Transcription of Designing Maine #175
Speaker 1: You’re listening to Love Maine Radio with Dr. Lisa Belisle recorded in the studio of Main Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a physician trained in family and preventative medicine, acupuncture and public health. She offers medical care and acupuncture at Brunswick Family Medicine.
Read more about her integrative approach to wellness in Maine Magazine. Love Maine Radio is available for download free on iTunes. See the Love Maine Radio Facebook page or www.lovemaineradio.com for details.
Now, here are our few highlights from this week’s program.
Heather: Being a stylist, being an artist working in textiles, working in painting, working in drying, it’s all the same to me because it’s all form, line, color, shape, and when I’m creating a set for a photo shoot, it’s like me putting together shapes in my head for a painting. It’s the same thing. It’s just playing with different materials I guess.
Erin: Having that graphic design background has completely made things so much easier for me I think and I really believe that because I’m able to market myself and design my own brand. I think brands are really powerful.
Speaker 1: Love Maine Radio is made possibly with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary By Design, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Harding Lee Smith of The Rooms, and Bangor Savings Bank.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine Radio, show number 175, Designing Maine. Airing for the first time on Sunday, January 18th, 2015. Maine is home to many talented artists and designers.
Today, we speak with Heather Chontos and Erin Flett, both of whom are making their marks on the world of style from fashion to home furnishings. You have seen their work nationally and internationally and publications such as Oprah Magazine. We are proud to have them designing in Maine. Thank you for joining us.
I am always intrigued to speak with people who have spent time outside of the State of Maine and then specifically choose to come back. I love speaking with creative individuals who are passionate about what they do and passionate about bringing their style and their vision to Maine.
Today, on Love Maine Radio, I’m interviewing Heather Chontos. She is a designer, artist, and stylist who has a studio in the State Theater Building in Portland. She has styled for Gourmet Magazine, Gap, Anthropologie, Coach, Travel & Leisure, Bon Appétit, and many more.
She’s also the mother of daughters’ Cody and Zana. I suspect that might be the more important thing in your life.
Heather: They’re the main feature for sure.
Dr. Lisa: Thanks so much for coming in and you have a great story and I’m glad you’re willing to share it with us.
Heather: Thanks.
Dr. Lisa: Heather, you’re originally from New York and you spent in Barcelona.
Heather: I did. I was a precocious teenager who went to the South of France when I was 13 with a family in New York as their babysitter and that was pretty much it. I decided at that point I didn’t want to live in the States which lasted for about 10 years, a little bit longer.
I applied for a study abroad program when I was 15 to go to Barcelona and I had graduated already from high school. When I went, I was actually 16, so I had already graduated and I loved it and I left out with an amazing family. They’re all artists and designers and it felt pretty homey for me to be there, so I stuck around probably a little longer than they were expecting. It was a good platform for me to start on the big adventure for sure.
Dr. Lisa: That’s interesting because … How old are your daughters now?
Heather: 15, almost 16 and 6.
Dr. Lisa: When you think about your daughter … It’s Cody who’s the older one. When you think about her being out and about in the world, how does that translate for you?
Heather: It terrifies me that she might do the same thing. I suppose it’s different because she … Cody was born in London. Her father is Swedish and she has pretty much spent the entirety of her life traveling. Her desire to hop around in that same way, it’s … She wants to do it, but she doesn’t feel as compelled to run off and find the world whereas I grew up in a family …
My parents still don’t have passports. They had never left the United States and it was a very different upbringing. I think that’s played a big part because we’ve had a lot of adventures. I guess she’s not having that sort of yearning for that kind of life where I definitely was having that.
Thinking about her going out into the world, yeah, it’s terrifying and we’ve been on our own since she was four. The fact that she may go off and do her own thing of … Well, she may, she will go off and do her own thing very soon. It’s almost like losing a partner which is kind of a funny thing to say about your own child, but we’ve grown up together because I was 21 when I had her, so it’s a whole new phase of life coming up pretty soon.
We’ll see what she does. I don’t know. She wants to go to school in Europe because she is actually a Swedish citizen and I might follow her, I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens. She expressed that she like that to be the case and we could all go and live in Sweden while she goes to school so that we can be nearby. I don’t know, we’re very, very different. Very, very different.
Dr. Lisa: How would her younger daughter … I mean younger daughter, your younger daughter, her younger sister. How would she feel about that?
Heather: Yeah, she’s pretty easy going I would say. It’s a funny little unit that we have going on. It’s where a very tiny, little family and I think wherever Cody wants to go, Zana is going to want to go, of course. They’re really great. They’re super open to things being different and changing.
We just moved to Peaks Island like a month ago. It was a decision that happened in a day and our lease was up on our apartment in the West End and I found this adorable little house and they were like, “Yeah, that would be so fun. We’ll take the ferry and go to school everyday.” They’re in to it, so I think they’re both open to transition and change.
I try to express it as an adventure all the time. It’s not some daunting and negative experience. They’re always up for it, so it’s good.
Dr. Lisa: It’s interesting to hear that you come from a family in New York that was sort of content to be where it was. Your parents not having passports …
Heather: Still in the same place.
Dr. Lisa: Still in the same place, but you early on … You’re very different, but early on, you had something that happened to you that most people could never imagine. You lost your vision, you were 13 years old, so do you think that that shifted the way that you approach the world?
Heather: Definitely. I was always very interested in the possibilities of traveling. I think before I lost my eyesight, I wanted to be a marine biologist like every 13 year old girl does. I have written to the embassy in Australia and asked them how I could come live there so that I could come and study.
I was obsessed with Australia and I wanted to go there and become a marine biologist, and then … That was kind of pre losing my eyesight. I was very science oriented, very health oriented into running and very athletic and then I lost my eyesight and it just heightened everything so much. I guess at a very young age, I always had this understanding of how things are not always going to be the same and that major things can happen which can alter your life which I don’t think you should necessarily understand at age 13, but that was not the case for me.
It was eight months. It was about six to eight months, I can’t even remember. I woke up one morning. I had enormous amounts of pain and then my eyesight got blurry and by the end of the day, I couldn’t see anything. It was a matter of just months and months of playing around with medication and tons of testing and they didn’t understand it. The doctors didn’t understand it, so it was an intense process to go through.
By the time I was done, I had developed a different survival skill and I guess I just wanted to experience everything and see everything. That came on like a ton of bricks afterwards. As much as my parents are so … They’re home buddies and they work on their house and they make this beautiful place and they’ve never left it and they talk about moving now and I look at them and think it’s never going to happen.
They understood that I had experienced something and needed to just go off into the world and do what I needed to do because I had just gone through this crazy thing. They let me explore and they let me go and I worked and saved up money and got scholarships and went off and did what I needed to do, but it definitely became … The world became more visual obviously for me afterwards for sure and it continues to be that way.
I had a couple of episodes that happened throughout the years that may or may not be related, but I lost my vision for a period of a half an hour at one point when I was pregnant with Zana and it was terrifying because I thought that I’m losing my sight again. I remember being in the hospital at one point and the doctors preparing me for the fact that I was going to have to learn braille and then I may have to go to school for the blind and then I may never see again. They had no idea what was going on, there was no apparent real reason as to why it was happening.
Having those experiences … I think probably in the back of my mind I’m always worried that it will happen again because we don’t understand it and there’s no reasoning behind it, so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t happen again and that sounds kind of negative. I’m not living everyday thinking, “Oh my God, I’m never going to be able to see again.”
It’s definitely a thought, it happens, it passes through my mind. I’m very happy that I get to have this fun life where I create things and people really love it which is nice too. Definitely, it changed everything and it changed how I see most parts of my life and what’s important, what’s not important and all of that.
I imagine most people, when they go through something, that changes their perception of what their life is going to be like that they would feel the same I would think. Luckily, I got my vision back, it’s not something that has maintained being a problem in my life. I’m a lucky one. People get sick and never get better, so I feel like I’m pretty lucky because at least I came out the other side and I have a different understanding of things which is great.
Dr. Lisa: Really, it sounds like they really never understood why you lost your vision. You never really got a diagnosis. There’s not anything you can do to prevent this from happening again.
Heather: No. It’s a very strange illness. It’s called optic neuritis. Mine was bilateral with both eyes. Optic neuritis is something that happens in women in their 30s that generally are having an onset of multiple sclerosis. I remember at one point they were trying to find me a support group and they could only find three or four women in the entire United States that actually it happened to, but of course everyone was in their 30s and I was 13 and it was like there wasn’t a lot in common for us to discuss.
Of course, these people were actually really sick. They had multiple sclerosis. It’s a horrible, horrible disease and the fact that they were going through this that they were experiencing it on a very different level. Yeah, there was no … It just happened. They say it could have been stress. At age 13, I don’t know what kind of level of stress I was having that would create that. Yeah, there’s no reason. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, so it’s hard to pinpoint.
It’s an illness that’s very … Every time I go for a checkup, I have a team of students that come in and observe me like I am just the most fascinating guinea pig on the face of the … It’s basically your optic nerve becomes so inflamed that it no longer works and it hurts. It hurts a lot. You imagine having an inflamed nerve in your head which is basically what was why it hurts so bad. I couldn’t move my eyes, I couldn’t move my neck.
My optic nerve now is kind of amazing. It looks like the pictures of it are wild. It looks like those old illustrations from the war when like the … They show like the … When there’s shooting at each other and there’s just … There’s like bright orange, glowy looking sort of explosions in the sky. It looks like that and it’s kind of wild and people are just … Doctors and students are fascinated by it. It’s pretty funny because they just don’t see it. This doesn’t happen very often.
As far as I understand, I was just in Vienna in September and I went on a wine tasting tour and there was a conference there of neurologists and brain surgeons, some very, very smart people that were … They were on a conference and these guys were from Johns Hopkins and I asked them. I said, “You ever come across …” They said never in their 30 year career had they ever come across it, so that opened up a can of worms because …
There was a nice upfront conversation over many glasses of wine in the countryside of Vienna. Again, here are these doctors from Johns Hopkins that are looking at all these patients with many different illnesses and they had never come across it either. I guess I’m kind of special in that regard. It’s an interesting … That’s an interesting part of my story for sure.
Dr. Lisa: Here on Love Maine Radio, we’ve long recognized the link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the topic is Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
Tom: Wouldn’t it be great if we could spend our days doing all the things we dreamed of while gazing up at the stars on a crystal clear night? Yet for most people, and I include myself in that group, the realities of daily living prevent it from happening. We all have responsibilities to our employers, our families, people who rely on us to be there for them, but what if you could get a place where you are able to reinvent yourself and start a new journey that was more fulfilling?
What if you could define what true north meant and find your star and start walking towards it? What if you had the money to embark on a second life because financial worry had fallen off your radar? This my friends is what I call the seven state of your financial evolution. Well, I’m certainly not there yet. I’m here to help you get there. It’s time to evolve. Get in touch with Shepard Financial and we’ll help you evolve with your money.
Speaker 1: Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Flagship Harbor Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Flagship Harbor Advisors and Shepard Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
Love Maine Radio is brought to you by Bangor Savings Bank. For over 150 years, Bangor Savings has believed to the innate ability of the people of Maine to achieve their goals and dreams. Whether it’s personal finance, business banking, or wealth management assistance you’re looking for, at Bangor Savings Bank, you matter more. For more information, visit www.bangor.com.
Dr. Lisa: It’s interesting to me to know that before this happened, you are more sciencey, and linear, and health, and then whatever happened in your brain at the time that this was going on has shifted things, and then when you came out the other side, all of a sudden, you literally saw things differently. Then you had turned this into you became very interested in art and you became very interested in the visual.
It sounds like you have two different kinds of things you do that you style for people, but then you also are an artist.
Heather: I don’t see them as being different. Many times, people ask me, “How did you become a stylist?” Being a stylist I guess is an extension of everything else. I went to college in London, I studied art history. I did a program that was actually art history and material studies, so it was studying chemistry and learning how to conserve artwork as well as studying the history of it.
My dorm room, my first year of college I met a student who was a painter, amazing painter and we started painting on stuff. I had always drawn but I had never really worked with paint before. It became very interesting to me and that progressed.
Then I was working with an amazing furniture designer in London and some woman came in one day and she said she was a prop stylist and that she needed to get some things for a photo shoot and I was like, “What? What is that? What is a prop stylist?”
She explained it to me and we went for coffee the next day and she talked to me about it and I was like, “I could do that. I could totally figure that one out.” I got a sketchbook and I drew all these scenarios of what would be interesting photo shoots and I colored them in.
I called 10 different editors in London and three of them said, “Yeah, come on in.” The first one, [Alfreda Pennell 00:20:38] was the … She’s still there. She is the design director at the Telegraph Magazine in London. I guess it’s like the Saturday magazine and she looked at my sketchbook and she’s like, “Yeah, I like these ideas. Do you think you could pull it off?” I was like, “Yeah, of course.”
I was 19 I think and so I did and she sent me to the house of this amazing, amazing, amazing photographer Bill Batten who is like one of the world’s best interior photographers. He works for World Of Interiors Magazine and just CasaVogue …
The guy was phenomenal and we played around at his house with all these things that I got from shops or … I knew all these designers because I have been working with furniture designers and then I made a bunch of the stuff myself and took it from there.
I think the thing is being a stylist, being an artist working in textiles, working in painting, working in drying, it’s all the same to me because it’s all form, line, color, shape, and have a successful image be created. Yes, you need to understand how photography works and you need to understand how an image will translate whether it’s in person in a window or whether it’s coming to print somewhere which you learn over time just through experience.
It’s all the same. It’s all the same thing to me. I don’t differentiate it. When I’m creating a set for a photo shoot, it’s like me putting together shapes in my head for a pating, it’s the same thing. It’s just playing with different materials I guess.
Dr. Lisa: The publications that you’ve worked for are really impressive.
Heather: Thanks.
Dr. Lisa: Gourmet Magazine, you worked briefly, you said, for Cooking Light, Bon Appétit, Travel & Leisure. What are some of the favorite things that you’ve created, scenes that you’ve created, things that you’ve been a part of? What has really drawn you in and caused you to be excited?
Heather: I started as an intern at World Of Interiors Magazine and the first photo shoot I did for them is probably still my favorite. World Of Interiors is still, to this day, just … They represent a different level of design thought and creativity that should be implemented more and it’s not. We’ve become very formulaic especially in this country where things are set out in very regimental as far as design trends go and it’s kind of boring. To me, sort of disappointing actually.
I think that my favorite … World Of Interiors would be number one, but I was the art director for the photographer Corinne Day. She passed away a couple of years ago, but she created a world in fashion. It was funny because a lot of the magazines on that list were all very food oriented, but before I did any food, which I do love working with, I did a lot of fashion.
We did stories for British Vogue and Italian Vogue that were just wild. She would pick me up in this Town Car and we would go to the craziest ends of London and find furniture that was ripped apart that I could paint or I could reconstruct and then we’d go to locations where sort of to crop it and falling apart and we would make it into this magical place where all the sudden this whole other scenario is being created.
Those were definitely my favorite days because I was allowed to just completely be me as a creative person. Then I moved back to the states … Yeah, I would say after that, Gourmet without a doubt. It was [Richard Freddie 00:24:51] who is the creative director there. He would give us a script and there was a story and there was always a character and there will be a location.
There wasn’t a lot of money to go to Brazil, so we did a story once in New Jersey and it was meant to be Brazil and we found these little kids on the beach whose parents let us very nicely take them and use them as models. We had models too. When you look at these photographs, it’s like, “Where did you go? Where was that shoot?” Some crappy beach in New Jersey that we just made.
We got these amazing props and create stuff and there would be the food stylist who was incredible making this amazing meal. It was this funny thing where the meal created a story and then there was a character that implemented that story. We did that over and over again in amazing locations with incredible photographers.
I am really fortunate that I have worked with some of the world’s best. My very best friend and my favorite, Jon Cornick, he is amazing. [Bill Brenowitz 00:25:57], Mikkel Vang, these guys are all over the world shooting for, not only interiors and food and fashion stuff, they do National Geographic, Travel Magazine and they go to the most incredible places.
Their visual perception of things is amazing, but I always remind them that when we do these stories that they would have nothing to photograph if it wasn’t for me. I like to take as much credit as possible. I’m sure they would disagree, but it is … Yeah, it’s been pretty interesting. I would say Gourmet would be my favorite in the States.
Dr. Lisa: Tell me about your art.
Heather: I’m mostly painting and when I’m not painting actual paintings, I do a lot of work on textiles. It’s pretty big and loud and abstract and colorful. It’s probably the one thing I think I’m truly the best at.
If I was going to say there’s one thing in this world that I should do, it’s probably painting because it’s just … It comes so naturally to me for some strange reason. I feel like I’m probably my most honest self when I’m doing it. That feels really nice and I try to do it … I do it every day. I paint every day at least for a couple of hours.
I love my life. I love my family and I think I have an enormous amount of love to give as a person and that doesn’t always come across. It’s not always easy to do that in your everyday life, I feel like I’m in my work I’m able to do that.
I was in Copenhagen last week actually listening with a friend of mine who took the train from Malmö, Sweden to Copenhagen and we had dinner and she’s amazing, amazing person. I had told her that … This woman had bought a painting recently and we had a conversation on the phone and she said, “You know, you do happy really well.”
I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who is extremely happy because that’s not … I don’t know, that’s kind of an understatement. It’s just one word that doesn’t instantaneously come to mind. Probably chaotic and somewhat complicated and obsessive compulsive if you would come to mind, but she said, “You know, I don’t …” She said, “I don’t think happy is …” She said, “I feel so much love when I look at your work.”
I almost cried because that was … It’s true. I think that that’s kind of how I feel. I feel like I’m full of love and joy for my life I guess, but definitely chaotic and definitely complicated.
Dr. Lisa: Well, you do get to be a whole person.
Heather: I do.
Dr. Lisa: You don’t have to pigeonhole yourself and to …
Heather: Yeah. No, thank you. I hate to be pigeonholed.
Dr. Lisa: I can tell.
Heather: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Heather, after listening to our conversation, I’m sure people will want to be able to see your work. How can they do that and find out more about you?
Heather: I have a website. It’s just heatherchontos.com and I’m in the process of redesigning some of it, but everything is on there for the most part. There’s links to all the different works, so yeah.
Dr. Lisa: It has been a real pleasure to talk to you today. We’ve been speaking with Heather Chontos who’s an artist, designer and stylist working and living right here in Portland. I guess living technically on Peaks Island which is still Portland.
Heather: Still Portland, yeah.
Dr. Lisa: Still Portland, but definitely a great addition to our Love Maine Radio show, so thanks.
Heather: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: As a physician and a small business owner, I rely on Marci Booth from Booth Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are few thoughts from Marci.
Marci: When was the last time you took a break from what you were doing, from the work that was piled on your desk and just looked up? I know that during that course of my days, I often forget to take a moment or two to just breathe, look up at the sky and dream.
Terrible that I have to remind myself to breathe, but when I do, I feel energized because in those moments, I’m able to let go of the daily grind and think more about what I want to accomplish, how I want my business to grow.
Sometimes, those are the aha moments. If we all took a few moments out each day to stop what were you doing and dream a little about our business futures, not only would we feel a great sense of calm, but we may come to realize that these dreams can in fact come true.
I’m Marci Booth. Let’s talk about the changes you need. Boothmaine.com.
Speaker 1: This segment of Love Maine Radio is brought to 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 ourheritage.com.
Dr. Lisa: It’s a privilege of mine to speak with people that I have known from the community for many years and maybe not had quite as much of an opportunity to speak with them in depth. Today, I have in the studio Erin Flett who is one such individual. I actually own a couple of her pillows from maybe a generation back I guess.
I met her a few years ago when she was at picnic I think doing sewing some of her projects. She is a graphic textile and surface designer with her own line of hand screen textiles and woven fabrics. Her line includes pillows, bags, wall art, limited edition paper products, and also custom projects from interior designers and architects.
Anyone who’s on Instagram or Facebook has Erin Flett because you’re everywhere, so thanks for coming in today. You’re so busy.
Erin: Thank you so much.
Dr. Lisa: I have really enjoyed watching the evolution of your business and your career because I know that you initially had done some work here at 75 Market Street affiliated with Maine Magazine, Maine Home Design. You had a couple of daughters. You just like burst out on the design scene and you work so hard, so it’s so gratifying to me to see a woman who is just, “I know what I want. I’m going to keep moving forward.” And to see that you’re getting such traction from this.
Erin: Thank you. It was an interesting start. As you said, I’m a graphic designer. I have a BFA in graphic design and fine arts. That’s where I started. I worked in an advertising studio for the first four years in my life and really honed in my design aesthetic as far as graphic design and typography and worked on packaging and collateral and branding and then into websites. When they first start hitting, really, everybody needed a website.
Quickly, after four years, I realized that I was never going to make any money doing that. Basically, if I would stay being an employee sort of [inaudible 00:33:34]. Also, I was pregnant, so I also had a vision of what my life is going to be with a child and I was working really crazy hours and I wasn’t able to come home every day at 5:00.
It was challenging, so what I end up doing is … I think having Breshia, I was probably four months pregnant and I realize, “Okay.” I really kind of searched for an outlet as soon as that happened. What happened was I got a band … I call it, “my Band Aid” basically. I got an opportunity to work at an advertising studio for Briggs Advertising who I love him as Walter Briggs.
He gave me a break. He gave me 20 hours worth of work every week. I was able to stay home. We built my own clients and then from there, I was just starting my own business. It was really that one little piece of just stepping out of that comfort zone of having a full time job and just building and then I had Breshia, so that parenting mode kicked in and I just wanted to be home with her and I wanted to nurse as long as I wanted to. I wanted to be able to go put her down for a nap and I didn’t want to do the whole day care thing right away.
That’s really what started all of it really is just being a mom and trying to have a good daily life and trying to … I’m seeing long term what the potential being in a workforce like having to be at a job all the time. That’s the foundation and then quickly led to … I think I worked for Briggs for a couple of years and then I slowly waned my way off of that and plus he was starting getting busy on different things and I started building my own client base.
Then that sort of happening and then literally after a couple of years of that, I got a little bit angsty, just kind of bored with what I was doing. I love doing the branding and stuff, but I was just a little bit more interested in some of the patterns I was making on the graphic design pieces, so people started talking about the patterns more so than my graphic design work.
It was interesting. I literally started doing research and I found print source in New York show that just sold pattern work. I visited New York City with my mom and I quickly realized that I could actually make a living to make pattern work. It wasn’t like a quick, quick thing. In 2007, I started my first at [C Shop 00:35:40] doing letter press cards. I took that paper, that graphic design piece to the pattern work and then that quickly fizzled out because I spent so much money on different things and I was like, “I don’t know if I want to do this and the cards.”
I really started and stopped really quickly in 2007. It wasn’t until 2009 that I really started try to figure out that I could actually textiles. That’s kind of like the segue into that.
Dr. Lisa: You have a lot of energy.
Erin: Yeah, I know.
Dr. Lisa: It’s a really great thing, but this I think tells me why it is that you’ve been able to be so successful and to move forward. I think that I remember seeing you at Sonny’s one time with your husband and I think you are working on a website or something.
I get the sense that for you, even though you backed off so that you could have more flexibility in your schedule with your daughters and you do spend a lot of time with your daughters who you said they’re 10 and 6?
Erin: 10 and 7.
Dr. Lisa: 10 and 7?
Erin: Yeah.
Dr. Lisa: You integrate them into your work life.
Erin: We do. I say we, because my husband has been an integral part too. When I started doing the textile design, I was actually asking other people to work with me and print for me and slowly after me being completely insane about color and all the different patterns, I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be able to hire anybody that really help me that was going to …
It’s a long story, but basically, I had to recruit my husband who’s a carpenter to help me build a table down in our basement and this is totally how it started. He literally helped me build this amazing table. He started printing for me. He learned how to silk screen. We both taught each other how to print. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to do it.
That’s really that when you’re in your basement mixing ink and all the sudden, you just … Having somebody support you too was huge. He was always supportive of what … He really wanted me to do the graphic design work which I did all the time. I still do a little bit of graphic design work now. That support system is really big to have that.
To circle back with the kids, I feel like, as a mom, what’s been really powerful for me is that I want to guide them and show them that they can have a passion and they can actually work towards something that they just been shown and they work really hard and they put in those hours and then they see their parents working together as a team.
It’s not always like roses and happy talk and blah-blah-blah all the day, all the time, but they see real life and they see real two people that are passionate about with each other and something that they believe in and they see that every day. Then of course, they’re in the midst of it. They’re in the midst of printing or they’re in the midst of making and they see things not working out and then we fix it and then we do it again. Then they see the highs were like they were going crazy.
I think what’s hard for them right now is that they’re really excited that we’re doing really well, but they also know that because we’re doing really well, we’re working more a little bit more than they want to, but I also pick them up every day at school at 3:00. I take them to dance or ballet, or gymnastics. I’ve really made it a priority to spend serious hours and time with them.
I think, just … Every morning before we go to school, we talk about stuff and I drop them off. It would be easier to get them on the bus and go, but they’ve asked for me to drop them off at school. It’s interesting. I just listened to what they really want and I feel like because we have an agreement I think in the house like as long as …
I will give you everything that you need and I will give you everything as far as spiritually, emotionally and that connectedness, but the agreement is that they have to be connected and spiritual and grounded themselves. They’re only little but they understand that they’re going to be supportive and part of this family but they need to be mindful and understanding that mommy and dad are doing this and I get everything I need.
They know that they get everything that they need and everything that they really want in theory and within reason, but it’s a balancing act. It’s that you get whatever you need if you support us. That sounds really weird but I feel like that connectedness run like, “Mommy needs to work here, but I’m also driving you to ballet three days a week and I’m staying there waiting for you an hour not worrying about anything else and being completely connected with you. Or like in the middle of the night when you need me, I will always be there for you.”
I think it’s almost like a camaraderie, family, team effort that this whole thing has to come together and the more you connect with them and talk to them about that and how important it is that they all have a buy in to it. It’s a support system that we all have. It’s interesting. It doesn’t make any sense as like some sort of weird agreement that you have with your family, but I think we all need to be connected and talk really bluntly about what we need as people and I’m completely honest with them about what I need.
I think therefore they’re very honest and completely mindful of what they need like, “Mom, I really want you to do this. I need you to drop me off at school because I don’t want to ride the bus for this reason or I want you to come to this thing because it’s really important to me.”
I feel like that opening that up and being honest has been what’s been really helpful of keeping our family unit together. They know. “Mommy is really passionate about what she’s doing.” Hopefully I’m showing in that as women can do whatever we want to do and have a family as long as we communicate and we have good values and we stay grounded I think.
Breshia, my daughter who’s 10, she’s always been very … I could talk to her and she’s … I think she’s just her own soul and that’s always how she’s been. Ary is definitely a different mindset and she’s still very sweet and young and I don’t … She’s not as easy to talk to as connected. As she gets older, she’s easier to talk to, but they’re distracted and they’re doing things and, “Oh the birdie.” Like you’re talking about some really serious and they’re completely distracted.
I have two different souls that are with me, but basically at the end of the day, Breshia has always told me, “Mom, I love how you talk to me. I love that you talk to me like you don’t talk down to me.” She has issues with different things. Like some teachers in the past talk down to her and she doesn’t understand that talk because I literally …
We never talk down to our kids. I always involve them and I don’t know if this might be not for everybody, but for me, it always felt really authentic and real that I could just be like, “This is the deal of Breshia. This is what’s going on. I’m doing this.” Or whatever it is, but as she … She thanked me another day, she’s like, “I really thank you for being my mom because I don’t like it when people … Like adult say that just because I’m younger, it doesn’t mean I can’t understand or get talked down to or like, ‘Oh, you need to leave the room.'” This is really serious topic.
There’s really no topics like that in our house. We literally talk about for much anything within reason. Obviously, Mas and I will have conversations and we just include them in the conversation because it affects them and I think they respect us for that because we respect them. I think that’s huge.
Speaker 1: There was a time when the apothecary was a place where you could get safe, reliable medicines carefully prepared by experienced professionals coupled with care and attention focused on you and your unique health concerns. Apothecary by Design is built around the forgotten notion that you don’t just need your prescriptions filled, you need attention, advice and individual care. Visit their website, apothecarybydesign.com or drop by the store at 84 Marginal Way in Portland and experience pharmacy care the way it was meant to be.
Experience chef and owner Harding Lee Smith’s newest hit restaurant, Boone’s Fish House & Oyster Room, Maine seafood at its finest. Joining sister restaurants The Front Room, The Grill Room, and The Corner Room.
This newly renovated two-storey restaurant at 86 Commercial Street on Custom House Wharf overlook scenic Portland Harbor. Watch lobstermen bringing the daily catch as you enjoy baked stuffed lobster, raw bar and wood-fired flatbreads. For more information, visit www.theroomsportland.com.
Dr. Lisa: Where did this come from in you? Where did you develop this burning desire to create?
Erin: When I was growing up, my mom is very artistic in her own right. She was very mindful like what she put in her house. She put things on the wall. She was a stay at home mom first of all and I think that’s where I get my inner like, “I need to be this really great mom,” because she was a fantastic mom. She stayed home with us and she …
Not that that makes you a great mom because there’s a lot of moms that stay at home and they’re not probably great moms, but she was this very good about being a great mom and she was always there for me, but she was very artistic and she stayed at home. She just cared about what she put in the house, the way she put it up on the wall or her …
She had collections and those collections became more about who she was and what she collected. Always had pattern and color to it and eventually she started selling her pieces that she’d find and it just evolves into a business and that’s how my mom evolved into her own passion which was antiques and buying and collecting and buying and estate sales and selling huge states. Then she had a huge antique shop in Bridgton, Maine. A few year … Many years now like 10, 15 years ago I guess now.
She did that for a few year and loved it. Just her sensibility throughout my life and just being really mindful like how she put things together, she always … Everything that’s about presentation and … That’s the basic I guess of where I grew up. I think just going to college for graphic design and fine arts, I really started appreciating design and really was exposed.
My parents weren’t really about fine art or art. My mom loved collecting things of color and graphic patterns and whatnot but it wasn’t until I went to college that it kind of came full circle for me because I got to get that typography and the graphic design piece of it and then I got the whole, the fine art piece of it. I just love the composition and the push and pull of things.
It really started meshing really well in college. I started meeting people that were really amazing, and I think when you surround yourself with people that are way better than you … I still do that today. I try to connect with people that are like minded by also try to connect with people that can teach me things too, and I think that’s really powerful as a woman.
I know I’m not good at everything. I know that I … I want to be good at certain things and I surround myself with people that are really truly want to help you and that love you and that support you.
Dr. Lisa: I think I officially met you when you were working at this little tiny booth at Picnic which was sort of a … I’m not sure exactly how to describe it, but it’s sort of a craft …
Erin: It’s like an indie craft show sort of thing, but it’s really like a new age, like grandma version of craft show but way cooler because now at the indie movement and the handmade movement is so huge right now.
Picnic I think has been an amazing for all of us designers that are small and we need a place to just show off what we do every day and opportunity to make money at what we do and show the public what’s out there. This is like Etsy. Etsy has exploded as well.
Dr. Lisa: I met you there and I knew that you had an Etsy presence. I agree with you. I think this tactile, this fiber textile, all of these things, the stuff that you can touch has become so much more important to younger people I believe than maybe the people in the Sandwich generation.
Now, I know that … I see that you’re reaching out, that you’ve actually had success on a national level. You’ve been featured in magazines, people are recognizing that work that you’re doing. Tell me about some of the things that have happened to you recently and how things are moving forward and what some of your favorite things are that are going on?
Erin: I think last year was a real pinnacle point. I was featured in Oprah Magazine and then I was featured in Country Living. We had a big spread family … They came out and shot our house and kind of profiled our family.
Those two things, they came out within the same year which is really amazing and fun. That really put … We’ve also been in probably over 30 magazines in the last four years too, but they’re …
What I think what’s happening is people … Then Yankee Magazine just did a profile just recently on … It was like a profile of our studio. That was a first actually studio like in our new studio in … Before that, I was in my basement printing textiles with my husband in the middle of the night while the kids slept and I would be working as a graphic designer during the day. That literally how I lived for like two and a half to three years. I literally just decided.
One day, I took a walkover to the mill and I literally just decided to move in to the mill obviously and just take the leap. I have a great blog post that I tell people about if you ever feel like you’re scared to take the leap to go read that blog post because it was me. It was actually the moment before I really signed up and took that first leap.
Dr. Lisa: You’ve gone from Etsy and Picnic and your basement and working as a graphic designer to Oprah Magazine and Country Living and Yankee Magazine. These are things that have happened to you and are happening to you now. What’s exciting about your future? What are you hoping to do? Where are you going?
Erin: Where are we going with this? I think about this all the time. It’s something that I think … I literally had this plan since the beginning and I think you plant seeds into the universe like what you really, really want and I literally think about it every single day like where I want to go.
It’s complete madness. All the time, I have to say like all the different things that we’re making and I’m … Most my days are ironing and shipping at this point because work is so nuts and I have help, but it’s hard to put your stamp on everything when everybody else is helping. I make sure that everything goes out and it looks beautiful and all that.
I think what’s been really amazing about the whole publications is as people are finally figuring out that … It’s pattern and it’s color and it’s design and it’s American made and it’s a story because we’re weaving the fabric. We’re not going to some place in India or we’re not importing the fabric. We’re weaving the fabric ourselves which is a huge piece of it and we have it in …
These people are American families that have been in the business and industry for generations so I feel like, “Okay, there’s like the raw.” That’s just the ground and then we get the ground, we print on the ground. It’s a solvent-free, water-based ink. It’s from Australia. We import it. It’s not the cheapest ink. It’s the most expensive ink we found, but it’s the best ink that we found.
Every little piece of it has a story to it. The inserts are from Florida that’s from a Cuban family that immigrated and they are an amazing piece of it. Everybody that gives me all the little pieces to make what we’re making has a story and I believe in them as much as they believe in me. We’re all supporting each other.
Then once we actually print it, we have local women that are stitching them up and then … I think when the magazines see and read and then obviously hopefully when they feel it and they touch it and they experience the patterns, and only do they have like an emotional response like I’m happy or I feel connected to this whatever it is but I also know that it’s completely mindful in the way it’s been produced.
It’s not even like a perfect thing. It constantly changes like I’ll decide one day like, “You know, I feel like we could find …” If I find something that’s better, then I will change it to make it, so it’s never the same. Like it’s telling you your pillows in your studio are may not be the same pillows that you may find right now because they’ve changed.
For example, the first pillow I had was standard stitch, it was like surge, but now they’re like a French corner and we have a nice zipper, it’s a hidden zipper. It’s weird like little technical stuff that I get excited about. Then just recently, one of our best selling things is zipper bags because everybody wants to …
Today, people sometimes want a pillow, but it doesn’t go with their décor or whatever so they want a piece of pattern that’s just easy to take with them. I think that’s why the zipper bags have been so popular. I don’t know, I just think all of it together is one of those reasons why those magazines really picked up on it. I also think it photographs really well to be honest.
As a graphic designer, I know what sells in the sense of visual impact and having that graphic design background has completely made things so much easier for me I think and I really believe that because I’m able to market myself and design my own brand around where I want to go and that’s always changing too.
I think brands are really powerful and establishing a really strong brand and being consistent. I tell the designers how to become a brand because people get so disconnected and completely … They don’t know how to focus their brand in one direction. They get distracted or they start adding like, “I’ll do this sort of aesthetic and then I’ll try this aesthetic,” and it confuses the customer.
I feel like knowing that I’ve kind of been able to kind of keep myself on a single plane but not … I don’t worry about selling things necessarily. I just make sure that things are cohesive and that it feels really good to me and I really love everything that comes out of it. I feel like that’s all those things together I think is what people hopefully see and feel when they see my things and that’s I think the reason why people are writing about it.
Dr. Lisa: I am very proud to have my original pillows. I’m excited to go get some new and different things from your studio. I’m very inspired. I think we’re proud to have you here in Maine. I really enjoy spending …
I really love that you had a goal, you wanted to do something, you’re passionate about it, you involve your kids, you involve your husband and you just kept moving forward, because I think that’s something that is hard to do. It’s hard to keep doing what you want to do and practicing that and doing it and really putting yourself out there in the world. I give you a lot of credit for that.
Erin: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: Erin, how can people find about the work that you’re doing?
Erin: This is my website, it’s just erinflett.com.
Dr. Lisa: Please, do go to erinflett.com. Those of you who are listening, she has beautiful things, very colorful. They make you want to smile really when you see them. We’ve been speaking with Erin Flett, graphic, textile and surface designer who has her own line. I think we will be seeing you really internationally at some point in the future, but don’t forget that you’re on Love Main Radio.
Erin: Thank you so much.
Dr. Lisa: You have been listening to Love Maine Radio. Show number 175, Designing Maine. Our guests have included Heather Chontos and Erin Flett. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit lovemaineradio.com or read about them in Maine Magazine.
Today, I wanted to take a moment to share something a bit more personal with you. Shortly before Christmas, I received the phone call that changed my outlook as a physician. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 43. It is strange for me to say these words even now.
Since my diagnosis, it has been a whirlwind of visits to doctors and medical facilities. Fortunately, my diagnosis ductal carcinoma in situ is an early stage cancer that was detected on screening mammogram. This week, I will undergo a bilateral mastectomy the day after my birthday.
As a small chested woman with no family history and no known risk factors, to say I was shock is an understatement. I have felt at times sad, angry, and confused, but I have had a wealth of support from my family and friends and I have a medical team in which I trust implicitly.
I am confident that I will go well. I’m one of the lucky ones that my cancer was caught early. The plastic surgeon who will perform my reconstruction told me, “That mammogram saved your life.” She’s absolutely right in more ways than one.
I appreciate all the well wishes that I have already received and if you have a faith, please keep me in your prayers or send positive energy my way. I know that I’m going to come out of this better than I was before. Thank you for being a part of the Dr. Lisa and Love Maine Radio listening world. You’re all part of my family and I appreciate you’re being there with me.
Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on iTunes. For our preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter and like our Love Maine Radio Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter and see my running, travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful one on Instagram.
We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also, let our sponsors know that you’ve heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week.
This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Designing Maine Show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: Love Maine Radio is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary By Design, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Harding Lee Smith of The Rooms, and Bangor Savings Bank.
Love Maine Radio with Dr. Lisa Belisle is recorded in the studio of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland Maine. Our executive producers are Susan Grisanti, Kevin Thomas, and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Audio production and original music by John C. McCain. Content producer is Kelly Clinton, and our online producer is Ezra Wolfinger.