Following Bliss #229

Deirdre Nice:

Money's never driven me and so that's an E for me. It's always been kind of easy to make decisions because money hasn't been a primary motivator and also the idea of not being afraid to fail because you

Jane Dahmen:

really do owe it to yourself to be strong inside and to stay focused on what you want to do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine radio show number 229 following bliss airing for the first time on Sunday, February 7, 2000, 2016. Mythologist and philosopher Joseph Campbell is perhaps best known for his suggestion that we follow our bliss. Today we speak with two individuals who, separately and without prompting, reference this quote in their interviews and describe the ways in which they have attempted to do just that. Our guests are Deirdre Nice, executive director of St. Lawrence Arts and landscape artist Jane Damon. We hope they inspire you to find ways to follow your own bliss. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

in Maine for many years, it's been interesting to follow the career of Deirdre Nice, who is now the Executive artistic director of St. Lawrence Arts up on the East End. She's also the co founder of Cilley's restaurant on Washington Avenue. And she's done many, many other things. But it's really kind of fun for me to finally meet you because your reputation is. It's enormous, really. You've done so much for this part of the world, and I thank you for that.

Deirdre Nice:

Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun. I love Portland.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about that. Tell me, how did you end up in this fair city?

Deirdre Nice:

My dad got a job at Chevers. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and when we got back to the States, we moved from, for a short time to his hometown in Newburyport, Mass. And he was looking. He was an English teacher, and he was looking around for jobs. And I remember that summer filling out a zillion, sending out lots of resumes, and he got a couple hits, and one of them was in Arizona. And that's what I was pushing for because I had come from a hot climate, and the other one was at Cheveris in Maine. And I was like, oh, jeepers creepers. But we came up here. I graduated from high school in Maine, and I have gone away, you know, here or there, you know, on little trips and stuff. But it's really nice to be able to call Maine home. I just love it. It's interesting because I have a lot of friends who grew up in Arabia as expats, and there is a sense of, like, not ever feeling at home anywhere. And I think that I've been able to, you know, surpass, you know, to somehow get over that. I think of myself as a Mainer, although technically I know I never will be because I wasn't born here, but my nephews are.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I'm with you. I mean, my family is all from Maine, and I happen to be born in Vermont. The few years that my parents were out of state getting an education. And so I'm actually not a Mainer either. Despite all of this. It doesn't really matter. You just.

Jane Dahmen:

You're right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But you came and you've been here a long time. And I would say, having been a resident on India street, well, formerly, I think it was the bottom of a church. Now they have a big Maine Medical center as a big, beautiful building across the way. But I was in the basement of that. Well, I think they had turned it into a school by that time. I have seen so much change on the East End on Munjoy Hill, and a lot of it. You've kind of had a hand in.

Deirdre Nice:

Well, I think me and lots of other people, but I will Say that, like Cill, the Union Bagel Company is now, and where Katie Maid Bakery used to be as well, that used to be an old Jewish kosher meat market. And I remember we were looking around, my sister and I, for a permanent location for the idea of a little restaurant, and that little location was always closed. And I drove by one December and talked to the old guy, and, you know, you know, we ended up there. And our rent was $125 a month for the first year, and then it went up by like 10% a year for the first five years. So it was really amazing. We had worked at Sam's Harbor Lunch down on Waterfront. We wanted to have our own place. And we were looking at India street, and back in the 80s, India street was really expensive in the 80s, and so was the Waterfront, somewhat. But right around the corner at the tip of Kennedy park was this cute little spot, $125. And our thought was, so, you know, we could do that and still be waitresses and totally fail. So that's a key to. Actually, I think a key to my life is that I've never been afraid to actually fall flat on my face and fail. So Cilly's was interesting. And ever since then, 1988, when we opened up Cilly's, there, it's been a thriving little corner on the corner of Cumberland Smith. And then we bought the building around the corner in 1995 and opened up the larger building, the larger restaurant in 97. And wow. Now you go up and down Washington Avenue, and it's just amazing. All the, you know, ethnic restaurants and all the different choices. That's a real huge change. We were there when Nissens was still there, and when Vito's Bakery, where Coffee by Design is now, they would come over in their little caps, and we'd trade them the end of the night pizza for some bread and that kind of thing.

Jane Dahmen:

So.

Deirdre Nice:

And then somehow I got into the St. Lawrence once, and it. And then it came for sale, and so I was able to buy it with. When my dad died, I had a $15,000 endowment or whatever inheritance, and I plopped it all down on that building. And so I have definitely been around, you know, that neighborhood enough to see it come from, you know, kind of sketchy to really rejuvenated on so many different levels. It's really a beautiful little neighborhood, and it's still very, you know, diverse. It's a lot of fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think you're right about the diversity, because it's not as if it is entirely gentrified. There are still families who have lived on the Hill who have lived there a really long time.

Deirdre Nice:

Yeah, and I think gentrification is an interesting term because in order to. Whenever anybody fixes up a building, you contribute slightly to the gentrification. So it's not a negative term. You know, if you paint the outside of your building, your neighbor comes along and says, geez, I think I'll paint my building. So there is certainly something going on up there with a lot of the condos and you know, an idea that perhaps, you know, people are being priced out. But I would like to say that, you know, I think the diversity on Munjoy Hill hasn't changed that much. You know, the East End Community School where I volunteer every week as part of their Rise and Shine program. It's a wonderful part of my life. I should have put that in. What brings you joy in your question or whatever. It's, you know, it's 79% free lunch, you know, and it will always be up there. There are neighborhoods that will, you know, Montreal Hill can never actually ultimately just become a haven for, you know, the wealthy and well heeled. It will always kind of. And it's always done this. I think if you look back on its history, it's always had changes and you know, that's what neighborhoods do. So I see most of the changes on the Hill to be real positive and I'm actually feeling really good to be. I feel great about being involved in a project that will be part of fixing up an entire neighborhood block. And we've been at it for over 20 years now and will serve everybody on the Hill. You know, whether you want, you have $5 to come into a. We do it now, but when we have the bigger space, bigger performance hall, $5 to go to a show. Great, 50 bucks. We'll have all of those shows. So gentrification isn't interesting. It's a hot topic and sort of, what do you call it, one of those hot words where it can mean a lot of different things to different people.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about St. Lawrence Arts and why it was so important to you that you take this former church and make something out of it.

Deirdre Nice:

Well, you know, it's interesting. I've been asked that a lot. I can't really be that specific about why it was important to me except for that I spent my life traveling when I was younger overseas. And although I didn't come from a religious background of any sorts, we were in and out of churches all the time because when you travel, they are community buildings. They are where people gather, and they often are just quite beautiful. So I've spent a lot of time in churches, not in a religious sense. And then when the St. Lawrence came up, it came for sale. And I'd spent all those years down the hill. We delivered up there all the time. So I was Pete's delivery girl and whatever. And I just remember it was such a beautiful building from the outside. Never been in. As a matter of fact, a lot of people on the hill had never been in because it had been closed for a long time. And before that, it had a dwindling congregation, which I think is typical of these old churches. So when the guy who was selling it came into my restaurant and said he was selling it and it was 60 grand, it turned out to be 73. But I was like, wow, I could buy that. And when I walked into the building, the architect, Arthur Bates Jennings, he has only designed two buildings in the state of Maine. It's the Norumbega, which is a bed and breakfast up in camden, and the St. Lawrence. And he didn't design a typical church. It was not very typically congregated, which are kind of wooden buildings and, you know, not a lot of flash. This building was this incredible granite structure, and I love granite. Took up the entire city block. It was grand and just. It looked like a castle. It was magical. When I walked in, I just thought, arts. This would make a beautiful art center. And it has actually we've been open since 2001 in the parish hall and. And, you know, just from the moment of opening up the building, not really knowing who would be the users, which was something that we had said for years, like, if we built it, they will come. They did in droves. And we haven't been. We haven't had one season yet that isn't absolutely chock full of just every

Jane Dahmen:

type of,

Deirdre Nice:

you know, artistic endeavor that you can imagine. The other side of the building was more of a challenge, and we continued to try to fix it. And the long and short there is that we had a beautiful plan, had got an amazing grant in 1995 from. Or 2005, rather, from Jane's Trust, was able to pass that plan through the city of Portland, basically. All right, sorry. While we had. We were in the middle of this beautiful. This great grant for $250,000 to redesign the other side of the building in place as we had the parish hall and it collapsed, so we had to take it down. So one of the things about this project would Be. You just have to have a lot of faith, I guess, would be one way to put it. And also perseverance. We took it down. We designed a building that basically replicated the old building. We got it passed, went out to the funding community, and they said, way too much money you can't raise. It was $17 million price tag. So we went back to the drawing board, and now we've redesigned a beautiful modern building with some historic attributes that has a relationship to the parish hall, and we've reduced the price by $10 million. It's a $7 million project. So was the question like, why did I get involved? I don't know. It's just. It's really interesting. You get to be part of a community. You get to be part of the arts. You meet the most interesting people in the arts. They are what I think has, you know, in some way pushed our society in all of the cool directions it's ever gone in. And that's just really a joy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I like that. I mean, I think that what I keep hearing from you and my experience of Cilly's personally is some sense of importance, of community building. I mean, your restaurant. When I. I think when I was a resident, my special occasion was always the falafel wrap. And it was. I was. I am a vegetarian, so I would go to your restaurant, and there were all kinds of things that I could eat. So even the food that you served was very inclusive. And now you're describing, you know, the East End or St Lawrence as just being very inclusive. And anybody who can come, you know, come along, you know, we're happy to have you.

Deirdre Nice:

Yeah. You know, it's an interesting thing. One thing for sure in my life is that money's never driven me. And so that's an E for me. It's always been kind of easy to make decisions because money hasn't been a primary motivator and also the idea of not being afraid to fail. And Cilly's is a good example, because, you know, I don't even know if anybody, unless they were from the Middle east, knew what falafel was, you know, certainly not in that neighborhood at the time. And we had shish kebab, we had all this vegetarian. You know, we had tabouli. We had, you know, baba ganoush and all this other stuff. It was a lot of fun. And we ended up getting a lot of the vegetarian crowd. And then little by little by little, we would. But we didn't know that there was a, you know, that that was something that would actually catch on so much is that we, you know, wanted to do it. And certainly the idea of building businesses that somehow involve, like being part of the community that you're in has been, I think, really important. A community means different things for different people. It's not like I want to be around people all the time, but, you know, without community or where you. Without getting involved in where you live, you know, I love living here. I wouldn't really want to live anywhere else. And I love being a part of my town. And I just see it as sort of a win win, you know, because I have a great job and I'm hoping, you know, one day somebody else will have my great job, which I'm hoping for. And like Cilly's, for example, the gal that owns it now, she's a great gal. Colleen Kelly, wonderful. And look what she's done with it. You know, we sold it back in 2003 and she's just like taking the reins and run right with it and made it even better. And just as kitschy and odd and fun, she's like the perfect person to buy it, so. And she's a big community person, so it's kind of fun to sort of pass the baton to somebody who felt that urge as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's also been interesting for me to see how my children have responded to things like Cilly's or the East End. My kids, I have 15 year old, a 20 year old, 22 year old. So I would bring them to places like Cilly's, we would go to Amato's on India Street. You know, we would go, we would take advantage of the East End. But at that time, it was kind of like a new place of exploration for me, being a kid from the suburbs. And it's become part of their fabric. I mean, they're home from college and they're saying, can we go to Cilly's? Can we take a walk on the Eastern prom? So it's become kind of a multi generational thing. And it's almost as if somehow their neighborhood, their sense of Maine has expanded just by virtue of some of the changes that have happened over the past several decades.

Deirdre Nice:

I agree. And I have to say, it's funny, over the years I run into people and I watch their kids grow up at Cilley's, and I think I made a pact with myself that I'd stop asking them how old those kids were because they start to be 30 and 40 years old now. But yeah, Cilly's had A huge impact on kids, I mean, and their families because it was very family friendly. And a lot of that stuff actually just developed. It was just in some way, we didn't really design it. It just happened because of our openness to just about anything. And so like the whole idea of all those photographs with Eat at Cilly's. I think originally my sister went somewhere and she put a photograph up and then people just started taking those stickers. And we had one rule which is don't actually stick it on, you know, the Mona Lisa or anything like that. But you know, people started to send their photographs back from wherever they traveling around the world and those photographs are still up there. And yeah, I think that. I think kids, you know, when they have a place that is not necessarily just a place you go in the mall that you can see anywhere in anywhere, you know, USA that's kind of unique and recognizes them and they can contribute something, there goes their photo up on the wall. You know, it's a pretty neat thing to be able to do. And I think part of that is just being open, you know, to not necessarily being rigid about what. What Silly's is. For example, the name had nothing to do with being silly. It was actually just something we came up with and turns out it was so much fun and it means so much to different people, so. And jerk chicken. I think we were the first jerk chicken people.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about some of your favorite artists that you've come into contact with at St. Lawrence.

Deirdre Nice:

Wow. You know, we've had a lot of. In the early days of the St. Lawrence we booked anything and everything. And so I don't know that I could specifically come up with some of those were my favorite ones. You know, Slade Cleaves has got to be like one of my favorite artists. And also he's a friend. And I have a funny little story with a silly St. Lawrence connection, which was I had bought the St. Lawrence and I owned it with a partner. And I kept on trying to convince this guy to be a non profit and finally he got out of it and I was able to form a non profit and we formed a nonprofit in 96 and Slade Cleaves and Chris Moore did the very first benefit concert for the St. Lawrence in the back yard of Sillies. We got a keg donated by David Geary. Geary's one of my favorite beers. And we raised 300 bucks and we hauled that keg up to the St. Lawrence. And I think that Chris Moore and Slade Cleaves are the only Artists that I know since I've been involved with the project that have ever played on the stage in the former sanctuary, which now doesn't exist. So that's kind of neat. So he's definitely one of my favorite. All those artists that are on the. Greetings from area code 207 CDs, all the local. Local people that have donated over the years. I just really think that we're so lucky to live here with all this talent right here. You know, oftentimes people think that you have to go away for the stuff. And it's like some of the. Some geniuses live right around us. And a lot of those folks are my favorite. I. You know, honestly, we've had so much stuff.

Jane Dahmen:

I.

Deirdre Nice:

It's hard for me to really pick out David Mallet. I grew up with his music. When I moved to Maine, I was 16 years old and I started listening to David Mallett and then tried to convince him to come and play at St. Lawrence for years and years and years. And then finally was successful sometime, you know, maybe eight years ago. Definitely one of my favorites. His kids are playing around and I got them to do a few acoustic shows at the St. Lawrence, but cheapers. We've had Cape Verde music. Actually, folks that have flown from Cape Verde, stayed with a Cape Verdean friend and played at the St. Lawrence were. So this friend of mine who I did a radio show before mine, he's married to a Cape Verdean woman, and he would bring these Cape Verdean artists over the years, the St. Lawrence. And I was contacted by this woman's manager, and she said, do you know the artist Maria Debaros? And I was like, are you kidding? I named one of my cats after Maria de Barros. So my cat. One of my cat's name was actually Maria de Barros, the whole name. So we've had a lot of world music, a lot of fun stuff, and it would be hard for me to actually pick and choose because they're all. It's a great place to hear any kind of music and wonderful place for theater, spoken word, really. Early on, a friend of mine, Madeleine Slavic, lived in Hong Kong, brought a Chinese poet. This is one of the very first years we were open, who did his poetry in Chinese. It was really. And Madeleine translated it. There's so much that we've done over the years. We've been busy for, you know, 15 years. I think we're going to our 16th year.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Who do you have coming up that you're especially interested in?

Deirdre Nice:

Oh, you know, I have to say this is an interesting thing. So Cindy Bullens, who has been on a bunch of our CDs, is now Sid Bullens and he's going to do a one woman show in May. And I'm really excited about that because, you know, like so many other issues in our society, there's an issue that has come full circle and you know, Cindy Bolens has played at the St. Lawrence and now Sid Bullins will do a one person show about that whole journey that he's had as a mother and as a, you know, an artist. So I'm kind of excited about that. We have some interesting theater coming up. We're booking a bunch of music this summer that I'm excited about that we haven't necessarily confirmed, but yeah, a lot of bluegrass and some acoustic Americana music and lots of theater. There's a flamenco show coming up in, in May as well and then another more multimedia flamenco and dance show coming up in June. It's going to be a fun summer over there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What was your favorite thing about working with wmpg?

Deirdre Nice:

I love wmpg. I started working there in the old days when the training was really rudimentary and that was a lot of fun. And records were our primary source of how we were able, you know, tune get the record up. And little by little, you know, it's been able to grow as a, as a community radio station. I like the freedom. I there wasn't a lot of pretense. I did a music show and I could play any type of music I wanted, although my primary form of music was Americana, bluegrass, acoustic, folky stuff. But I did a lot of interviews and interviewed a lot of artists over the years and got to talk to a lot of interesting people. But mostly I got to play music for two hours a week and that was what I was doing. So I got to listen to music for two hours a week. That was a lot of fun because you know, when you have a busy life, sometimes actually taking the time out in your life to just do listen to music, which I think is incredibly important. I think music is the universal language. I love that about it. And I'll tell you a goofy little story. So the old days, Peter Twitchell was our station manager and it was back in the days where we didn't have a lot of money. It was very, you know, we have hundreds of volunteers and somebody had called up and I'd made a joke like if anybody calls up, I'll do my show in my underwear. And it's a radio Show. So my mother happened to be there. My mother does a show on WMPG on Sundays called Eastern Sands Radio. And she's done it for 25 years now. She started the year after I did and 3:30 to 5 on Sundays, WMPG. And in any case, Peter, we were raising money for Bagathon and he goes, Deirdre, somebody called in and said they'll give us 50 bucks if you do it in your underwear. And I'm like, yeah, no problem. And so I stripped down and did the remainder of the show in my underwear for 50 bucks. I love. I don't know if you could do that today. I don't know if they'd go for it. But back then it was fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. And I can, I can assure anybody who's listening I will, I will not ever do the Love me and radio in my underwear. So they're gonna have to, they're gonna have to go maybe, maybe for a little bit more than $50. Maybe I would go for higher. Who really knows?

Deirdre Nice:

That's funny Deirdre.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How can people find out about St. Lawrence?

Deirdre Nice:

Well, our website is the best way to do it. SaintLawrenceArts.org, s-L A W R E N C E a r t s.org and we're on the web obviously we have a Facebook page, St. Lawrence Arts. And that's a great way to keep up to date. But really our website, that's where our calendar is, that's where the history, the future and you know, just about anything you'd ever want to know, all the upcoming events. And I would actually just like to say we are just about to go, we're just about to finish up the planning process for the new performance hall which will be a 401 seat performance hall that will add to the performance hall that we have now which is about 100 seats with the risers and one of the. I would go to our website to look up the designs that we have. We have a beautiful room at the top of this performance hall that will be built that has that east end view that everybody has if you live in one of the fancy places. But this will be a public facility and with that incredible 360 degree view of the harbor and the mountains and everything with a beautiful new performance hall, mid sized, which is something that's hard to find in this town. And so we'll have a 400 seat room, we'll have a 100 seat auditorium. And when you take the risers weigh more than that and the room at the top probably will seat 200 people. So we'll have a nice variety of spaces.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I encourage people to do that, to go out and find out more about St. Lawrence arts. And I'm really thrilled that you took the time to come in and talk with me today. As somebody having, as I said at the beginning, known about you for so many years and kind of watching your work from a distance and seeing the great success you've had, just basically following, following what it was that you felt you should be doing. I give you a lot of credit because you were out there doing things that maybe not everybody always understood and

Deirdre Nice:

yet they were so true. Who said it? Did Joseph Campbell say follow your bliss? Was that. Or was that Leo Biscalia? I forget.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But that was Joseph Campbell.

Deirdre Nice:

Was it Joseph Campbell? So I think that that's definitely something that I've done in my life. It's nice to hear that somebody's been following me. I didn't know that I had a following.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're like a little mean superstar. There you go.

Deirdre Nice:

Oh, that's sweet.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've been speaking with Deirdre Nice who is the executive and artistic director of St. Lawrence Arts and she is the co founder of Cilley's Restaurant on Washington Avenue. Thanks for coming in today and for all the good work you've done.

Deirdre Nice:

Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you folks having me on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today it is my great pleasure to speak with Jane Damon who is a landscape artist based on the mid coast. Jane is considered to be a contemporary realist in her art. She is working with the Lincoln Theater to bring artists and curators who are making a substantial contribution to Maine in front of a live audience for one on one conversations. Thank you so much for being here today.

Jane Dahmen:

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So Jane, you have been an artist for quite some time now.

Jane Dahmen:

Many years. Too many.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about that.

Jane Dahmen:

Well, I painted ever since I was a young child. It was just a proclivity of mine. And I painted throughout my whole growing up years, through grammar school, high school, and then I went to a liberal arts school and I majored in art history, which I still to this day love. But I was always painting on the side. And I got out of school and I had jobs, but meanwhile I was always painting for my own pleasure. And then I got married and we moved to New Hampshire and I had two children and I started doing silkscreen printmaking, which was a medium that lent itself to small periods of time when the kids were growing up. And that was very satisfying, but still just a hobby. But I accumulated so many prints. I gave away as many as I could. I framed them from my own house. And then someone offered to sell some for me, and I said, oh, I'd love that. And that actually began me, began to make me think this could be a career. So I started on that path and we moved to Concord, Mass. Where our kids grew up. And I took classes at the museum school for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and painted in gouache and oil. Sold many small paintings of Maine and of other places. And one day I had a studio in the center of Concord. Somebody gave me an 8 foot by 8 foot canvas which I did not know what to do with, but I was intrigued. And I watched that canvas every day when I went in there to my studio and looked at it for a whole year. Meanwhile, I was walking in the woods with my husband every morning and looking at the woods and thinking. It just felt so spiritual in the woods. The noises, the sights. I loved the trees, and I just was unsuccessful painting them. But one day I walked into my studio and I put a streak of paint from the top of that canvas to the bottom, and it was the tree trunk. And I just kept going. And it was the first painting that I was able to do of the woods. And I've been doing that ever since. That's what I'm doing today. But I'm painting on doors.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I love the paintings of yours that hang in the Portland Art Gallery. I think some of my favorites are ones that are birch trees.

Jane Dahmen:

I love birches.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well. And what's interesting, I am not a painter. I don't consider myself to be really an artist. But what's interesting in having spoken to other artists is they tell me that trees are actually not as easy to paint as one might think.

Jane Dahmen:

Well, it's challenging painting trees in a setting because there's a lot going on and you have to make sense of it. There's a lot of debris falling over trees, branches and whatnot. So yes, it's a challenge, but I love challenges. And anyway, you're an artist. Everybody's born an artist of some kind or other. People don't realize that, but everybody's creative in their own way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I appreciate that. I'm going to keep that in mind. Keep that in my mind, in my heart. What does it mean to be a contemporary realist?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, it's a way of saying that what I paint is recognizable, but it's filtered through my own mind. And I'm as interested in painting what's in here as what's out there. So I guess you could describe it that way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how did you end up here in Maine?

Jane Dahmen:

I went to school here. I went to Colby College. I always loved the landscape and we sailed up here when we lived in Massachusetts and we'd come up on the weekends and we always had a. An anchor that we would leave the boat at and we had a little bike that we took with us and we'd go back and get our car. And we loved it up here, but we didn't see a way that we could make a living up here. But when my husband retired in 2004, we moved up here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And since you've been here, you've actually become a very active member of the community, including through the work that you've done with the Lincoln Theater,

Jane Dahmen:

right? Well, I like to give back wherever I live. I did that in Concord. I started an art center out of an old school building. It took a year out of my life. I didn't paint for that year, but it's still going. It's very successful and it makes me feel good. This program up in Damar Scotta, you know, the Skadumpa, which is an award winning library, has chats for champions and that's programs that offer the audience a look at some author in a new book. But nobody was really showing artists and what was going on with artists. So I thought we should do that at the Lincoln Theater. We should invite artists who are doing something great in Maine and interview them. We learn so much. I mean, I really do my homework. I love reading about other artists. I love talking to them, I love asking them questions and I always learn a lot. We've had wonderful. We've had wonderful artists come talk with us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Who have you had?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, we had Alex Katz recently. He was very good. We had Lois Dodd. She's delightful. She's 80 years old and acts like, she's 20. We had Yvonne Jaquette, who paints from on high. She's called the aerial Muse. She's just very beautiful painter. And we've had trying to think who else. We had curators. Sharon Corwin from Colby College, who's a rock star curator. She's just terrific. And if you haven't seen that Colby College museum, it is a winner. It's the biggest museum in Maine now that they've gotten all these wonderful gifts that they recently got. And we had Suzette McAvoy from the center for Contemporary Art talking about the new building and all the exciting things going on there. And we had Eric Hopkins, who was just wonderful, very personal guy. I love him. So we've had a lot of good people, and we have people lined up for this year, too.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why do you think it's important to have these conversations and to have other people listen to them?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, it's important for all people, whether you're an artist or not. You can learn a lot by talking to people. For instance, when we had Alex Katz come, one of the things I was fascinated with was he was turned down by everybody in the beginning of his career. Nobody liked what he was doing. He did well in school at Cooper Union, but when he got out, he didn't want to paint what he had painted in school. He wanted to paint his own thing. And he started doing these incredible paintings that people said, oh, that's terrible. Don't do that. And he turned down awards and everything because he had this inner drive. And I said, alex, where did you get this confidence at such a young age? And he said, I don't know, you know, but it was just that he never gave up on himself. He believed in himself. And I think that was very instructive. I think people really were impressed with that. I was.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are some of the other things that you've learned from the artists who have come in to speak?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, of course, I've learned a lot of things about their process. I'm a painter. I spend every day in my studio, and I love to hear what other people do and how they come up with their ideas for what to paint, how the paintings, how the artwork satisfies them in some way, what they get out of it, their motivations, their inspirations in there, some of the pratfalls that they've overcome.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've had people who are curators also on the show, and it's fascinating to me because there's a very special art involved with actually curating, actually bringing together a group of paintings or pieces so that other people can enjoy them.

Jane Dahmen:

There's a great skill in hanging shows. Well, Sharon Corwin at Colby does a great job at that. She was given, or Colby College was given, a 500 piece collection from Peter and Paula Lunder recently worth over $100 million or some ungodly thing. And Alex Katz has given them 700 paintings. But to hang the paintings well and to make them, to show them at their best is a real knack that Sharon has. And if you go and look at one of her shows that she's hung, she has her hand in all of it, you will see that she makes connections that you might not make. But she is very good at that. So I think all her shows are really interesting from that point of view. If nothing else, you also have an

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

interesting family in that your daughter recently returned, I believe, from Peru.

Jane Dahmen:

She's married to a Peruvian, so she's traveled there. But no, they met in Massachusetts. He's a musician and so is she. And yes, they have a wonderful band called the Flying Seeds. I think they're going to go out as a duo because they find it a lot more creative and a lot easier than working with all these other people, especially now that they've moved to Maine. So. But we're very excited about what they're doing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I don't want to detract from your other child. What is your other child doing?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, I have another wonderful child who's living out in Vancouver and he's an architect. So both of our children are artists of one kind or another. And he's also involved with sustainable building materials. He's very interested in rammed earth, making rammed earth blocks for building houses because one of the biggest drains on the equipment, on the environment, is building materials that are shipped all over the world. Concrete is a huge, huge energy problem.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think that it helped your kids that you had this interest in the arts?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, you would have to ask them. I mean, at times it probably wasn't a help.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I don't know.

Jane Dahmen:

They used to say to me, mom, go to your studio, as they were growing up, because they knew it was where I found solace and peace and happiness. But yes, maybe it was good because I gave them the freedom. And my husband is also very creative. He had his own business and he was creative and unusual. We all needed a lot of downtime in our family. We all spent a lot of time alone within the family because we each needed it. We didn't realize it at the time, but now looking back on It. I think we all realize and appreciate the fact that we needed to be alone. But, yeah, I think we gave our kids the freedom to do whatever was in their heart. We never said, no, you can't do that. And so probably because we're artists, that's

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

an unusual thing to have a family full of people who like to be by themselves, cuckoo. Well, I mean, I like to be by myself, and I don't know that it's cuckoo. I just think it's an interesting dynamic that you have.

Jane Dahmen:

No, it's true. I think we all gave each other space. And when I was bringing up my kids, it wasn't exactly thought to be a good thing to shut your door on your kids and say, I need some time to be alone. But I did that, and they respected that. They knew this was Mom's time to be alone. I didn't do it when they were 2 and 3. And I liked being with my kids. I always enjoyed them. I learned as much from them as I think they learned from me. And I tried to be part of their lives as they were growing up. I certainly wasn't a perfect mom, but I went and got my daughter out of school when her cat had kittens because I wanted her to see it. I didn't tell the teacher why I was taking her out, but, you know, and we took the kids on trips and took them out of school to take them because we felt that life is a long life, and it's a lot of experiences, and you don't want to give up any.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm sure that you have the opportunity to work with younger artists and people who are newly in their field. What types of challenges do you see for people who are just getting into this work?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, probably the biggest one is to try somehow to hold your confidence, hold that inner knowing that you are doing the right thing. If you really want to be an artist, you have to be confident a lot of the time. I'm not talking about being a braggart or anything like that. I'm talking about when everybody's saying you shouldn't be doing a. You can do it. You know, don't go off and try and do what pleases other people. It's folly. Stay with who you are and believe in yourself. Because if you don't believe in yourself, who else is going to? You can convince a lot of people that what you're doing is right if you believe in it. And then I would say, too, to protect yourself a little bit, don't let everybody into your studio. I used to let everyone come into my space. And, you know, you're very vulnerable in there and you're doing something that's very personal. It's a kind of a spiritual sacred place. So don't just let everybody in there, because even good comments about what you're doing can be influential and it can affect you. So I would say be careful that way a little bit. And then as people are gaining artistic experience, I would say, I learned from reading Mark Rothko. He said it's as important what you choose not to do as what you do. So try to focus at some point, not in the very beginning. You want to try all kinds of things. But most artists can do a lot of things. They can do a lot of things well. But if you focus on one thing, you're probably going to get better at it, and it may really be your voice.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's an interesting point, because I think that in this day and age, we have access to lots of things. We can access almost anything we want any piece of information, any type of education. And so to be able to sort of hone down what it is that we feel most connected to, to maybe it's a little bit more challenging than it once was.

Jane Dahmen:

Well, that's true with the Internet and everything. You can waste a lot of time looking up things. You can be on Facebook every day. It's true. I think it's more challenging the more information is available. But I think the satisfying good life is to slow it down and look inward and say, what is it? I really, really want to do what means the most to me. And somehow that having an integrated life and feeling that you're doing what you are supposed to do is really, really healthy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you ever happen across other individuals who are later in their lives or in their careers, who started off on one path and then kind of took a right turn?

Jane Dahmen:

Oh, all the time. I think it's great when that happens. And they probably. I hope they don't regret what they started out doing, because it probably, it probably. The experience probably added to what they're doing now. And I meet a lot of people in my studio when we have an open house or in the gallery who say, I've always wanted to paint. And I say, do it. What are you waiting for? And sometimes these people are not young and they say, but I can't. I don't have time. I have, you know, a house to pay for and I've got kids in college. Well, then just do it part time if you have to. But I'm all For, as Joseph Campbell said, follow your bliss. I think it's the healthiest way to go.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There's something interesting to me about being an artist and having your piece on a wall for other people to evaluate, connect to, possibly pay for, maybe take home to their houses. I mean, you're putting yourself out in a very obvious way.

Jane Dahmen:

Yes. Well, it's very observant of you to notice that. When I first started showing my work, I was scared to death. I really was. I hated to go to shows that showed my work up on the wall. I would think, you know, that's me. It's like sort of taking all your clothes off and standing up and saying, well, what do you think? It's really an awful feeling. But I got over it. I got used to it. And I was taught by the first gallery that I really was in that. It's like stepping into a stream. The water is still going and it's going somewhere and you're not there yet. This is your way along the way. What you're doing right now might be the best work you're ever going to do. You don't know that. Or you might be on the way to doing something great. So don't take it too seriously. Just put the work out there and be grateful if people like it, and if they want to buy it, even better. But, I mean, I don't paint for that reason. I don't paint for other people. I really paint for myself. And I don't paint to sell the work, although I love to sell it. Because in this culture, if someone buys something, it means something. It means that they not only like it, but they're willing to sacrifice for it. So. But I would still do it if I wasn't paid for it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, that's a strong statement,

Jane Dahmen:

right? I suppose it is. I have friends who paint and never sell anything, and I love what they do, but they are so into it and their work does not appeal to the public. It's a hard. I admire that. I don't know if I. You know, you wonder if people, if nobody liked what you did, if you'd keep doing it just for your own satisfaction. Because sometimes people die and then their work is discovered and people say, wow. Or they're very late in their career and someone like Agnes Martin painted her whole life without any recognition until she was quite a bit older. So that happens, too.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, that's an interesting. I think about that often, actually. People who write books or people who paint something, or people who put music out into the world and they never know that anybody ever appreciates it. Maybe because, I don't know, the cultural feeling hasn't caught up to where the art is itself, but they've still done

Jane Dahmen:

it well and historically. Look at all the artists who painted great paintings, like Van Gogh, for instance. Great painter, one of the best painters who ever lived on the planet. Was never recognized when he was alive. You know, how hard is that? You must have tremendous inner motivation and an obsession to paint when nobody is giving you positive feedback.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, clearly, if he sliced off his ear, probably there was something tormenting him and possibly moving him forward in a way that many of us hopefully will never have to understand. But yes, I think that's true. I think this idea that you've brought up several times and really listening to yourself, and not only listening to yourself, but being propelled forward by what you're hearing, I think that's not always an easy thing because there are so many other voices that we hear, so many other influences upon our lives. Sometimes it's easier just to pick one of those and follow that instruction.

Jane Dahmen:

Absolutely. I mean, I think you've got to be very careful and be on the lookout all the time for people who make you feel insecure. Do not hang around with people like that. Just get rid of those people. I mean, they mean well. Sometimes they don't even mean to be doing what they're doing. But don't hang around with them. And don't stay in a gallery. If you're an artist, do not stay in a gallery that is putting down your work in subtle ways. Coming into your studio and saying, well, I like this one and not that one, or, why don't you paint some smaller ones because we can sell them. Just go somewhere else. Don't stay with that kind of influence because you really do owe it to yourself to be strong inside and to stay focused on what you want to do. If it takes listening to tapes or listening to your show or listening to or reading books, whatever it takes to build up your inner confidence, I think that's a big factor in a healthy life. I really do. I think believing in yourself, having the courage to choose what you want to do, and listening to that little voice isn't easy. You're right. I think you need some time alone to hear it and know that it's really you speaking and not some voice that you've heard. Your mother or your father, who again, might be well meaning but might not have. How do they know what's in your brain or what's in your mind or Your body. They don't.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Who's coming up for you at the Lincoln Theatre that you think people would be interested in hearing from?

Jane Dahmen:

Well, we have. The first one we have is John Bisbee who is a wonderful sculptor who uses 12 inch nails. He's in Brunswick and I love his work. And we have Anna Hepler who is now at the show in Portland. You can't get there from here, the Biennial. She makes wonderful little intuitive sculptural pieces and then somehow or other she turns them into these enormous museum pieces. Even she doesn't know how she does it. It's a very magical, mystical thing that she does. And Katherine Bradford, who is a very interesting painter. Sometimes hard to understand. Her images are psychologically challenging. I love her work, I always have and I can't wait to hear what she has to say. And then we're having William Wegman, who is a poet, artist, writer and photographer of his great Weimaraners, which are dogs which he dresses up in costumes. And he is a very funny man. So I'm looking forward to meeting him too.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How can people find out about the work that you're doing with the Lincoln Theatre or the work that you do as an artist?

Jane Dahmen:

Really well, I have a website for my art which just google Jane Damon. It's D A H M E N. The Lincoln Theatre series is advertised in Maine Home and Design. We are trying to get grants for both advertising and to record these talks and also so we can have more local artists come who are very talented and we'd love to have a showcase for them too. But we send out notices from the Lincoln Theater and they'll be in the newspapers and in Maine Home and Design. And I think if you Google the Lincoln Theatre you'll find when these talks are coming up.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've been speaking with Jane Damon who is a landscape artist based in the mid coast and also who is working with the Lincoln Theater to bring artists and curators who are making a substantial contribution to Maine in front of a live audience for one on one conversations. Thanks so much for coming in and thanks for the work you're doing and thanks for being inspiring. I feel like I should go out and practice my art now. So you've done a good job.

Jane Dahmen:

Well, thank you very much. I like what you're doing too.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you, love.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to Lovemain radio show number 229 following bliss. Our guests have included Deirdre Nice and Jane Damon. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think. 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. If you'd like to actually see Jane Damon's paintings in person, visit the Portland Art gallery. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Following Bliss show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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