Artists Pam Peacock and RYSHU, aka Ryan Shuckhart, pose with their completed murals for Atlanta Crossroads Mural Fest in July of 2024. (Photos courtesy the artist)
To say that art has always been important to creative power couple Pam Peacock and Ryan Shuckhart might be an understatement.
Originally from Southern California, Peacock visited Atlanta in 2015 as she was considering a move to Georgia’s burgeoning capital. A graphic designer and artist at heart, one of the very first things she did was attend the showy East Atlanta Strut. There, amidst the sea of pop-up tents and costumed paraders, she visited a booth that Ryan was sharing with a friend of his.
Although no sparks flew at that initial meeting, Peacock made a lasting impression on Shuckhart. “The next year, when I’d moved here, I went to the Strut again, and Ryan recognized me from a friend’s social media presence,” she recalled.
Shuckhart, aka RYSHU, a graphic designer and painter who’s been active in the Atlanta arts scene for 15-plus years, finally struck up a conversation. From there, a friendship slowly developed over several years, during which the pair ran into each other at art shows and group events with mutual friends until 2018, when the two started dating. Or, as Shuckhart puts it, “I finally got her to go on a hiking date with me.” Peacock didn’t have a car, and Shuckhart offered to drive. “She seemed really cool, and I was a big hiker at the time.”
He took her to Arabia Mountain in Stonecrest, where the two chatted it up on the rocky, moon-like outcrop and quickly discovered that they had a lot more in common than just art. Since then, the two have been pretty much inseparable, as a couple and as now-established regulars in the Atlanta arts scene.
It’s easy to catch their work around town, whether from the collaborative and colorful mural they did together with the Lotus Eaters Club at Westview Corner Grocery to the painted electrical boxes completed in 2022 for the Decatur Arts Alliance in downtown Decatur. Peacock and Shuckhart each painted a box as well as assisting the other with their vision — Shuckhart opted for a fanciful, almost storybook owl surrounded by red-and-blue-eyed woodland creatures, and Peacock depicted a deep-blue and purple space scene resembling an ocean-scape with mechanical sharks. The painted boxes remain unchanged to this day.
“We work together very well, doing artwork and managing our lives,” said Shuckhart. “We’re very thoughtful about what the other one is doing. And that’s why we’re so good at collaborating on the murals — because we understand what that person needs to get through this.”
These days, seven years after that initial Arabia Mountain meet-up, the couple lives and works together in a cozy Morningside condo with a single studio, a space so small the dining room, living room, and guest room are all used as studio space. As any working creative knows these days, the work-art-life balance (especially when in a committed relationship) can be a challenge to maintain.
In addition to their artistic pursuits, Peacock works full-time as a senior designer for iHeartPodcasts, and Shuckhart is a freelance graphic designer, mostly working for a variety of companies. However, when the pair is asked about any bickering over creative differences, or a seven-year creative itch, they collectively shrug it off.
“We’re good at letting the other person take the lead when it’s their turn,” explained Peacock. “We’ll both be in the same group shows sometimes, and my dad asked me once if Ryan or I ever feel jealous [of each other’s success]. And I thought about the answer as honestly as possible, and, no, we’re just happy for each other and very supportive of each other.”
Additionally, while the pair has collaborated on some large public murals — pieces that require extra hands — they’ve also stuck to their individual projects and careers as artists, supporting and giving space when needed. There may be no art to finding the mind’s construction in the face, as Macbeth said, but there may be something to finding the heart’s construction in Peacock’s and Shuckhart’s art.
Looking over their oeuvre, it’s easy to see how the couple bonded through a thematic and complementary symmetry woven through their work: a consistent love of animals and conceptual playfulness — Shuckhart with his terrestrial tableaus filled with cartoon-like creatures and calming earth tones, and Peacock with her expansive aquatic-interstellar escapes cast in dramatic, eye-candy blues, purples and pastels. Viewed together, their work speaks to one another as a conversation between friends and lovers.
Through creative and emotional support, and a little give-and-take, Peacock and Shuckhart make it work.
Speaking of, Shuckhart has been preparing for an upcoming show at Empire Arts Gallery (where Peacock has also exhibited), which will open on September 6. Called Return to Terra Flora, the exhibition is a sequel to a show from 2019 where Shuckhart exhibited with Atlanta artists Daniel Curran and Rachel De Urioste. The trio will reunite for this upcoming exhibition.
After completing a project-heavy 2024, Peacock recently worked on illustrations for a coloring book fundraiser at the Avondale Arts Alliance and currently has a piece hanging at ABV Gallery’s Locals Only group exhibition through August 3. The work is sweetly entitled “An Ode to Arabia Mountain” as a nod to her enduring love for the site and its significance to her personal story.
“It’s about pushing each up instead of pushing each other down,” said Shuckhart. “It makes our relationship stronger. It’s really motivating, too, being around another person who has that creative energy. It keeps me excited about making my art.”
Peacock agrees. “It’s more collaboration over competition, and there’s room for everyone. The more we all support each other, the better everybody gets to do.”
You’ve heard of love at first sight, but for Peacock and Shuckhart, it’s more like love at first art.
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Jeff Dingler is an Atlanta-based author and entertainer. A graduate of Skidmore College with an MFA in creative writing from Hollins University, he’s written for New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Tiny Love, Newsweek, WIRED, Salmagundi and Flash Fiction Magazine. More information at jeffdingler.org.
