Laurie Lisle is an art historian and author in Sharon, Connecticut. Lisle is originally from Providence, Rhode Island and attended college at Ohio Wesleyan University. After college she held positions at The Providence Journal and Newsweek magazine. She has published five books covering the topics of art history, education, sociology, and her own life. Lisle is married to painter and printmaker Robert Kipniss.
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconson in 1887. She was an artist who is mostly known for painting flowers, New York Skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe began high school at Sacred Heart Academy in Madison, Wisconsin, but ultimately graduated from Chatham Episcopal Institute in Virginia after her family moved to Williamsburg, Virginia in 1902. O'Keeffe went on to study at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, Art Students League, Teachers College of Columbia University, and taught art at high schools in Texas and at Chatham Episcopal Insitute, Columbia College, and became the chair of the art department at West Texas State Normal College. O'Keeffe's art was ultimately promoted by Alfred Stieglitz who, although eventually marrying O'Keeffe in 1924, first exhibited her artwork at his esteemed 291 gallery in New York City. O'Keeffe's fame as an artist took off from there. O'Keeffe was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters; she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the National Medal of Arts in 1985; and in 1993 was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) was born in Kiev, Russia in 1899. Her parents, Isaac and Minna Berliawsky, and their children emigrated to America in 1905 and settled in Rockland, Maine. She decided upon a career in art at an early age and took some drawing classes in high school, before graduating in 1918. Two years later, she married Charles Nevelson, a wealthy businessman, and moved to New York. She proceeded to study painting, drawing, singing, acting, and eventually dancing. In 1922, Nevelson gave birth to a son, Myron (later called Mike). Beginning in 1929, Nevelson began to study art full-time at the Art Students League, where she took classes with Kenneth Hayes Miller and Kimon Nicolaides. In 1931, she went to Europe and studied with Hans Hofmann in Munich before traveling to Italy and France. Over the years, she received honorary degrees from Rutgers University and Harvard University, among other schools, as well as numerous awards, including the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in Sculpture and the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 1971, the gold medal for sculpture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983, and the National Medal of the Arts in 1985.