Transcription of Creativity #31
Speaker 1: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland, Maine and broadcast on 1310 AM, Portland, streaming live each week at 11 a.m. on wlobradio.com. Show summaries are available at doctorlisa.org. Download and become a podcast subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle through iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine magazine, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin at RE/MAX Heritage, Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Booth, UNE-The University of New England, and Akari.
Lisa Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 31, Creativity, which is airing for the first time on Tax Day, which is may be not the most creative of dates but that would be April 15, 2012. Our show is also available by podcast and I’m in the studio today with our co-host, wellness editor for the Maine Magazine, Genevieve Morgan.
Genevieve: Hi, Lisa.
Lisa: How are you today? Ready to talk about creativity?
Genevieve: I am, especially on Tax Day, which is the day I like least in the year.
Lisa: Well, it’s interesting. It’s about giving back, right? If we think about taxes in a way, if we think about it in a positive way.
Genevieve: True, the price of civilization.
Lisa: Yes exactly and today we’ll be speaking with Jean McGinnis from the Maine Center for Creativity, Willa Wirth who is a local artisan and silver designer up on the East End and Mark Bessire who is the director of the Portland Museum of Art, so a very interesting and diverse group of people to speak about creativity with us.
Genevieve: Well, it’s pretty hard not run into creative people living where we live. It seems like everyone may have a day job but by night they’re doing something creative.
Lisa: Yeah and that’s true of the City of Portland and the Portland’s outskirts but it’s also true of the … it seems like almost the entire state of Maine.
Genevieve: I agree. We have to wear many hats.
Lisa: You actually have to have blinders on to not notice all the creativity that’s sort of surging forth from the different corners of the state.
Genevieve: Interestingly a lot of people don’t consider themselves creative.
Lisa: Well, that is very true. We’re going to spend some time with both Jean McGinnis and Mark Bessire, neither of whom who will specifically identify themselves as being artists and yet they are creating things in their lives professionally and personally. I think the definition of creativity has to be broadened out somewhat.
Genevieve: Well, how does creativity relate to wellness?
Lisa: Creativity is the most basic function of wellness. When you think about what as human beings one of the things that we need to do is to reproduce, is to carry on the lineage. It’s the promulgation of species. We need to be able to put forth offspring, we need to be well enough to actually do that. We’ve seen this happen in the last, I don’t know, 30 years or so, the rise of infertility in our culture. It’s so fascinating to me because people aren’t unable to create at the most basic level. They’re not able to put forth biological offspring. What that says about things in sort of a larger or literal or I guess more metaphorical sense is very interesting for our culture.
Genevieve: I never thought of that before but the opposite of creativity is actually impotency that sense of being thwarted or somehow wanting to put something forth or to generate something, but there’s a blockage or some kind of hurdle they you to carry over.
Lisa: It’s a frustration that ends up happening and actually what they think of depression, they called that basically anger turned inward. It’s frustration, anger, and there are also different stages of psychological development. One of them is generativity versus stagnation. Either you’re out there and you’re putting things out there or you’re stagnant and stuck and not moving anything out there at all.
Genevieve: I’m reminded of what Christiane Northrup said about when you start to get well, one of things you want to do is find things that please you and that can be an artistic experience like going to a rock concert or a symphony or seeing a piece of art on the wall and that just opening yourself up to visual or sensory pleasure can start you, certainly moving you through those blockages.
Lisa: Yeah, I believe it does have a lot to do with helping us re-pattern some of the things in our brain that have kept us stuck for a long time. It helps us reconfigure the neural pathways.
Genevieve: There’s really no right or wrong in that, it’s just what pleases you.
Lisa: There is no right or wrong. I think that the wrong thing that often happens always that we don’t give ourselves permission to actually experience things that bring us joy or inspire us or help us to continue living a full life. I think most of us or many of us anyway believe that our job is to get up in the morning when the sun rises, go make money for our families, come home, feed our children, and go to bed, and that’s really not living, that’s just existing at very basic level.
Genevieve: Lives of quiet desperation.
Lisa: Yes, it is very true. When I see patients in my office, we actually focus on the area of creativity, the dun tian, which is the lower abdomen and I try to get people to even breathe enough, so they can bring energy back into that dun tian, It’s so interesting that the whole body becomes neglected when you live this life of quiet desperation. It’s almost like you’re that head on a stick, walking around the planet. You’re not fully integrated with what’s going on in your physical self.
Genevieve: I think you can look at creativity and find things in your own life whether it’s gardening or cooking or may be you like to make photo albums for your family and that’s all creative too. It doesn’t have to be a fine art. If you like to sew pillows, it’s just something that moves you into that place of generation.
Lisa: Yes and the other thing that’s important, especially people in our time of living, time of life, you and I have, each of us has children, and we spend a lot of time, our creative time making, creating lives for our kids and creating lives for the other significant people. That in itself is a means of creating.
Genevieve: It is the same energy, that mothering energy and the energy to go create something in the world, it’s very similar.
Lisa: It’s similar. Although, I do believe that sometimes we get pulled so much into helping other people create their lives or creating other lives for other people which is a little bit may be not the right approach to create things for people but that we sometimes forget to nurture our own selves. It’s important to bring that piece back again. It’s important to always put yourself in the place where you as an individual can be inspired to do something creative as opposed to doing it.
Genevieve: What’s a good tool for someone who’s just listening to us and they want to start adding more creativity into their lives. When you’re talking to your patients, what’s a good thing to do?
Lisa: Well, I always come back to the reason why we live in the state or at least one of the reasons why l live in the state, which is the outside, the outdoors. Almost anyone can go outside. Even when it’s cold, you can put on your Bean boots and your parka and hopefully, people who are listening here on April 15th, hopefully it’s not still that cold but go outside and try to move away from experiencing only what’s in your head to experiencing what’s going on outside of your body. Try to really breath, notice what’s going on in the sky, notice what’s going on in the trees, try to feel the ground underneath your feet, because I think then that’s less pressure to “be creative” and it just is an opening that needs to happen to start the process.
Genevieve: I guess nature is the biggest creation of all.
Lisa: It is the big creation, we have no control over it. We have to accept it, but we cannot at the same time appreciate it and we can see also that there’s a perpetuity that exists.
Genevieve: That we’re part of it.
Lisa: That we are part of it. Yeah, the things will ebb and flow in our lives, our creativity will wax and wane but there is always this coming back around. When you go into nature then you’re reminded of that being the case and today we’re going to be reminded of creativity being so important to our health and wellness through our discussions with Jean McGinnis, Willa Wirth, and Mark Bessire. Anyone who is listening today, who has their own creative ideas for our show, we’d really love to hear them. If you are listening and you want to give us a thought we’ve had messages through Facebook on different shows which we’ll actually be incorporating into our future lineup. Thank you for those who have spent the time to actually communicate with us. Thank you for being a part of our own creativity process and we hope you enjoy the show.
Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we’re pleased to offer a segment we call Wellness Innovations sponsored by the University of New England. This week’s Wellness Innovation demonstrates how creative the University of New England is as they approach health sciences. Recently, the University of New England partnered with Michael T. Goulete Traumatic Brain Injury and Epilepsy Foundation for the 10th Annual Interprofessional Education Collaborative Spring Symposium that brought together graduate students and all of UNE’s health professions to explore neuroscience discoveries in clinical practice. This symposium has been organized around the case study on Michael Goulete who endured a traumatic brain injury as a result of a snowmobile injury. Dr. Dora Mills, UNE’s vice-president of Clinical Affairs spoke on the topic What’s Public Health Got To Do With It?
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Speaker 1: This portion of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast has been brought to you by the University of New England, UNE, an innovative health sciences university grounded in the liberal arts. UNE is the number 1 educator of health professionals in Maine. Learn more about the University of New England at UNE.edu.
Lisa: Today on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we are exploring the idea of creativity. Creativity is a brain process. It’s a very interesting thing, which we have yet to pin down, but we know that it often leads to fairly profound ideas that move the world forward in ways perhaps unanticipated. It’s interesting that we have Jean McGinnis for the Maine Center for Creativity in talking with us today because she’s doing this sort of thing on a Maine scale. Good to have you in today, Jean.
Jean: Thank you.
Lisa: I have Genevieve Morgan sitting next to me.
Genevieve: Good morning, Jean.
Jean: Good morning.
Lisa: I think Jean that a lot of people will know the Maine Center for Creativity best by the tanks. As you’re driving in from the south or through the Airport sort of way, if you look over to the right-hand side and this is me showing my creative brain trying to decide right or left, we have oil tanks which I think are Sprague Oil is that right? And they’re painted. How did you come up with this idea? Why paint tanks?
Jean: It’s a great question. I was on a bike ride at Bug Light Park and for probably the previous couple of years, I had been thinking about how can I give back and create a center for creativity? I was intrigued by creativity. I thought it was important to how we live our daily lives and my mind was really just trailing over this problem of how do we move Maine forward and in that thinking I thought about think tanks. As I was riding with my husband over by Bug Light Park one day, it was a beautiful day. I was seeing the beauty of really the harbor, Portland Harbor and came around the corner and suddenly this revelry that I was in stopped because I was now seeing white tanks but instead of … really my mind went ahead of me in terms of it was the “Aha moment.”
Instead of really stopping and thinking, “Oh! What are these things? They’re in my way,” I thought, “Wow! What an incredible canvas to put art on” because part of my thinking around creativity, of course, was related to how important theart is in our state, how many talented people we have in our state, in how many ways, they are hidden in their studios doing their work and I was trying to think of a way that Maine could really stand out and really be put on the map for creativity and innovation and when this really picture came to my mind of beautiful color and design on this group of tanks, it stuck with me. It was truly an “Aha moment” that I couldn’t let go off. When I started to share it with the other people they too held on to it. They didn’t say, “Oh! That’s kind of a crazy thing. What are you thinking?”
Lisa: Right, it’s got a little bit of stickiness to it.
Jean: It had stickiness and it really began to go on a roll and it was a very parallel track with the forming of the center for creativity as well. These two ideas combined was really what begin to move us into action that we needed a center for creativity in order to really pay attention to the fact that creativity is so important in our personal lives and in our economic lives here in Maine.
Lisa: This is … you’ve had the Maine Center for Creativity around for 5 years and it’s currently a non-profit the way that it’s set up.
Jean: I couldn’t think of the business model that would work at the time, and so I thought, okay, how do we do it here in America? Well, we form non-profits called 501(c)(3)’s and we see if there are other like-minded people who would like to contribute to the advancement of that work and I really think if it as work to try to nurture creativity in the community, but it’s a playful work as well. It has a nice combination of balance so you play and you create but you persevere and you persist as well.
Lisa: In Europe, they have ministers of culture. We don’t have that here. Is the center trying to take that role on?
Jean: In some ways. It’s interesting that you’ve connected it with Europe because one of my first deep trainings around creative economy was attending the Third International Conference On Creativity Economy in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Interestingly, my family is from Ireland, so it’s just kind of a … life brings you these things and if you’re open to them, you respond. I went to this conference and really studied what others had been doing and that was one of the reasons I thought about “Well I’d have to create the 501(c)(3) because the European governments where the directors of culture, arts, and sports as an example would be some of their titles.
I think it’s great that we now have a sports commission here in Maine, so that we are really looking at how do we put all these ideas about how we live our lives into a place that shows people that we want to attract them here because a lot of what we want to do here in Maine is bring more people here.
We have the room. We have the beauty to share and it seems important to let people know that we’re nurturing creativity.
Genevieve: I am fascinated by the idea that the blank tanks sparked your creativity. What is your creative process?
Jean: I think it’s a lot about trying to create a balance of space and intense thinking, or deep thinking, I don’t know but [inaudible 00:17:40] but the fact that I was on a bike ride sort of points out that I was breaking away from the work of trying to solve the problem and instead I was really just letting the universe sort of come in and I think it’s pretty fascinating myself. Believe me, this doesn’t happen all the time, but I felt it was very fascinating that I was in such a state of not just reverie but gratitude. I was feeling very thankful for this very specific moment. I was in a moment. I was riding my bike with my husband. The sky was blue, the ocean looked gorgeous, the temperature was perfect. It was one of those Maine September days.
It’s fascinating to me that when you stay in that moment and really feel it the way it is, then things can loosen and unwind and reconnect in different ways and one of the dilemmas I was trying to solve in this creative work was how do we build infrastructure around our creative people and how do we create the infrastructure that’s new and different because our business systems are all changing.
The traditional systems aren’t working. The new systems are coming up and the tanks really just struck me suddenly as infrastructure. Oh, my goodness! Those are infrastructure. Now previous to that moment, I could not have seen them as infrastructure but I really understood, “Oh, this is what infrastructure is. This is how we drive around. This is how we fly in planes. This is how our paper mills go.” This is the quiet stuff that’s underneath what we’re doing. We probably have passed those tanks thousands of times and we don’t really think about how it holds together a lifestyle that we live and whether you agree with it or not, it is exactly the juice, that’s where the juice is.
My personal process seems to mimic that whole idea of you’re sorting through a problem, you release it for a while. Go and sing, dance, paint, and then boom, something new gets connected and people sometimes ask me when they talk to me. Are you an art… ? What kind of an artist are you? I said “I don’t know, I don’t know what this is called, but I know I’m creating something” and I think creation is really where the excitement is.
Lisa: What types of things are you doing other than painting tanks?
Jean: We run programs. Part of our mission is one to create high visibility projects that foster the art of the possible. The other is create the programs and networking opportunities to help the creative industries grow and the third is to stimulate innovative partnerships, regionally, nationally, and internationally. One of the things that we’re doing is called creative toolbox series. One of our board members, Raphael DiLuzio, created the concept of right when the recession hit. We said.. boy we need to do something around putting some tools in place for creative people to really survive this recession and provide it very inexpensively. We’re able to get some fabulous speakers to come in and share how things work when you’re putting creative projects into gear and getting them funded.
We’ve had intellectual property seminars, we’ve had marketing seminars. Coming up we’re having something called a designed science seminar and Raphael DiLuzio is going to explain it and share the program that he’s developing at USM.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsors, Robin Hodgskin, senior vice-president and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Portland, Maine. For all your investment needs, call Robin Hodgskin at 207-771-0888. Investments and services are offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC, member SIPC and by Booth, accounting and business management services, payroll, and bookkeeping. Business is done better with Booth. Go to boothmaine.com for more information.
Lisa: What types of people have you been able to bring in as board members or contributing individuals for your organization?
Jean: It’s really fascinating because it’s such a cross-section of people and I had been through the ICL collaborative leadership course sort of simultaneously. A friend said “If you’re going to do this, you have to go through this course.”
Lisa: This is the Institute For Civic Leadership?
Jean: For Civic Leadership. They really teach collaborative leadership and one of the key components is putting unusual stakeholders together. It’s very conscious and conscientious about male/female, Democrat/Republican, business/artist and by doing that we have fascinating board of people. I think the common piece for all of them and why we can work together is this interest in creativity and a knowledge of creativity whether it’s in how they do their business or how they create art or both.
LIsa: What have some of the challenges been?
Jean: Language. I would say language is always a challenge because often times we work through language to get to a common understanding, but language can put a fog around our full meaning. What I mean by that is sometimes words don’t really quite describe what you’re trying to say. You can argue about for instance, the color blue. Is it navy blue? Is it purply blue? Is it pink blue? Is it green blue? How many shades of blue can you think of as I begin to talk about blue and when we use words to try to get to agreement, it can sometimes be a time when you have to really discuss it and really get down to what shade of blue is that.
Of course, by using that metaphor, I’m describing what can sometimes happen in politics as well because we get stuck on the words, yet it is the working through of what that word means and what color we’re really talking about that begins to get us moving forward and really creating that work that together we make it happen because it’s never one person that makes it happen.
Genevieve: Certainly public art can become a hot button. Everyone has their opinion about public art. How do you respond to your critics of the tank project?
Jean: It’s really why I wanted it out there. I really wanted a public discussion of art, of creativity. When I first started talking about this even with the newspaper, they didn’t know which reporter to send me and I said, “Well send the business reporter.” They said, “We can’t send the business reporter.” “Okay send me an arts reporter.” It’s not really just arty. It’s an interesting project because it truly is the combination of business and art but it is working as one, so it’s something else. It doesn’t fit in either of those boxes and public art is that vehicle that allows us, not allows us just, almost from inside we have to express what we think about what’s happening in the public art arena and that’s a good thing.
The big things I learned personally through that process was to sit and listen. Hear what people are saying, hear where the fears are, hear where the excitement is, hear where the frustrations are, because all of that is part of what we’re dealing with in our community. It wasn’t easy and I didn’t know, I wasn’t knowledgeable about how it would affect me and what I would have to do.
Lisa: How did it affect you?
Jean: I think it gave me a bigger connection to all the levels of frustration in the community and a bigger connection to all the beauty and high thinking in the community as well. It’s again opposite ends coming together and saying, “Wow, we’re all connected to these big amazing thoughts” and we’re also connected to these very dark thoughts and together when we express them and put them out there, then we move forward as a community. It’s really fascinating stuff what art brings up.
Lisa: Do you think that’s a metaphor for the individual where most of us have dark thoughts? Not that I’m admitting anything, but let’s just say most of us have dark thoughts but most of us have thoughts of beauty. Do you think that that …?
Jean: It just seems like the human condition and the more we can grab onto our positive thoughts and actually create what we imagine in those big spaces, I think the more exciting our lives are, the more exciting our community is. Some people said, “Who are you to do this?” I said, “I don’t know, I’m just me. I’m just Jean. I had the picture, I talked to people and really who are you not to create your big vision as well?” and I find it wonderful that because the center for creativity exists, people share with me their big ideas and I can’t always do much about it but I can tell them my journey and what I did. I can give suggestions, hope, ways that they might go about it that they might not have thought about before.
I think people in the community sharing their big visionary ideas is an important part of our creative growth and our economic growth. The more we can unleash the creativity in the community and the more we can help put people together to create these beautiful things that people are thinking about, the more wonderful our lives become individually and as a full community as well.
Lisa: Jean, as we’re recording this, you’re getting ready to go to Paris. Are you doing this as a means of stimulating your own creativity?
Jean: I’m sure it will but interesting story on this. It’s a bucket list item for my husband. Not too long ago this past fall he fell very ill and he is a very healthy athletic man, handsome too I may add.
Lisa: … And I hope he listens to this because I can hear the love which is coming from you.
Jean: Well, we both had a scare that he couldn’t go to work for 3 weeks and that had never ever happened to him before and he said, “I’m looking at my bucket list and I have a masters in art history and I haven’t been to Paris” and I said “You’re right honey. We’re going.” I don’t know how. I don’t know really why I think this is realistic but we just pieced it together in odd ways and we’re going on April 1st.
Lisa: On April Fools Day and also I think Palm Sunday.
Jean: Yes.
Lisa: All kinds of auspicious things that are happening.
Jean: We’re going to have to really flow with the community of the world to go through Palm Sunday and April Fools Day on the same day traveling.
Genevieve: Jean, do you want to tell our listeners about the next toolbox lecture?
Jean: Yes, on May 9th, we’ll be talking about design science. It’s really a conversation about sharing what is design science and how does it affect you and your work, and the work can be artistic work or business work and design science is idea that the language of design and the language of science have connections and the more we connect them, the more we can stake problems accurately and solve problems well. Raphael DiLuzio from USM will share a little bit of history about what is design science and what is it being used for and then we’ll have a speaker from Synectics which is one of the early people involved in this whole idea of design science they’re from Cambridge, Mass and they’ll be up here to really talk about how it’s applied in the real world.
Lisa: How can people find out more about this toolbox series or about your organization?
Jean: Go to the website mainecenterforcreativity.org.
Lisa: Jean, we wish you all the best on your trip, you and your husband, and I’m sure that it’s a great bucket list item to be following through on and I’m sure you’ll come back creatively inspired.
Jean: I was just going to say who knows what I might bring back from this trip.
Lisa: Well, we hope, you’ll come back in and talk to us about what you learn.
Jean: Definitely, I will. Thank you for the invitation.
Speaker 1: Our bodies are often the first indicators that something isn’t quite working. Are you having difficulty sleeping, anxiety, or chronic pain issues? May be you’ve had a job loss, divorce, or recent empty nest. Dr. Lisa specializes in helping people through times of change and inspiring individuals to create joyful sustainable lives. Visit doctorlisa.org for more information on her Yarmouth, Maine medical practice and schedule your office visit or phone consult today.
Lisa: We are in studio today with Willa Wirth who has had many lives I suspect and even many lives within the one she’s living now walking this earth as a human being, but currently she is up on the East End here in Portland and does so many things but partially she’s a jewelry designer and she also does a lot of yoga. You should see her Facebook page, it’s amazing. There’s a lot of creativity flowing which is why we thought she would be perfect for the show on creativity. Welcome to you Willa. Thanks for coming in today.
Willa: Thanks for having me. It’s an honor.
Lisa: I have Genevieve next to me, Genevieve Morgan, my co-host.
Genevieve: Hi, Willa.
Willa: Good morning, Genevieve.
Lisa: Willa you came in wearing workout clothes, which of course it’s radio, so people can’t really see you, but I am outing you. That’s all good. We like Lululemon Can you tell me why is working out so important to your creativity, for you?
Willa: Actually it’s like first priority aside from coffee in the morning and it’s very important to me because I was telling you before we came on the air that it’s an access to transformation for me, where the energy of what’s going on in my thoughts becomes something totally different and great ideas come in, more breath comes in. It just … it taps into just the creative space that I feel free and that I feel alive and I feel inspired. I feel really courageous and brave, and I get really excited and even when I’m challenged and in that excitement, I’m like okay I’m going to stand on my head today and do my abs while I’m standing on my head. After I do, I do like number multiples, and multiples of 11 and great music, so it’s kind of like this physical lyrical salad between movement and thought and challenge and breath and the last bit of it is ever a fashion show.
Lisa: Willia you talk a lot about energy and what part of your, how has energy in your relationship to how you feel and sense energy outside of yourself played into becoming an artist and becoming a jewelry designer.
Willa: Well, in that question, you said becoming and I think we already are.
Willa: What this compact energy is called a human being. We already are, what we’re here to do, and what we’re supposed to be, but we’ve spent a lot of time distracting ourselves and once we continue to uncover and remove what has gotten in the way or whatever it is, whether it’s a thought or a true literal thing. What you realize is you become what you already have been the whole time along and it’s beautiful and you don’t have to strive to be something you’re not. That’s what’s tiresome, exhausting, fear-based but when you just are what you are, you inspire people, you let love in, you give love out. You create things that you didn’t realize because it just happens. It’s a part of the process but you’re actively engaged and involved, so there is magic there. There are possibilities there.
There are things that do happen that people wouldn’t believe and you tell them and they’re skeptical because they don’t live in that consciousness. They’ve chosen to not, but it’s all energy whether it’s positive or negative, it’s all energy. My path and my life had I would say is our choice, but for me, it’s not really been a choice. I’ve been a really creative being my whole life whether I’m drawing spirals in the sand or I’m stacking rocks or I want to cook something and I’m tasting it until the spices are right or …
When you have an idea and it’s coupled with a mission, something that has meaning. The direction of it is so powerful. Dr. Wayne Dyer breaks down the word enthusiasm to … I wish I could remember it specifically but it’s like God with, so when you have enthusiasm about something, there’s a force, it’s like there is voltage in there that it’s like it’s happening. It’s not going to happen, it’s happening.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our interview after acknowledging the following generous sponsors, Akari, an urban sanctuary of beauty, wellness, and style, located on Middle Street in Portland Maine’s Old Port. Follow them on Facebook and learn more about their new boutique and Medispa at akaribeauty.com and by Dr. John Herzog, of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine, makers of Dr. John’s Brain-ola cereal. Find them on the web at orthopedicspecialistsme.com.
Lisa: Tell me how do you work with having to make a living in your life? You also are a businesswoman. You’ve identified that the fact that you have a store up on Munjoy Hill on the East End. I know that you have worked with our friend Robin Hodgskin who came in and did a girl power segment with us.
Willa: She’s amazing. I love her so much.
Lisa: She is and she’s very good at bringing people back to the concrete. We actually have a Margaret Minister O’Keefe who’s a lawyer and does creative work with creative people.
Willa: Yeah, Margaret’s a great woman as well.
Lisa: Right, but you have to be able to live within this world. You have to be able to sort of … how do you not compromise that creative energy and at the same time function in a world that is going to demand certain things of you like pay your light bill.
Willa: Right, I’ll tell you what, it’s a good question and is definitely against between incredibly practical organization and manifestation and prayingbecause a part of me is like, “Oh, dear God, please I need a trip. Take me away” and another part is like “Wait, I’m so lucky that I have these lights. Okay, this is the bill,” It’s like I have to kind of force myself to look at it differently, because some of these things have really challenged me. They’re really pragmatic, point and shoot I own a business, my light bill, my … but these challenges have actually motivated me to look at it differently.
Lisa: How do you look at it differently? How would you look at your light bill differently?
Willa: I look it in the way that it fuels all my tools. It’s like what’s going to keep the drill going, the beautiful picture window on, it’s like fire to my world. I’m grateful for it. I’m grateful for this bill that I’m paying because it’s adding light to my life. I’ve had to really force myself to look at things differently like this because otherwise it’s stressful. There are things that I’m still really working on as a business owner to “step up” but another part of it is the best I can do is show up every day, and I’m so grateful about what I’ve created thus far. I’m grateful that people enjoy what I create. I really want to step up and share as much as I have to offer in this planet, so just starting with what I have is excellent, but I would say in ideal situation, I would definitely like to have my website to the next notch.
It’s fine where it’s at, but I’m a visionary. I’m happy yes with the way things are but I’m a secret to, so I’m like okay, let’s take this and let’s bring it to the next level people. I do my best to take responsibility for the things that have happened to me because I know it’s my choice. Maybe not what happens to me, but how I look at it, and what I’m going to do about it. Do I want to repeat that story anymore? Really? Over and over? As humans, we are brilliant and what goes in the mind just continues to pump around. It’s kind of like a cycle. We have to add in new information. It’s imperative, so you’ve got to work with fear and be constructive with it.
Lisa: Well, I have one last question. We could talk I think for, Genevieve. Right? We could talk all morning, look at this.
Willa: This is fun.
Lisa: It is really fun. Yeah. You’ll have to come back?
Willa: I’d love to. I’d be honored
Lisa: Yes definitely you’ll come back.
Willa: I’ll wear a different color.
Lisa: Yes, well and you’ll have to bring some more of your jewelry because it’s beautiful. I met you at a place where you were showing your jewelry and my daughter Sophie really resonated to a piece, and I got a piece for my daughter and myself. Here’s my question. Why Maine? What is it about Maine? You have a water theme that goes throughout many of the pieces that you do including the weave that’s on your chest. It’s a pendant that you’re wearing. Why Maine, and what is it about Maine that speaks to you?
Willa: I would say it’s the ocean, absolutely the ocean, that’s what keeps me here and that’s what keeps me coming back. There was a stage where I really wanted to move to Colorado because that part of the earth really, really sings to me as well. But Maine, the ocean, there’s a warmth in the people. The community here is so lovely. It’s dynamic. In a way, that maybe you wouldn’t think and I really like that. I also like that you can drive across Portland in like 10 minutes. Rush hour, may be 20 max. And you know, 100 miles from Logan.
Maine is crisp and it’s beautiful and you can just be in nature in like a snap. That’s really important to me. That’s what keeps me whole, is nature. Maine is it. It’s beautiful. Beautiful people live here like you guys, and like you, making the world more colorful.
Lisa: That’s great. Willa, can you tell us where your store is?
Willa: Yeah, I’m up on Munjoy Hill. The address is 99 Congress Street. I keep my hours Tuesday through Saturday 12 to 6. Sometimes I jaunt out and put a note in the door like if it’s gorgeous out and/or I hop on the Paddleboard and so, but appointment anytime and I love to have people come into the shop and find something special for them. It’s very cool.
Lisa: You have a website?
Willa: I do have a website willawirth.com and I never had a plug for Facebook on it, but I have someone doing that because my Facebook is what I keep. I like to pop all my new pieces and my thoughts, and I really like that. The full part of who I am, and all my work is custom handmade one of a kind. It’s really neat for people to come in and try it on and feel what it feels like because they’ll know. That’s what’s really amazing about it. That’s the energy piece. It’s very interesting. It’s nice to see people find something, identify with it, and take it and keep my lights on.
Lisa: It’s good to pay the light bill, yes indeed.
Willa: It is.
Lisa: Yes it is. We very much appreciate your coming in and talking to us today about creativity. Willa, you are clearly a very accomplished jewelry designer as I know, having purchased several of your pieces.
Willa: Thank you.
Lisa: I wish you all the best and …
Willa: Thank you.
Lisa: Keep putting that energy out there.
Willa: Oh I will.
Speaker 1: This section of the Dr. Lisa Belisle radio hour and podcast is brought you by the following generous sponsors, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage in Yarmouth, Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With RE/MAX Heritage, it’s your move. Learn more at rheritage.com and by Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, with offices in Yarmouth, Maine, the Shepard Financial team is there to help you evolve with your money. For more information on Shepard Financials refreshing perspective on investing, please E-mail Tom at shepardfinanacialmaine.com.
Lisa: Today on the Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast, we are pleased to have with us Mark Bessire who is the Director of the Portland Museum of Art. Mark I’ve been to your museum many, many times, both as museum member and also member of the public, I brought my children there. What I love about the Portland Museum of Art is it’s not a sort of staid and clunky institution. It’s got things for people at all different stages in their lives. You’ve been dealing with artists that are lot of different sorts. Is this one of the things that drew you to the Portland Museum of Art?
Mark: I definitely think so. I mean the museum itself is such an extraordinary platform. If you consider we’re a city with about 65,000 people what may be I don’t know, 250 in Greater Portland, we have a membership level that’s almost 8000 people. In terms of demographics, you inherently have this community that cares about art. Right now, the moment is so strong. How many cities have ecology we have where you got galleries, you got Maine College of Art, you’ve got the space, and then you got the literary side, you get the Telling Room, the Portland Museum of Art and they’re all basically within 10-square blocks.
On a first Friday night, you could sample just about any aspects of the arts whether you’re going to ovations, the stage, or the symphony. You have to look to a city probably 2 to 3 times our population base to have the amount of things you could do on any given night.
Lisa: So there’s creativity is just seeping from the pores of the city.
Mark: It’s bubbling out. It’s nice because I think, the word ecology is with so overuse or has too much baggage, but it has this notion that to make a good ecology that works for everybody, you’ve got to have folks who are students, folks who are emerging artists, folks who are practicing, folks that are here but could be in New York or Chicago. You have an institution that gives you the catalogue, the institution that gives you the pamphlet, the bar where you can have your open house whether it’s music or it’s a poetry reading.
All those things kind of breed into what’s making Portland so successful. Folks don’t do those events all in the same night. Actually, Portland is the greatest when there’s too much happening on one night. What was it Friday night? Snoop dog, the President, and the moustache thing at the radio music hall, right. It was like what a night for Portland. You had the ultimate high-low, all at once. Half the town’s cut off for the President. Snoop Dog’s across the street and occupying Maine is in the square. It was just like, someone came and dropped from another city and they’re like what’s happening in this place?
Genevieve: You live in the coolest place on earth?
Mark: It feels really great and I think all that energy feeds off with each other, like it really does drive. Having more things happen at one time is really exciting. The museum is luckily where we’re located. I like that we’re on upper Congress in some ways as an anchor. I didn’t know when I took the job, but when I go back to the Payson Building is 1983. That building gets put in 1983. It was really pretty much the only modern building in the state.
Lisa: There was a famous architect for you …
Mark: Harry Cobb, actually his family, actually his great-grandparents lived on the same lot that the building was built on, and he’s been going to North Haven forever. He knew about the geography. It’s kind of neat, if you go through our building, top floor you can see pigs from the backside and then the Congress street side on a clear day, you can see Mount Washington. He clearly knew how to position the building and then locate it there, but even when I first arrived 13 years ago and actually Gen you guys came right up. It was pretty sketchy right up there on the ground.
It has been a lot of change around, but having the museum is that anchor position up there, really does make a difference. The building sends a real strong signal I think out to the art community.
Lisa: Having done a few First Friday Art Walks, I know that I’ve seen more and more artists building out studio or gallery space along Congress Street. Have you also noticed that?
Mark: Yeah. Having the studios for Maine, one of the things, my Mike Brennan our mayor, knows about it, the city knows about it. The thing is city is developed. You don’t want to lose your artists’ presence downtown because that adds that sense of authenticity or integrity where you can drop in. You go to studio building, Chris Campbell’s building and SPACE is right there. You have to be able to have immediate access to artists to make that kind of ecology really work. If they get priced out of it and you don’t have that real presence downtown, that would be, is a real threat to the community actually.
Lisa: It’s not just gallery space and a place to sell your work, but it’s also the studio space itself.
Mark: Absolutely.
Lisa: It’s a place to create.
Mark: The nice thing up here in Portland is we don’t have much bureaucracy. If you want to go see an artist work in a studio, you can make a phone call and you can go and do it. It’s not that hard. People have this, in some ways the gallery experience for some people aren’t used to buying art, you see an item on the wall, it doesn’t have a price tag and how do you buy a work of art with no honesty. We need to break down some of those barriers because I think the galleries have the biggest struggle here.
Lisa: I guess what I’m interested in especially with The Telling Room what you’ve been doing with the museum, is how the future of our economy in America is going to be more based on people open to their creative, the creativity and the natural based creativity. Apple is the most valued company in America right now. One of the reasons is because it was open to creativity. We have to get the right brain, left brain integrated and I feel like you with the museum are really helping do that for our state.
Mark: I’m glad you said that. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do and we want to be as open. Again, we all think about how open and getting people in, and the notion of having the museum, really what we’re here in many ways to do is to showcase the creativity in the state. Our job is to bring folks in so more people can have access to the people that we’re showing.
Lisa: I know that we don’t have much time. There is so much more that we could talk about in this. I’m somewhat fascinated by the 18-year-old. I knew that he wanted to be a museum director. Can you just give me a little brief snip it on how that happened because I’ve an 18-year-old…
Mark: My parents only happy with seeing art. That’s all we did. We were, I was lucky enough to travel.
Lisa: You had testimony to access.
Mark: Travel a family testimony access, and my brother actually is a Deputy Director of the ICA in Boston, so something …
Lisa: Which by the way I’ve been to and I love.
Mark: Which is fantastic.
Lisa: Congratulations to him.
Mark: Thank you. Yeah. He’s great too. I know, we just grew up that’s how we did. I grew up mostly in Manhattan, in the weekends, with my parents, you saw shows. Generally once you grow up, I grew up in upper Westside, and Gen the upper Eastside. Our playground in the map was always free as a kid. You can pay a nickel if you want. It’s a wonderful situation to but access, suggested it’s like $22, but it’s actually for a kid it’s a nickel. That was your playground. What’s the great book? May be my wife became an art historian mostly because Mixed Up Files
Mark: This notion if the kid’s wandering into the museum and getting to spend the night and they realize, “Oh my gosh! These items of history are not dead, they’re alive. They’re really relevant.” This notion that history, we grew up where history someone taught about this mummified history and access to the Arts really allows to look at the past in a much more interesting way. The director thing, I’ve no idea where it…except for looking at art, knowing want to do it. I want to college away. Meaning I went from New York to Connecticut and it didn’t work out. I went back to New York and I started working at a museum, I guess my sophomore year in college and just stuck with it.
There is no linear path to a director that one tells you not to do it, because there is no real way to do it. You just have to. It’s a passion like. It’s like being an artist, though I definitely can’t draw. I’m tone deaf, I really have no creative talent, but a director is more of a producer. Like a producer of a movie, you have to keep an eye on all the moving pieces, keep the talent happy, raise the money, and then coordinate different groups bringing together to do a production. It’s like being a producer would be the closest.
Lisa: That is your art. You’re producing, thinking bigger than we’re going to give you credit for that.
Mark: I guess. Right.
Lisa: We’re also going to let you tell us where it is that people can find more information about the Portland Museum of Art.
Mark: Well, first of all, we’re on Congress Street as you all know, and so you’re always welcome. We’re almost open all the time during the summer, seven days a week. You can go to our website. We’re in most published material all over the city. We’d love to have anyone come through, and this is a big year for us. We open the Winslow Homer Studio in September. And Winslow Homer, we talk about creativity so much of the notion of that repetition of Maine is so tied to Winslow Homer where lots of great artists came to Maine to Monhegan in the 1820’s, Truscott then Church and Cole come.
Hudson River Valley School, come to Katahdin but it’s not really till Homer shows up in 1880s that after he shows up you’ve got Marin, Hopper, O’Keeffe, all the great modernists start to flow through and really that broke the gates open. The 20th century, the artists who come to Maine, whether it’s Borovski who lives here or it’s Alex Katz, or it’s Louis Dodd, or Pope Bell You’ve also got Skowhegan, you’ve got Jacob Lawrence, William Pope Bell. The diversity of artists coming through Maine, up until today Camp up in South West Harbor, Haystack you name it. It’s all here.
Lisa: It started with Homer?
Mark: We’re really lucky. I think Homer is a linchpin because he tells a story where he is the connection to the past and he’s the connection to the future and he is the artist who came to Maine and stayed. His greatest work is the last 30 years of his life in many ways and that’s the most creative and it’s the platform to modernism. When we’re starting the studio what we were really doing, he is finding this moment where we can connect the past creativity of Maine to the future by using the notion of a studio.
One interesting thing I think in contemporary artists is many were doing with digital material. It’s amazing how many folks are going back to the very traditional studio practice. It is for writers too. Musicians, getting back to this square space somewhere in Portland or in your home where you actually do your work versus this moment where it was all in Starbucks on your computer. Folks are getting back into their little cubicles and creating creative spaces throughout Portland where amazing things are happening.
Lisa: The museum’s website is …
Mark: I guess, www.portlandmuseum.org excuse me, we’re an org.
Lisa: Very good. I encourage people who are listening to spend some time looking at your website, may be going out. They can actually visit the Homer.
Mark: We’ll be opening in September, and we’ll be online this summer when you can start signing up for tours and it’s going to be incredible.
Lisa: It is going to be incredible. I walked around that area and …
Mark: It’s beautiful.
Lisa: Looked from the outside. I can’t wait for that. I will see you over at the Portland Museum of Art at sometime in the very near future.
Mark: Great. Well, thank you all so much. I think your show is so fabulous. Getting the notion of creativity and really taking to a broad audience about access and really inclusive which is what so fantastic. Thank you.
Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa radio hour an d podcast airing on April 15, 2012 with the topic, Creativity. Today, we spoke with Jean McGinnis from the Maine Center for creativity, Willa Wirth, local silver designer and artisan and Mark Bessire, Director of the Portland Museum of Art. To learn more about guests on the Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast, please visit doctorlisa.org. Become a podcast subscriber through Dr. Lisa Belisle on the iTunes website, and have our podcast delivered weekly to your inbox.
Be sure to like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page and send us an E-mail at [email protected] if you’d like to become E-news subscriber. We thank you very much for being a part of our world, and helping us to continue to be creative in the way that we approach health and wellness. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. May you have a bountiful life!
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors, Maine Magazine, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin, RE/MAX Heritage, Robin Hodgskin at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Dr. John Hurzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Booth, UNE the University of New England, and Akari.
The Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast is recorded in downtown Portland at the offices of Maine Magazine on 75 Market Street. It is produced by Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Editorial content produced Chris Kast and Genevieve Morgan. Audio production and original music by John C. McCain. Our assistant producer is Jane Pate. For more information on our hosts, production team, Maine magazine, or any of the guests featured here today, visit us doctorlisa.org.