In honor of Valentine’s Day, I asked some of my favorite couples to share the secrets of their partnership. Both individuals are in a creative field (sometimes the same field!), and find ways to inspire, collaborate and support one another while remaining dedicated to their own endeavors. There is no competition, jealousy or doubt but love and respect.
Let’s read about DANIEL ELLSWORTH & BETH MATHEWS, a POWER COUPLE of a touring musician and a graphic designer with a big heart for non-profits. They support each other by sharing their gifts and in between all the tours and jobs, they make sure to set aside time to do nothing, together.
What kind of creative work do each of you do?
Beth: I am a graphic designer by day and night. I currently split my time working for a design agency called Interactive for Good and also at Blood:Water Mission. The idea of business, art and philanthropy working together for the greater good is what makes me tick!
How did y’all meet?
Beth: I would say we met in Belmont University’s cafeteria when Daniel first moved to Nashville. Daniel would say we met in a class where we learned the importance of Lionel Richie and bonded over the ridiculousness of the class.
Dan: We met in Nashville in a college class called “Electronic Media In The Music Industry.” The class was horribly pointless and mostly revolved around the professor name dropping his famous “friends.” On the plus side, though, it was an easy A… AND I met my future wife.
Do you ever collaborate creatively? If so, what does that look like? If not, why?
Beth: We collaborate quite a bit! After a brief and failed attempt of him giving me piano lessons, we learned that we should stick to what we each are skilled at so we don’t pull each other’s hair out. Quite often while the band is cranking out music, I’ll be working on their album art, merch items, posters, etc. Luckily we have similar taste and it’s a really fun process.
Dan: All the time! Beth does all of the band’s amazing album art, t-shirts, posters, and anything else we might need designed. I don’t get to collaborate with her as much on the design side of things because I don’t know a whole lot about it. All I know is that if she designs it, it looks good.
How do you support each other in your creative work?
Beth: We’re fortunate to each have our own space in our home to create art. He has his music room and I have my art room. It’s wonderful! Also, if you’re friends with us on social networks, a week probably won’t go by where we aren’t talking about what the other is doing to the world wide web. (sorry world!) I like to think we genuinely love what the other person is doing and because of that support, it gives a lot of freedom to create more without any guilt.
Dan: Before we were married we told each other that we always wanted the other person to do what they love, no matter what. That sounds simple, but it’s true. She has always supported me doing music and I have always supported her following her passion of combining design with non-profit work. There’s a great lecture by British writer/philosopher/speaker Alan Watts where he asks his audience – “What would you do if money were no object?” and then he goes on to say “…you do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.” That’s always how I want Beth to approach her passions and her work, and I know that’s how she wants me to approach mine. Here’s a great video of that lecture.
What’s your favorite thing to do together?
Beth: Traveling! We love to travel while simultaneously bringing our dog on romantic getaways like our honeymoon. I love adventures and he loves experiencing new things.
What are you doing for Valentine’s Day?!
Beth: Valentine’s Day marks our 8th year of being together! We have a hard time planning even two days in advance but I imagine we’ll head to the coffee shop where we had our first date on February 14th, 2005.
