being where the artists originally met 20 years ago. Despite having different art styles, Garapolo, Donahugh and Parker O’Hearn bonded immediately during their time on the board and began meeting as a way to replicate the critique sessions that they missed from their time in art school. Lakely was a welcome addition to the group when she joined in on the monthly meetings in 2014.
Now, the artists meet each month to discuss what they are working on and provide feedback to each other. Over the years, the group has honed their ability to provide honest feedback, while maintaining a validating and supportive energy.
“This is a space without ego. We’re very supportive of each other. There’s no competition,” Garapolo said. “It’s just about giving down to earth, frank critiques of each other’s work. It’s easily done and easily received.”
It takes great trust, the women said, to bring in unfinished pieces of work and to provide and receive honest feedback, but there is no question of trust among the four artists.
“I feel like I’ve found my tribe or my other family,” Parker O’Hearn said. “There is a trust and honesty that we have that you don’t find normally. It’s really quite beautiful.”
During their two decades of meeting, each of the four women has gone through transformations, both in their artwork and in their personal lives. From experimenting with different styles of art, to experiencing tragedies, their monthly meetings have been a constant, according to Lakely.
“You go through an awful lot in life in 20 years, and to have a group that meets consistently like this, where we all know what’s going on, is something special and very grounding,” Lakely said.
The consistency of their meetings has bled into their artwork, Donahugh said, with each of the women taking inspiration from each other while maintaining their own distinct styles of art.
“We’re all just changing all the time, but yet we all weave together. We’re influencing each other constantly, because we’ve been meeting over time,” Donahugh said. “You see almost each other in our work just because we’ve been growing together and talking together.”
The women had their first show as a group in 2017 and were pleasantly surprised with how well each of their artistic styles integrated with each other. For the past two years, the group has been planning their first show under its new name: The Groundwater Collective, a name they say is very representative of their identity as artists.
“The word groundwater is a natural reflection of what it means to be an artist and take in all sorts of nutrients from all around us and each other,” Donahugh said. They say they are most looking forward to seeing all of their new artwork on display around them and seeing how the different styles interact with each other.
However, the women have no plans of slowing down once the show concludes, saying they plan to return to the studio promptly after and continue their monthly meetings.
“I was thinking as we were reminiscing how long we’ve been together, that it was special and unique that we were four women that have been together sharing our work for that long,” Donahugh said. “We’re just going to keep working together forever and ever.”
