Transcription of Mill Town Creativity #201
Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle, and you are listening to Love Maine Radio show number 201, Mill Town Creativity, airing for the first time on Sunday July 19, 2015. Maine’s industrial mills have employed multiple generations of families through the manufacturing of products such as paper, shoes, and textiles. Although many are no longer used in that capacity, they are experiencing a rebirth and once again becoming centers of creativity and commerce.
Today we explore this subject with Biddeford mill aficionados Tammy Ackerman, co-founder of the community arts organization Engine Inc. and Angelrox founder and fashion designer Roxi Suger. Thank for joining us.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in Biddeford being that half of my family is from that area, and this individual that is across the microphone from me today has also spent a considerable amount of time in Biddeford probably more than me honestly. This is Tammy Ackerman she’s the co-founder and executive director of Engine Incorporated, a community arts organization based in Biddeford. She has served as the board president for the Heart of Biddeford, a Main Street, Maine organization, and she has lived in Maine for nine years. Thanks so much for coming in and also for doing all this great stuff in Biddeford.
Tammy: Thanks for having me.
Lisa: Tammy, where’d you come from?
Tammy: Well, originally I’m a South Dakotan, one of the few that have left the state I think. Then most recently before I came to Maine I was Nevada for ten years in Reno.
Lisa: Why Maine? That seems like a desperate mix of states?
Tammy: They’re not dissimilar by any means. There’s a lot of similarities between like the geographic disparity and everything, population. Why Maine? That is the most frequently asked question for me. It was a bit of a dart throw to be quite honest. I’d never really spent any time in New England and specifically Maine before coming here. It was a desire for some change. When I left Nevada or when I was thinking about leaving Nevada, the housing market was at it’s height. I was living on the fringe on the perimeter of Reno and I really wanted to live in a historic downtown or a downtown that had some character and realized quickly that downtown Reno was just untouchable. A little one-thousand foot bungalows are going for $400,000.00 at that time. This is at the height of the housing bubble, right. My then partner and I at the time decided to take a trip or the country and start looking for a different community. We started out in Nevada, went up through Canada, and dropped down through Vermont and Maine, and ironically enough I drove through Biddeford and wanted to go to the old Reny’s Department store that was on Main Street because my partner was a big fan of Carhartts and looked like the Reny store. I got my first glimpse of Biddeford and it’s mills and was just blown away by the architecture.
Lisa: Well, that’s interesting. Is Reny still in Biddeford by the way?
Tammy: They are not. They moved to Saco for more parking.
Lisa: Okay. All right. It’s interesting that Reny’s would bring you into the Biddeford area but that somehow there was something about Biddeford that kept you there.
Tammy: Yes and what kept me there, if I might, is the Heart of Biddeford actually. The Main Street organization, which you mentioned in my bio, there’s a really great group of people working to revitalize downtown Biddeford. They put out like an all hands on deck campaign to recruit me when I showed up there. I got involved from day one volunteering in the downtown area and working on the design committee of the Heart of Biddeford so taking a look at the parks and the store fronts and things live that, and I just haven’t turned back since that day.
Lisa: What is your background?
Tammy: In art and graphic design. I’m a visual person. I like architecture. I wanted to be an architect, but I chickened out when I was in college. Turned to graphic design as a career which I was doing pretty much up until last year in addition to Engine, but Engine has decided to take all my time.
Lisa: Well, I think that’s actually not the worst thing to be taking your time because it seems like all of the things that you’ve done are so creative in nature and Engine is a very creative organization. For people who aren’t familiar describe it?
Tammy: Well, Engine is a little bit of a hybrid, but we call it a community arts organization because we’re based and embedded in the community. We focus on attracting creative people into the downtown area specifically to show them just like I became aware of how beautiful the downtown area is or could be and so the gallery acts as an attractor in that respect. It also supports the arts community, so we mostly focus on emerging artists and early career artists for the most part. Then the back end of the space, physically anyway, is our arts education piece. That is there to serve the community and specifically youth. We act in two different ways there as an asset to the community but also an attractor for economic and community development, and then outside of what happens within our own space we coordinate the monthly art walk. We’re working on a public art program. We’re part of the city’s comprehensive planning committee because I really think the arts should have a voice at the table politically speaking in planning. That’s what we are. I would say if I had to compare it to something that people know in Portland, we’re a combination of Creative Portland, Space Gallery, and maybe a little tiny bit Aspirational to Mecca but in our specific area.
Lisa: I’m assuming that it helps people who are creative to have associations with other individuals who are creative specifically in places like Biddeford which are rising up and re-imagining themselves.
Tammy: Yes, I think the community piece is the biggest piece for me. We put on really nice shows, and we do a great job with the gallery and that kind of thing. It’s really about people coming into that space and meeting people that they would’ve never met before or someone who’s not familiar with art or a little intimidated by it to be able to have a conversation around what it’s all about. It’s really the social and community aspect that’s the most important thing to me, and I don’t mean to downplay the other pieces of what we do, but it’s community building.
Lisa: Well, tell me about some of your artists?
Tammy: Well, let’s see we’ve shown a whole gambit of artists from Lauren Fensterstock, who she hasn’t had a solo show there maybe she will someday, but she’s been part of a couple group shows. She’s probably one of the more well-known artists at least in the Portland area. All the way to a community show where it’s an open call, free for all kind of thing that everybody and their kid and their grandma can participate in and it’s so well received. We had over a 150 pieces this year that we didn’t have anyway more wall space at all. We’re not really carving out a name for ourselves in terms of the specific artists that we show. We try to have a broad appeal and reach both ends of the spectrum in terms of the art.
Lisa: What about the educational programs that you run?
Tammy: Our focus there has been moving toward the design related fields because, number one, that’s my background but I’m not trying to impose my own perspective on it necessarily but I do feel that art is valuable. Art education is valuable no matter what. I don’t argue that point at all. Design is something more accessible for people meaning graphic design, video game design, 3D design, architecture things like that that lead to career paths is really where we’re hoping to focus our attention. How to build a website and make it look good not just have a website? The applied arts I guess is really the focus.
Lisa: Have you had some that have been more popular than others?
Tammy: Anything to do with 3D printing and design tends to be the most popular. Then after school kid’s programming just in general but with a maker focus, so not just we’re going to have a … Not just, I don’t mean to downplay that, but it’s not just focused on the arts and craft side of it but lets make and let’s integrate some technology and lets integrate some math and that all STEM focus that’s in education right now. We’re trying to make it steam by putting that A in the equation. The A can be a little tricky for some people that don’t necessarily think the arts are valuable. We can’t make a good acronym of putting a D in there for design. I guess it could be steamed. The D is really what a lot of people can relate to because these are careers that people understand and sometimes the poor artists get kind of, “Oh, what do you know. That’s not a good career path.” It is a good career path. You just have to reframe the way people think about it.
Lisa: That’s a really good point. I know that when my daughter said that she wanted to be an art history major, for example which required some studio art, there were various people who said, “Well, what are you going to do with that major?” I said, “Abby, just do what you love because something will come of that”, and that’s really the important thing where we’ve gotten very focused on something that leads to something. Well, sometimes something leads somewhere and then somewhere else and then somewhere else. I think what you’re describing is there are other things that are out there that aren’t just straight path.
Tammy: Right. I mean if I knew when I was eighteen going into college to be an artist that I would be the director of an arts organization and an arts administrator writing grants and all this good stuff, I would’ve never thought about that as a career path. It took me a long time to get there, but I’m glad I did.
Lisa: You also live in that area. You live in Biddeford, Saco area. How does that match up to growing up in South Dakota?
Tammy: Yes, well, in terms of just the architecture of place, I grew up in a town that had a great downtown. We spent a lot time there. Our monolithic pieces of architecture were grain silos. When I saw the mills here, it’s like this is the same industry. Well, it’s an industry just a different manifestation of it. I’ve always been a fan of like these great pieces of architecture in the world. South Dakota is a similar state to Maine, in that, it’s very rural. It’s a lot of poverty. There’s only a few city centers to speak of really. I grew up in one of the three, which was in a town of twenty-five thousand people, which is not really a city in a lot of people’s eyes, but it had that feel of a more urban environment. Nevada was similar. There’s Las Vegas which of course is huge and sprawling and I would never live there. Reno had more of that historic character, and then there’s very few other significant size towns in Nevada, very rural, not the same kind of rural not agricultural but very rural and a lot of poverty again. I seem to pick these states that have similarities in their demographics.
Lisa: All right. I’ve spent many Thanksgivings and Christmases and other family holidays in the Biddeford area and I would describe the people that I’ve met as very hard working. They have some tenacity to them at least the relatives who used to work in the mill. I know that there was tenacity there. I know that there were long days and big families and lots of mouths to feed. I’m wondering what your sense of the people is?
Tammy: It’s an interesting community. I’ve not been exposed to the Yankee mentality before moving here which is I think one of somewhat reserve to begin with. Having lived in Nevada, it has more of a, “Hey, everybody, it’s California. We’re all smiling, happy, and outgoing.” Here my experience has been one of more reserve at first at least until you prove that you’re not out to exploit or take anything. That’s been a big challenge quite honestly. It’s a new concept for Biddeford to have an arts organization in the downtown. Historically there’s been a lot of theater and performing arts with vaudeville and whatnot over the years but not a huge focus on the visual arts. I think the perception of Engine has been why do we need that? That’ll be an ongoing thing I think for anyone really but for us in particular in the type of town that we’re in to really show the value of what we’re doing around community and around education.
Lisa: Why is it called Engine?
Tammy: I think the reason we called it that is just the sort of like start-up nature of it. We’re go to start something here. We’re going to drive it forward and propel the creative community, which is our tag line. It had a mechanical feel to it or an industrial feel a little bit to it. I didn’t think that we needed a name that was conceptual. I guess it is but everyone can relate to a Engine. It frequently gets used in conversations, and I’m always like, yes, this is the right name the Engine of the economy or whatever it might be.
Lisa: Yes, and it seems to have almost an industrial feel to it in thinking about the mills and the brick and the drive that was needed to be able to power all of the [loons 00:15:43]. I think that probably there is something to it. It’s a little bit grittier than perhaps other titles might be.
Tammy: Right. We want to be a continuation of Biddeford’s evolution not disrupt it in a way that makes it into something different. That’s where you can either be successful or not in how you approach things. What I mean by that I guess is that Biddeford and Saco have always been manufacturing towns and at the height of their glory they were the leaders on the East Coast. What we’re trying to do is just reframe that conversation around the idea of making in a different way. The Fab Lab, the fabrication lab, the 3D printing, and the digital fabrication stuff is all meant to empower people to be able to make and not have to necessarily leave that to someone else especially kids. We’re trying to spark the creativity that then leads to innovation and hopefully they’ll go off and do something great in their lives too and not just think that they have to settle for something that maybe isn’t what they aspire to.
Lisa: When I was speaking to Jane Bianco of the Farnsworth Museum, she mentioned this idea of creativity as being really anything that you are actually using your brain to wrap itself around, so we think about something like a painting or something like sculpture as being a creative pursuit. There are lots of other things that you do over the course of a life that can be considered creative.
Tammy: Yes. I think that’s the value of the arts in general is that you see things in a different way and you start to experience other things and you talk to other people and it broadens your horizons. It helps you create a better network of people that might have differing perspectives. I think that’s always healthy. The visualization piece, the ability to work out problems visually and have an understanding of spacial relationships, I think is all very valuable. Thinking like an artist, artists are disrupters. They do things that don’t always follow the mainstream. Being able to think like that creatively whatever your field might be, if it’s an accountant or someone working in food service whatever it might be, if you can think like an artist and a designer, then it makes you more resourceful in whatever your career path is.
Lisa: How has thinking like an artist influenced your life?
Tammy: I think that what it’s done for me is that it makes me open to different ideas and relationships. I mean we all have our biases, right. I can probably list ten of them that I have and you try to work through those but what I think that it does is it sort of … You look at all the options on the table versus like it’s got to be that way because this is what it has been or this is what I’ve been told. Thinking like a designer, thinking like an artist you look at all the different options that are available to you and then you have a conversation with the community or with your peers or whoever it might be that you’re working with and you work on those together. There’s more of a collaborative nature in it I think. I mean artists can exist in a vacuum. They certainly can. They can do their thing. The artists that change the world are good at disrupting and collaborating.
Lisa: When we were speaking with Bill Seeley from Bates, and he does work with the philosophy of art, he was mentioning that, and of course I think you know this to be true I know this to be true anyway, but that people who are artists don’t necessarily get recognition for their art until after maybe they’ve passed away or maybe they’re much older. How can we reconcile that so that people aren’t waiting for the next Monet to die? Does this make sense? How can we encourage people to exist and somehow create art and creating a sustainable livelihood for themselves?
Tammy: That is the question how can we do that? I think it’s a difficult thing. I think there’s a lot of supply in the world. There’s a lot of art in the world. A lot of art from what you might say is good art, to bad art, to all kinds of art. There are artists like I mentioned Lauren earlier who’s definitely on a career trajectory that has been quite successful. I would imagine she would continue on that. Those are far and few artists that really make it to that pinnacle. I guess I would try to re-shift the focus from defining what success is to the individual, so I think if an artist is practicing and it gives them something, if they get satisfaction or feel more whole because of it, then that’s success in my book.
If you want to sell your art, that’s a different thing. It’s a whole other world. Sometimes you have to change your art or look to what the market might be looking for. Tenacity is important, and so people get demoralized by having a show and nothing sells. They don’t realize commercial success, but you have to reframe that and think your work is great. You put on a good show. Hopefully that’s fulfilling to you for that alone. Just because you don’t sell anything doesn’t mean that it’s not worth while. I mean you can go into the creative fields. You can go into graphic design and more of the applied arts fields if you want to be commercially successful, but I think there’s a lot of emphasis on selling work. I think it’s very important and I think artists can work to be more professional and present a more professional image, but I don’t think that’s the end all to being an artist.
Lisa: I would think that if you are thinking like an artist and you’re attempting to think disruptively or even just thinking it and not even attempting to think that way just the way that you are looking at the world and then simultaneously you’re also trying to be commercially successful and trying to shift the way that you work so that you’re doing what other people find attractive, I think that would be a very interesting dichotomy to try to live.
Tammy: I think it’s a hard one. I would encourage people to air on the … Not air but focus on the later or the former of just doing what they want to do. They have to redefine what success is. If they want something different, then of course you’re going to have to shift and do something different to support yourself if that’s really what you want to do. I don’t advocate for that. I advocate for people doing what they want to do and being the best at that that they can be just what’s in their ability.
Lisa: What would you consider to be some of your biggest successes?
Tammy: I think the fact that we’ve made it five years in the community that we’re in is a success and that we’re growing. There are always challenges. We’re a nonprofit. We have all the same challenges that every other nonprofit has in terms of funding and capacity all that good stuff. I think one of the greatest successes is that we’ve survived five years and that people really know who we are in a short time. I’ve been a cheerleader and an advocate for Biddeford for the past nine years and you start to hear it when people like you guys call and ask me to be interviewed. I was on the stage with the director of the National Endowment For The Arts a couple of years ago and to even be considered to be in that role means that we’re doing something right. We’re calling attention to a community that needs it, a community that has been under valued I guess, for lack of a better word. There’s still a stigma attached to Biddeford. People are afraid to come downtown. It’s just absolutely ridiculous. It really is. I mean if you’ve spent anytime there recently there’s all this energy and different people walking around on the street. Overcoming that misconception about what Biddeford is has been my mission for the past nine years.
Lisa: What would you consider to be your biggest challenges that are facing Engine over the next let’s say five years?
Tammy: Well, I think given that our mission and our focus has been to help at least downtown Biddeford realize economic and community vitality, there’s always the threat of the housing and real estate boom that will push some of the traditional businesses out of the way because they can’t afford to be in that area. I mean Portland’s having the same conversations and more so even than we are. If you look at communities that revitalize themselves either by having had artists in the community or being able to focus on that intentionally as part of revitalization, how do you keep that? In the next five years I feel like Biddeford’s really going to … It’s already happening. There’s a bit of a real estate speculation going on for good reason. It is like the last community on the coast of southern Maine that hasn’t really gone off so to speak. I think the threat is affordability. Not that Engine can necessarily do much about that, but we own a building. We hope to own other builds at some point in the future and to make them affordable so that we can keep the artists and the designers and the creative economy in the community that helped build it.
Lisa: You’re currently working through some renovations.
Tammy: We are. Am I dusty? Currently, we’re moving out of our existing space the one that we started up in. We’re moving into a second space that’s not one that we own. It’s about three times bigger and a little less expensive, and so it’ll allow us to stretch out a little bit more. It’s directly across from the building that we were gifted back in 2011 I believe it was by the Reny family. That ties the story together, right? We own the former Reny’s Department store. It’s an eighteen-thousand square foot somewhat dilapidated historic building. It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s got this white marble facade that is so unique to the area. It’s a long process. Even at a nominal amount of money per square foot it’s a couple million dollars that we’re looking at to do this project. We’re starting. We’re picking away at it. Our hope is to occupy that building in the next couple of years at least in some way and potentially stay in the space across the street and do something slightly different in that space. We’re trying to occupy lower Main Street.
Lisa: I like it. You’re occupying the lower Main Street Biddeford with art.
Tammy: Yes, art and creativity and good design hopefully and energy activating those spaces so that there are tons of different people from kids to grandmothers and grandfathers coming in there and parts of the community that really need some aspirations and hope. We hope to just make it a big melting pot of creativity.
Lisa: Tammy, how can people find out about Engine?
Tammy: Well, we are all over the web. We have a website, feedtheengine.org. We’re on Facebook. We tweet every once in a while when I have the energy for it. You can pretty much walk onto Main Street and say, “Hey, where’s Tammy?”, and someone, if you ask five people, someone will know where I’m at.
Lisa: Well, I encourage people to spend some time in Biddeford see what’s going on down there. There’s a lot I know that’s definitely the case. We’ve been speaking with Tammy Ackerman, who is the co-founder and executive director of Engine Incorporated, a community arts organization based in Biddeford. I really appreciate all the work you’re doing for my family’s hometown. It’s great stuff, and I look forward to spending some time down there myself and seeing what’s going on.
Tammy: Excellent. I’m a great tour guide.
Lisa: Thanks, Tammy.
Tammy: Thank you.
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Lisa: I’ve been hearing the name Roxi Suger probably for about three, four, five years now. It always happens that if I hear a person’s name enough, they eventually come to be in my life that I get a chance to actually meet them. This has happened with Roxi Suger who is here with us today. Roxi Suger is a designer based in Biddeford and her collection Angelrox is an eco-friendly wardrobe crafted and created in the U.S., in fact, Biddeford. Roxi was raise the in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and attended the University of Alabama. She honed her skills directing designs from collections ranging from high-end designer Vivienne Tam to retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Le Chateau. The trademark of Angelrox is focused on balanced and giving. Roxi directs her business and life with a dedication to making a difference. Thank you so much for coming in.
Roxi: Thank you so much for having me here, Lisa. It’s a pleasure.
Lisa: It’s really interesting that you’ve ended up in the very mills where my family used to create textiles. The Belisles and the [Carrier 00:31:45] family came down from Canada and spent time creating textiles. This is a few generations before me. Now you’re doing the same creating in a different way.
Roxi: Yes, of course.
Lisa: You’re revitalizing an entire industry that I think many Mainers are familiar with.
Roxi: Well, I’m a small part of I think of a broader revitalization that is happening in a very exciting time in our society, in Maine, across America as we’re seeing these mill towns not be empty builds anymore but become thriving parts of the community. We are so delighted be there in Biddeford and to be a small part of that very exciting revitalization that is happening. The magnificence of the history and of so many families having worked and strived and brought up their families in that very mill I mean we can feel that spirit every day as we’re there working and trying to do our little part to bring it forward. It’s quite a gift and a blessing.
Lisa: Now, how did you make it all the way from Alabama to Biddeford? I’m sure nobody’s ever asked you that question before, right?
Roxi: Well, it, as I like to say, has been a wonderful spiral. Basically, my training in Alabama I knew my path would take me to New York, which it did, and spent eighteen lovely years there which was a very formative, very instructive, learned a lot and was able to launch Angelrox there and in addition to, as you mentioned, designing for many other lovely firms and also teaching at Parsons. All of that was just a part of my evolution as not only a designer but in giving back. I adore education that interaction with the students was as gratifying as each interaction I have with my customers. It’s just an amazing thing to be here.
Lisa: Are there a lot of designers that come out of the University of Alabama or from Alabama in general?
Roxi: Well, I don’t think it’s allowed for that specific field, but it was a great program that I went to in human environmental sciences. I was very fortunate to secure the one scholarship they had specifically for fashion design right out of high school. To have that early dedication be rewarded in such a way was very gratifying. I chose to go there so I would have that broad university experience and still be close to family through that development time of college and before I struck out on my own to New York and beyond. In New York, of course returning back to your question of what has brought us to Maine, a long with all the great things I got to do there I also met my love and we started our family. As our son started to grew, we wanted to offer him much more freedom and a much more holistic life than we felt we could provide for him in New York. We had been coming up to Maine. We’re very fortunate that my father in law had retired to Saco, and so we were frequent visitors and put our sights on making our way here soon as we could.
Lisa: You brought your love with you today.
Roxi: I did. I did. Mr. Julian Schlaver, yes.
Lisa: Julian your husband he’s sitting over to the side here. He seems like a pretty active part of your organization.
Roxi: Very much a part. In fact, I was able to get Angelrox started and self-financed and it was really me, some beautiful interns a long the way, and my little guy as an infant going with me to the office every day until I got the business to the point that Julian could leave his very nice job in the city to come onboard full time. That has been a huge, huge catalyst in our growth, in our ability to move here, and to continue to grow and serve our customers and to give back to the community in all that we can. It’s been very exciting since we landed here. It was just Julian and I. His dad rolled up his sleeves, jumped right in to help as we landed, and now we find ourselves in this beautiful facility with our beautiful sweet little store up the street, Suger, and a staff of ten that are just amazing. I mean Maine has fulfilled all of our thoughts and dreams and hopes of what it would be just full of the most dedicated hardworking, beautiful, responsive, giving people and we are so happy now to call it home.
Lisa: How old is your little one now?
Roxi: He’s seven now.
Lisa: How does he feel about all of this? He grew up with this. He probably didn’t know it any other way.
Roxi: He is such an advocate. He’s such a supporter. He’s already turned into quite the little marketer. He has definitely lived, breathed it. We used to joke that the first thing he’s going to do out of the womb or when he started to talk was probably a rap demo. He is definitely very much a part of everything that has happened, but he is also the biggest reason that we have chosen to be here and that is to have family nearby to be focused on that to have the time and the space to be with him and to spend just joyful moments with not only him but expanded family that we’ve already and joyfully created here since we’ve arrived.
Lisa: You said that you received a scholarship at the University of Alabama so this must have meant coming out of high school that you had a strong sense that this was the direction you wanted to go in. How young were you? How did you know that this is what you wanted to be doing?
Roxi: Well, naively by the age of … I started probably drawing and gravitating toward fashion by the age of seven, eight. My grandmothers, one in particular, taught me how to sew on the sewing machine, actually two of them. I had very inspirational grandmothers. Once I knew how to sew, then that was very much my path. I had a little deviation of thinking that I would love to be a ballerina. I gave that up wisely and focused on fashion and have never looked back and have never wanted to do anything else. It is very exciting to be doing exactly what I dreamed to do.
Lisa: Does it strike you that you if knew this when you were seven or eight then that’s about the age that your son is now that whatever he’s thinking right now could be what he does when he grows up?
Roxi: It is very, very amazing to think that, but it makes absolute sense to me. He is just absolutely fascinated with the ocean and the sea and all the creatures in it and he is so smart and intuitive and engaged and it would not surprise me a bit if he doesn’t become some kind of marine biologist or very much involved with that. I think that the kernels of our passions can emerge very early, but I think that anybody at anytime can set a dream for themselves and go down the path to follow it. I was very lucky in having that passion emerge so early and to be so tenacious or stubborn or whatever someone wants to call it to stick to it long enough to see it through.
Lisa: Well, that is a good point. I mean I think that there’s passion for the idea of it but then actually following through that’s a lot of work.
Roxi: I think anything worth while in life and any thing that we do is work. Every single day is an opportunity to do whatever you can towards your passions towards your dreams but also toward others and back to others. It’s just some days are going to be easier on that path and some are not. It’s just that’s life. It is an up and a down and a back and a forth. Just because I was tenacious doesn’t mean that it has always been easy and that there have not been days when the thought of doing anything else wasn’t just a little bit appealing because that’s just the natural course of things.
Lisa: Well, tell me about one of those experiences? What was one of those hurdles that you actually had to get over in order to keep moving forward with your dream?
Roxi: Being in New York during the course of 9/11 and that was right when I had started the business and naively and I think you have to have some naive bravado in order to start a business in the first place and so sometimes that is a good thing. I had jumped in very deep very quickly to having retail and everything else and had to very much retract back and between the probably economic circumstances of that situation as well as taking two aggressive steps right away as a small business got to enjoy a very wonderful humbling year of artists struggling and soul searching of can I stick with this. In those moments when my place of abode was an unheated artist’s loft in Dumbo, I had moments when I just wished I was somebody’s … Just tell me what to do. Give me my pile. Let me get through it today. I did go out and do whatever it took to survive and to as I like to say claw my way out of that and rise back up again to doing everything I dream to do. You definitely have those moments when the pasture looks greener somewhere else even though it probably is not.
Lisa: I like how you describe it as a wonderful year, the wonderful year of being the struggling artist and probably it was more than a year I’m guessing but yes.
Roxi: Yes, well, it took a few years to rise out but within a year I was back into a much better living circumstance in a proper very nice studio apartment in a space in which to work and live and start to thrive.
Lisa: Why Angelrox?
Roxi: Angelrox evolved … The symbol for the collection which to me represents balance and trying to find that place of peace and bliss and representing the balance of essential dichotomy so whether it’s hard, soft, light, dark, the skies, the Heavens, the Earth below, and so all of that is somehow encapsulated in that symbol for me. Angelrox emerged from actually a girlfriend of mine named Angel and I. When we would hang out together or go out together, that was a nickname or a silliness that emerged around us. It seemed to fit the logo at the time. It has been a wonderful for me exploration and a necessary part of my journey because I was never necessarily into angels or tapped into that ideal, but what it has led me down the path of is seeing the inherent angel in all of us here and now. That has been an incredible part of the journey, an incredible part of how our entire company sees the beautiful women that we work with that we dress that we have the joy and the pleasure to add anything to their life that equates to comfort and joy. It’s an amazing thing. Angelrox emerged as a match for that symbol and that logo. It has been a wonderful, wonderful exploration of spirit for me.
Lisa: Hearing that you might have wanted to once be a ballerina, it actually makes a little bit of sense because the clothes that you wear they’re very flowy, they’re very soft, but also comfortable, practical. I’ve tried them on a few times. I’m sorry. I don’t own any yet. There is something very nourishing about them, something very soulful.
Roxi: Thank you. It is a wonder to me and an absolute just beyond comprehension that the love and the passion that I feel somehow can translate through these tiny bits of cloth certainly the spirit of dance, certainly the spirit of adventure, the spirit of comforting, and just being confident to traverse through your days doing whatever needs to be done at all times the freedom to move and to express yourself in any way that you feel inspired to do.
Lisa: Giving back is very important to you. I know that I first learned of your collection when I was doing a fashion show with Ann Veronica and I think it was to benefit Preble Street. I believe that was that connection. You’ve also done your own work to benefit the community.
Roxi: Well, giving back is one of my core motivators for success. From the very start we named the corporation or I named the corporation BPG, as in be happy, be kind, and it’s also an ohmage to one of those dear grandmothers who’s name was Betty Peachy. The idea and spirit was that we would be able to get to the point that we could increasingly give back. I have always along the way been involved with any charitable event donating time, product, whatever we can to a vast array of amazing organizations. Since we’ve been here in Maine, it has been to wonderful to really focus those efforts most directly on our local community and to be able to see the impact of that has been exceedingly rewarding. We are very much about trying to do for others and give back all we can.
Part of that is a nice portion of our actual sales from Suger each month are donated to a local charity. That has allowed us to support everything from, of course, food banks like Seeds of Hope, to Mustang Rescue trying to care for beautiful horses and animals, to bicycle race, the women’s coalition bicycle race that is coming up this week in celebrating women and their empowerment and their health. For me and for us it’s been hard to pick one charity or one cause to give back to because we feel so strongly that whether it’s humanitarian whether it’s environmental whether it is community oriented that they’re all worthy and so we are very much enjoying this giving back to all that we can from a little epicenter and then hopefully being able to grow that over time. Then we were so excited last year to organization the Biddeford Ball, which we plan this year again. It was just such an incredible coming together of the community and incredible outreach and was able to raise wonderful, wonderful funds both for those in need as well as further development of Biddeford and it’s community and it’s revitalization.
Lisa: This idea of balance for you how does it manifest itself in your business and in your life?
Roxi: The every day seeking of it is always a wondrous humbling thing. You find it in little tiny snippets a long the way. Taking that day where I go ahead and I leave the office a little bit early and pick up our son and spend some time with him or go on a walk with him. The times that we sneak out and sit down to lunch and have a moment together. Moments of just stopping and taking a great big deep breath and a great big stretch and just looking out the window and seeing the blue sky, maybe not today but that’s okay, seeing the beautiful rain drops that are feeding the plants just stopping to look at things and say, “Oh, my gosh, this is so beautiful, and I am so thankful I’m here”, I think that’s the biggest way that I find my balance is by digging into my well of gratitude. Sometimes it is so humbling that it can almost bring you to your knees that this life is so beautiful and it is such a gift.
Lisa: How much of your I guess your life space is devoted to design versus creation versus more administrative logistical tasks? I mean are you able to continue to find the space you need to design and create?
Roxi: That is always a challenge. As you build a business, you increasingly find yourself engaged much more in the administrative, in the marketing. For us right now and the growth of Angelrox there’s an exceeding amount of travel that’s involved, and so I would love more time to do what my heart’s passion is which is create and design. Every single day and all of those activities inherently have creativity in them. Every interaction I have with an individual, whether it’s a customer, whether it’s a buyer for a store, whether it is our employees, there is passion and creative expression that you have to put into that. You have to see the creativity that exists in every aspect that you do. I find the best times for me to be wholly creative are if I can snag like a late night at the office by myself. It’s challenging to say the least but you just have to go through each day and find those little snippets when you can and see how much creative outlet there is all around you and not just limit it to one aspect of what you do.
Lisa: What inspires the designs for your clothing line?
Roxi: The women that I dress. Increasingly as my collection has evolved it is about listening to them: What are they looking for, what do they need, what is the silhouette that is going to best flatter them give them the fluidity to go from their wellness activities back to work maybe out to diner as they travel to gave them increased range to make it through any event that they want. I really do listen to the customer at this point. As I evolve the collection, it’s very much that I have heard customers say they would love to see this, see that and then of course I have to add the obsessive attention to the curve and the shape and where it’s going to hit and what needs it’s going to fulfill to know if it’s going to be a right thing to adopt into the collection as it grows.
Lisa: You have a store in Biddeford and you also have other locations that carry Angelrox. Tell me some of those.
Roxi: Well, we are just completely thankful to be carried in over two-hundred boutiques across the country. Here in the state of Maine we have many, many beautiful ones. I don’t want to risk leaving any of the gorgeous ones out. I might like to say that the best thing to do is to visit angelrox.com where we have a store locator so that individuals can see which is the closest store to their area because we do have some beautiful ones. We have a gorgeous one here in Portland. I have to call out just one Jen Burrall, who’s also a gorgeous jewelry designer. I’m wearing one of her rings right now. Just all up and down the coast we are just honored, thankful, and delighted that stores are doing very well with Angelrox and the customers are loving the products so very thankful for that.
Lisa: If you’re in Portland, you can go to that store. If you’re in Biddeford, you can go to the Suger store. If you’re not, you can go to the store locator which is on angelrox.com.
Roxi: Yes, that is correct.
Lisa: Anything exciting coming up in your future?
Roxi: Goodness it seems like every day is exciting. I just got back this weekend from two beautiful trunk shows one at Kripalu, which is a yoga training center in western Mass., and then another beautiful event in Saratoga Springs. We are very excited to actually get to be here in Maine for two or three weeks consecutively which will be amazing. Then we have just wonderful journeys that we’re taking all throughout the summer and the year and of course very excited for the Biddeford Ball which is slated for October 3rd in Biddeford. We’re all gearing up our momentum toward that and the celebration that will be for the community and all the good things there.
Lisa: Those of you who are listening I urge you to go to angelrox.com or to one of the locations and to try on to experience the beautiful clothing that Roxi Suger and her husband and their team of angels are all creating coming out of the Biddeford mills. We’ve been speaking with Roxi Suger, who is a designer based in Biddeford working with her collection Angelrox. It’s really been quiet a pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you.
Roxi: [Crosstalk 00:56:27] you too, Lisa. Thank you so much.
Lisa: You have been listening to Love Maine Radio show number 201, Mill Town Creativity. Our guests have included Tammy Ackerman and Roxi Suger. For more information on our guest and extended interviews, visit lovemaineradio.com. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our E-newsletter and like our Love Maine Radio Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter as Dr. Lisa and see my running travel food and wellness photos as bountiful one on Instagram. We’d 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 have 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 Mill Town Creativity show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Male: Love Maine Radio is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Apothecary By Design, Mac Page, and Berlin City Honda of Portland. Love Maine Radio 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. Our content producer is Kelly Clinton. Love Maine Radio is available for download free on iTunes see www.lovemaineradio.com or at the Love Maine Radio Facebook page for details.