Contrasting brushstrokes

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, May 31st. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. In addition to it’s being the second week of World Journalism Institute, we’re also right in the middle of our weeklong new donor drive. We have generous longtime donors who are offering a dollar-for-dollar match available for each new donor who gives this week.

This is meant both as a challenge and as a demonstration.

The challenge is simply the reminder that we rely on the gifts of our readers, viewers, and listeners to supply the resources needed to produce programs, report news, and train journalists.

The demonstration is that no one gives alone. We’re in this together. If you’ve never given before and you choose to make this the week you make your first gift, then every dollar you give is a dollar they give.

REICHARD: I love a good deal and that sounds like a super one! Spend a dollar, match a dollar, all to keep our journalists supplied, fed, and encouraged to keep on going. WORLD is front line Christian journalism and your partnership is absolutely vital. Please go to wng.org/newdonor. Now wng.org stands for world news group. So that address again is wng.org/newdonor.

EICHER: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a mother-daughter art duo. Molly Courcelle and Bee Sieburg are like complementary colors. Opposites. But, somehow, they work together. Building a friendship—and an art practice—side by side in Asheville, North Carolina. WORLD reporter Grace Snell paid a visit to their gallery.

GRACE SNELL, REPORTER: It’s a bright morning in the River Arts District. Brightly-painted brick buildings rise above construction. Cars thread their way along the narrow street. Signs clutter the sidewalks—guiding passersby through the maze of galleries and workshops tucked inside.

AUDIO: [Entering studio]

Number 129 is a rust-red storefront home to WEDGE Studios. And home—for much of the week—to Molly Courcelle.

Molly is a slim woman in a navy blue apron. She leads the way up steep wooden stairs overhung with colorful prints.

MOLLY COURCELLE: We all try to represent our artwork out here.

Molly steps into a small studio crammed with paintings. Layers of paint cake the worktables. Tubes of oil paints lie in a twisted heap.

Molly’s mom—Bee Sieburg—is already hard at work.

MOLLY: Mom?

BEE SIEBURG: Yeah?

Bee extends a paint-splattered hand.

BEE: Oops!

GRACE: I don’t mind.

MOLLY: Always covered in paint.

Molly and Bee aren’t just mother and daughter. They’re studio mates, best friends, and each other’s biggest fans. Even though they’re polar opposites.

MOLLY: We are very different. And, you know, people come in and paint and take pictures of her palette and her paints and her paint brushes on this more than even the paintings.

BEE: Here see the difference? Look at Molly. Perfectly coiffed flowers in front of the paintings.

Molly and Bee have been painting together in WEDGE Studios since 2008. They open their space to visitors every Friday and Saturday.

AUDIO: [Music playing, visitors laughing]

But art has been part of their story from the very beginning.

Bee’s face still lights up at the memory of how it all began. She and her husband were hoping to adopt when their interviewer asked Bee two unexpected questions.

BEE: And she said, “Well, is there any art background in your family?” “Well, well, yeah. You know, I teach art at Norfolk Academy teaching. All right. My grandmother was an artist.” And she said, “Oh.” And then she said, “Are you a Christian? Well, I thought, well, I’ve gone to church my whole life.”

Molly’s birth mother had specifically asked the agency to place her daughter with a Christian artist. Bee checked those boxes. So, Molly came home with her.

BEE: I didn’t know, my Christian faith would grow at that point. I had no idea that I would love the Lord in my heart, like I do now. But God knew. See, it’s a doggone miracle.

Later, a neighbor shared the gospel with Bee. She started going to Bible study and reading devotions with Molly every night. And teaching Molly to paint.

MOLLY: But she got me real art supplies, quote unquote. And instead of like craft kits or coloring books —

BEE: No coloring books!

MOLLY: I remember being able to use scissors a lot earlier than a lot of my friends and was shocked that they didn't know how to use scissors. We would paint all of my birthday parties was my mother teaching us how to do something like an animal out of clay, or going and doing like plein air painting out in a field. And she would make sure that we knew that blue sky is not only at the top of the page, it comes all the way down to the grass.

Molly studied painting in college. Over the years, she started to uncover her own unique style.

AUDIO: [Music from Molly’s studio]

MOLLY: I knew that I needed to find my own voice, she had her thing, my mother did, she did expressive paint, paintings with a lot of paint, a lot of energy. I needed to find what I painted. And I remembered a while back when I was in school, I really loved doing organic form. So I started doing some of those. And they really fed my soul in a unique way. And I just started going from there.

Now, Molly paints abstract paintings inspired by Scripture and sells them from her studio.

MOLLY: It reminds me, I did a set of two really big ones that had a bunch of gold leaf, and we made them really cracked. And we called them Jars of Clay, because it talks about God’s Spirit being able to shine out of those cracks. And in our weakness He is able to be strong.

Next door, Bee’s hard at work. Painting with quick, bold strokes. Her soundtrack—a playlist called “pink martini.”

BEE: I’m going to redefine it. Everybody paints in a different kind of way.

A customer dances along as he passes through.

BEE: Isn’t that fun? Look at him! Yay!

At first, Molly wasn’t sold on the idea of working side-by-side with her mom. She worried people wouldn’t see her as an artist in her own right.

MOLLY: God was very clear that my ego needed to step aside and that it’s a blessing to have my mother a part of my life and my business, too, you know. I mean, to be able to see her every day is very special.

And Bee, for her part, has always been Molly’s biggest cheerleader.

BEE: And anywhoo, Molly’d be in here selling a painting out here, “Oh my gosh, she’s selling and painting,” I would run in here, jump all around, “Yay! You sold a painting.” And Molly would just, “Mom. Be cool.”

Bee’s toned things down—a little. But she still likes to brag on Molly to visitors.

BEE: Molly’s my daughter. So, I’m very proud of her.

MOLLY: She’s the most fun to watch paint. She’s so fast and expressive. It’s really fun.

Molly says that friendship is what makes them stand out.

MOLLY: We’ve come a long way, in terms of our relationship, because we are a typical mother daughter, you know, when we were when I was a teenager, things were rocky, you know, and then we’ve grown more to love each other and respect each other for the differences and similarities over the years. But people will come up and sense the love that we have for each other, and it will just like, they will tear up because it makes them miss their mother or their daughter, you know. God has shifted my understanding of us, as mother daughter, and us as studio mates. And friends. She really is one of my very best friends.

AUDIO: [Studio background music and conversation]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Grace Snell in Asheville, North Carolina.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.