Maine on Film, #88

Barbara Goodbody:

I call my home here in Cumberland my safe harbor, and that made me feel much more comfortable because we're a nautical state and we know what it's like to pull up anchor and sail away. But it's good to have a safe harbor to come home to, and Maine's been that.

Meg Weston:

For me, the core of who we are is planted really early in life, and for me, that whole essence of creativity is so important as sort of that wellspring or that source of what feeds us and nourishes us and allows us to grow and be vital way up into our later years in Life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 88, Maine on Film, airing for the first time on Sunday, May 19, 2013. From the Rocky coast to the western mountains, Maine is home to vistas wild and wonderful. It is also home to the main Media Workshop and College in Rockport, where photographers hone their skills in order to fully capture Maine's great beauty. This week we celebrate the school's 40th anniversary with internationally known photographer Barbara Goodbody and Meg Weston, President of the Maine Media Workshops and College. There is beauty in looking beyond Most of us are guilty of seeing things for what we believe them to be, rather than what they are. We are startled when they are revealed to be more. We are startled when we realize that we are capable of understanding things in new ways and in sharing this understanding with others. I began the journey to doctorhood at the tender age of 17, the year that I graduated from high school. As a pre med student. My time was spent examining things from a scientific perspective. I took classes in calculus and organic chemistry, my biology and physics. I continued the scientific path through medical school residency and fellowship education. I was trained to see people as interesting puzzles that required solving. I was trained to see the world as a larger ecosystem within which my fellow human creatures and I existed. Several years ago, I began to look beyond what I had been trained to see. Carrying my camera with me while running, I paid careful attention to my surroundings, seeking shots that would represent the beauty of the ecosystem in which I lived. I was amazed by how much there was to notice and how much I had been missing. At about the same time, I took up the study of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. Again, I was astounded at how much more there was to understand about my fellow humans. I have never been able to return to a strictly scientific medical practice, nor have I been able to return to a strictly scientific way of living. I am dazzled daily by the beauty that surrounds me. I am challenged daily to look beyond. We hope that you will also look beyond today as you listen to our conversations with internationally known photographer Barbara Goodbody and Meg Weston, the president of Maine Media Workshops and College. Thank you for joining us. In one of my first conversations with Barbara Goodbody, she. She said to me, well, you know, there are no coincidences. And I thought, this is a woman I can relate to. I said, you know, that's how I live my life, too. So in the studio with me today, I have Barbara Goodbody, who is an internationally known photographer and also a member of the board of directors for the Maine Media Workshops. I think we're going to have a great conversation. Thanks for coming in, Barbara.

Barbara Goodbody:

Oh, you're more than welcome.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, Barbara, you are from the Midwest originally, but you've lived in Maine a long time.

Barbara Goodbody:

I have, I have. I was born in the Midwest in Indiana, and my father was a career naval officer in World War II, so we traveled a lot. My husband and I moved here From Washington in 1973, Washington, D.C. and I live in Cumberland and have been in the same house since we moved here. Raised three children and I'm happy to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, 1973, that's a long time to commit to the state of Maine. What was it about Maine that drew you here and kept you here?

Barbara Goodbody:

Welcome.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, Barbara, you are from the Midwest originally, but you've lived in Maine a long time.

Barbara Goodbody:

I have, I have. I was born in the Midwest in Indiana, and my father was a career naval officer in World War II, so we traveled a lot. My husband and I moved here From Washington in 1973, Washington, D.C. and I live in Cumberland and have been in the same house since we moved here. Raised three children and I'm happy to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, 1973, that's a long time to commit to the state of Maine. What was it about Maine that drew you here and kept you here?

Barbara Goodbody:

It's a good question. It's a good question. I had no experience with New Englanders. I'd grown up traveling as a Navy junior. Most of my life was spent in the middle Atlantic states in Annapolis, Maryland, and then when my husband and I met in New York City and we moved to Washington, D.C. back where I had also gone to high school and junior college. So I was a happy camper there until we got involved in the Ed Muskie presidential campaign and met some good Mainers and they convinced my husband to move us to Maine. I've been here ever since.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you're still finding good Mainers. This is one of the reasons why I met you as Susan Grisanti, who is the editor for Maine magazine, Maine Home Design. She said, there's this photographer and she's. She's truly insightful and has a lot of connections with other people in the state of Maine. And in my conversations with you, it's clear that you continue to be so interested in the community. You were telling me about recently seeing a talk at Cie. Yes, Talk to me about that.

Barbara Goodbody:

A number of years ago, I was. About seven years ago, I was on a. It's curious. It's curious. I travel quite a bit. I have one son in Boulder, a daughter in New York, and grew up in a Midwestern family that loved to travel. So it's in my blood. And also a Navy junior, which gets back to last week. I was on a plane from Maine to Colorado to see my son. And all these kids got on the airplane in Minneapolis, and one of the facilitators chaperones sat next to me and I said, where are all these kids going? And she said, we're going to Peace Jam. And I said, what is Peace Jam? And she said, well, it's an organization founded by a young couple in Denver, Colorado, and they rallied 13 Nobel Peace Prize laureates together. The laureates themselves created a global, global call to action document. And they committed themselves to meeting with high school students who create their own projects based on this global call to Action document in their own communities. And I thought, then I said, well, who's going to be there? And they said, about 3,000 kids from across the country. It's an International Organization. And 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including the Dalai Lama. I said, cool, but I've never heard of it. That's unusual for me. So when I got back to Maine, I called the headquarters and I said, I've never heard of you in northern New England. What's happened? They said, well, just recently had a volunteer for the New England region. He's in Connecticut, and he's promised to organize Peace Jam. And what's more, we have one program that is functioning up. At Mountview High School in Thorndike, Maine. So this is a little bit of a long story. So last week, Lama Gabawi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Liberia, was asked by Kathy Lee in her Women and Justice lecture series to come and speak in Maine. And I said, but she's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate that's committed to Peace Jam. I want to meet her. And for the last seven years, we've been trying to get more interest in the state of Maine and find more people, and it's slowly happening. There are two programs going on now. Kathy Lee has founded the Women in Justice lecture series, and Kathy Roberts, who is now the chapter coordinator for Peace Jam in the state of Maine. And I had lunch. I got together and we had lunch at the Cumberland Club because Lema had said, I'll come to Maine, but I want to meet with students in Maine while I'm here. And so the three of us talked, and we thought this was a great opportunity for all of us. And for. And so Kathie Lee arranged for ciee to have a reception. What's his name? John Palo thought that was a great idea. Les McCabe gave a fantastic lecture, which they had to move to the Westbrook center for the Arts because they had over 800 people at her lecture, the Women in Justice lecture. It's very exciting to know there's such concern for this in our state.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And what types of work is she doing in Liberia?

Barbara Goodbody:

She. I think it was about 2007. She had had enough. Well, Charles Taylor was their dictator president, and he was a brutal dictator. And she decided that if she was able to rally women in Liberia together in a peaceful protest against him, that maybe it could make a difference. And she rallied both Christians and Muslim women together. They all dressed in white, and they peacefully would make their presence known and sometimes with a strong voice. And there's a great documentary that's been made by Abby Disney about her work in library and how she helped bring down that dictator. And it's called Praying the Devil Back to Hell.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've done work in India, and you've used the work that you've done in India to raise awareness. Tell me about that.

Barbara Goodbody:

When I first went to the main photographic workshop in 1986, I gave myself a 50th birthday present and spent two weeks there totally terrified. It was harder for me to buy a good camera than it would have been to spend more money on two dresses. But. But I went up there and had a great experience. It's a fantastic place. And started going back to more workshops. And the next year in a workshop with a young man who lives in Camden. And we became great friends. And he and his wife continue to be great friends of mine 26 years later. He had been invited. He was an ethnologist, and he had been invited by the Smithsonian to be the study leader on a trip, travel trip to India. And he said, my wife doesn't like to go on these work trips with me, but if you come with me on this Smithsonian trip, he said, I'd like a photo, buddy, and I will take you into the villages at sunrise and we will begin the photograph together before the formal trip begins. And I said, okay. I was just. I just took a great leap of faith and signed up for the trip. And he honored that promise. And we would get up before sunrise and before the tour started, and we would go into the villages and photograph. And it was total magic. And we continued to be great friends. And I traveled with him five or six more times to India and then four more on my own. It enriched my life more than I can ever imagine. It was really life changing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That is a big leap, A big leap of faith. A big leap, personally, because you've gone, you've taken up this interest in photography and you really just jumped right in at age 50. And you've traveled across the world not once, but multiple times. Not everybody has that sort of adventurous spirit. Where do you think that comes from in you?

Barbara Goodbody:

I laugh about it when people say that. I learned that my great. Well, this is a great story. My great grandmother, my mother. When we first moved to Maine, I thought I had no connection in New England. And my mother said to me, I remember my mother saying how much she. She loved Portland, Maine. And I said, mother, what do you mean? Your mother is from Indiana and her parents were from Indiana, weren't they? It turned out that my great grandfather, Marion Crossley, had been a universalist minister here in Portland, Maine, in about 1895. 5 and he had a church under his responsibility, which has now been torn down, I understand, a universalist church. He had also been a trustee of Westbrook Seminary, which is now part of University of New England. His wife, my grandmother, whose name was Mehitabal Crosley, I believe, really didn't like the role of a universalist minister, although she performed it very well. They lived up on 47 North street in the east side. I learned later. So she would take groups of women and men, I guess, to on tours. They'd get on a steamer and then they'd get on a train. And she wrote about it and she wrote about taking a group into the harems in turkey in the 19th century. I thought, oh, this must be part of, part of the reason that I have that in my genetic history. And also my maternal great grandmother also was a great traveler. I mean my paternal grandfather, my grandmother was also a great traveler. So both my maternal and my paternal women in that era were great. We're always involved and interested in the world.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We'll return to our program in a Moment on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast. We've long understood the important link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the subject is Tom shepherd of Shepherd Financial.

[Unidentified voice]:

My son likes to create stop motion videos. My wife loves to capture beauty in the photos she takes. One daughter loves to edit and make inspiring images. And one uses her talent to draw her favorite characters. We have truly entered an age where images are our words. They speak to us and we use them to convey meaning. We could never get into words. We have time to take in the beauty of a picture and quickly understand the relationships of people in a photo. We see what we can't hear and we show what we can't say. That is the world we live in. So as I speak to you every Sunday, I can only half communicate all I want to say. At Shepherd Financial, we help you create the vision, the vision that inspires you to go to unlock and get connected to the beauty around you. We help you edit your life and find the combinations that inspire you. You are our favorite character and we like to draw you into our family. You'll find our offices in Yarmouth and Harpswell and online at shepherdfinancialmain.com come and see us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The sense that I get from you is that you. You don't really have the same feeling

Barbara Goodbody:

of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

being bounded of boundaries, that it's just as easy to go to India or it's just as easy to take photography up. I mean, it doesn't seem that you have this fear that so often holds people back from doing things in their lives and something interests you and you sort of follow through. You call up and you say, I'm interested in this.

Barbara Goodbody:

Doesn't everybody?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But not everybody does. That is the thing.

Barbara Goodbody:

I don't know where that comes from. My mother's brother, my uncle, was a great explorer, and his wife was a member of the Society for Women Geographers, and she introduced me to that organization. I became a member of that. I went to 12 different schools before I graduated from high school. And it's probably easier for me to explore than it is for me to root myself and stay in one place.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But you've done both. If you lived In Maine since 1973, you are both grounded, and you are an explorer, and you're a mother and a grandmother and a woman who has had to look outside of the traditional roles of being. I mean, when you took up this photography at age 50, you could just as easily have decided you were going to stay home and take care of the grandkids, but that's not what you wanted to do.

Barbara Goodbody:

No, I've always been interested in travel, and it's. I call my home here in Cumberland my safe harbor. And that made me feel much more comfortable because we're a nautical state and we know what it's like to pull up anchor and sail away. But it's good to have a safe harbor to come home to. And Maine's been that for me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And the main photographic workshop is now Maine Media Workshops. And that has also provided a home for you of sorts of. You've become very involved in supporting and furthering their mission. You started this whole process 26 years ago.

Barbara Goodbody:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why is this so important to you?

Barbara Goodbody:

Because in midlife, I wasn't quite sure what my next step was going to be. And my husband were in the process of a divorce, and I didn't know what the next step was. And I went to see a therapist here in Portland, and I didn't know that his specialty was art therapy. But he asked me, he said, what do you like to do creatively? And I said, like, what do you mean? And he said, anything? He said, painting, gardening, singing, what is it in your soul that you'd like? And I said, I'd always like to be better photographer. And he said, well, why aren't you? And I said, because I could never photograph like them. And he said who's them? And I said those National Geographic and Life photographers that were on my parents coffee table during the war. And he said, well. And I said, well, there is a photo workshop I've heard of in Rockport and I suppose I could go there. And that's when he said, well, is there any reason why you can't? And I said no. And that's when I signed up for the workshop. And. I think that one of the most important shifts for me was tapping into my own creative soul. And I was terrified, absolutely terrified that I wouldn't be able to hang a picture on my wall, much less anybody else's.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Barbara, how can people find out about your photography and the other work that you're doing?

Barbara Goodbody:

My photography? Well, currently I've been honored this year, in my eighth decade to I was invited to be in one of the exhibitions of a series of four exhibitions at the University of New England Westbrook Campus Gallery, Art Gallery, as one of the Maine women pioneers in the arts. So that exhibition is up at the moment. It'll be up through May. I agonized over what I was going to put in it for months and it was a very interesting process for me. So that's one way. But

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I am thrilled that you and I were able to intersect that coincidental moment that we had recently at the Cellar Door series. I'm thrilled that you agreed to come in and spend time with me today and bless our listeners with your wisdom on so many different levels, personal, professional, and that you've also been willing to share so much. So thank you for coming in.

Barbara Goodbody:

We've been talking with Lisa. Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's been fun. It has been. It's been a lot of fun. And so for our listeners who've been listening, we've been talking with Barbara Goodbody, internationally known photographer and member of the board of directors for the Maine Media Workshops. The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is to help make connections between the health of the individual and the health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.

[Unidentified voice]:

Many times when I'm working with a client in nature and in their land and landscape, I will make them acutely aware of the directions and what the power of those directions really mean. We are a North based society. We live in North America. We are very head based. We have a very head based energy and it's the place of the white buffalo. It's a place of wisdom, but it also is a place of great conflict. The south is the place of child, the place of innocence, trust, love, understanding. Hence you have South America. Those people are very emotional. They emote. The east is all about new beginnings, about bringing new things into our lives. And it's a wonderful direction because it's all about hope and promise. And then you have the west, which is really about moving into the darkness. And really it's the most powerful direction of all. It really evokes a sense of perhaps a little sense of intimidation and fear and trepidation and fear. But we always end up coming back up to the east again. So it's a full cycle. You can honor these directions in your landscape and really call attention to these places and really try to understand how powerful these directions really are. I am Ted Carter and if you'd like, you can contact me@tededcarterlandscapes.com we'll return

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yesterday I had a very interesting conversation with a woman about the difference between left brain and right brain and how we see the world. This woman is with me in the studio today and I think we're going to explore this topic a little bit more. And I think she's been able to see the world using both her left brain and her right brain. This is Meg Weston, who is the president of Maine Media Workshops and College, which is up the mid coast from us and is celebrating 40 years. So thanks for coming in.

Meg Weston:

Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Meg, you have had a variety of different incarnations of yourself. You've been. You started out your professional career as a communications major in college and you've worked in business, you've worked in education. Tell me a little bit about your path.

Meg Weston:

So when I graduated from college, I went to work for Bicknell Photo Service and I really followed a business career in advertising and marketing. Bicknell was bought by Kanika Corporation, a Japanese company, in 1988 and shortly thereafter I became president of that year US photo finishing operations for Kanika. We added more plants and grew that business. So I had a wonderful business career with an international focus working for a Japanese owned company. When I Left there in 1997, it was to run the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. So I had short period of time in the newspaper, in the media business, which was very exciting because it was a time when people were really thinking about newspapers and the shifting nature of them. And there was a vision about newspapers as being a news source but multiple outlets, whether it's on the Internet or whether it's on television or through direct marketing. So that was very exciting. And after that I got to run an Israeli digital imaging company with R and D in Tel Aviv and operations in the US and Japan. And I consulted for a while. I became involved as a volunteer. The governor, Governor King appointed me to the Board of Trustees for the University of Maine System. And I served on that board for 10 years and as chair for two years after I left there, I became Vice President of Advancement at the University of Southern Maine and I was in charge of development and marketing for usm. And I left there to apply for this position as president of Maine Media Workshops and College in Marqueport, which I feel is a position where all of my experience and my passion comes together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And in the midst of that, you also got an mfa, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lesley College?

Meg Weston:

I did. In 2001, I went through a change. I had sh. Shut down a business, this Israeli digital imaging company which really got caught in the dot com bust. And I thought about my life and thought, you know, I don't want to keep doing something that I've always done before. My mother died when she was 48 years old. I was just turning 50. I really thought, you know, we don't have forever and what is it that I haven't done, done, haven't explored that I really want to do. And for me that was about my own creativity. So I started studying photography as a fine art with John Paul Caponigo up in the mid coast. And then a friend of mine Said to me, she said, you know, you've got wonderful connections in the business where. And you're very supported by your friendships, but the artistic side of you is really not that well supported. And I thought about that, and I thought, you know, I love to write. I've really always wanted to write, but I don't have that structure around me. And I decided to go back for an MFA degree, and I chose Lesley because I could take an interdisciplinary approach and do focus on my creative writing, but still do my photography.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is really. I keep using the word fascinating, and I think it's fascinating to me because it does seem like everything just kind of keeps wrapping around and keeps wrapping around and keeps wrapping around. But it's almost like you were sort of dancing around the idea of photography and writing and you were doing business sort of around all of these things until you finally got to that core and you started doing these things more yourself for yourself.

Meg Weston:

I think that's a good description. I been thinking lately how the core of who we are is planted really early in life. And for me, that whole essence of creativity is so important as sort of that wellspring or that source of what feeds us and nourishes us and allows us to grow and be vital way up into our later years in life. And so coming back to that source has been really important for me. I find creativity everywhere. I found business really creative. But I went to my high school reunion a few years back, and somebody showed me my elementary school yearbook. And in the elementary school yearbook, they asked everybody, what do you want to be when you grow up? And on mine it said, I wanted to be a writer. And I had forgotten that I'd gotten just wrapped up in all the other things that I'm interested in in life and wanted to do. So in some ways, I've come back to those roots,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and I do think that that happens. I think that sometimes we end up doing things that. That we're good at because we know we're good at them. Other people tell us we're good at them, and other people say, you can make money doing this. You can make a living doing this. But just because we're good at them doesn't mean that that's what we should be doing. But it takes a lot of courage to come back to that place where you say, okay, I know I'm good at all of these things, but this is where my passions lie. How did you get back to that place?

Meg Weston:

I think because both of them. My parents died at early ages. I Spend time thinking about what's important to me in my life. And so that is part of what brought me back to those elements that, you know, whether it's the photography or the writing or those elements of creativity that I see people and I'm inspired every day in my work by people at all ages of life that come there and get inspiration and they find that energy and source from that, whether they're the faculty or the students or whatever. And I think that for me has been important in my life as well. And for me, it's been about integration. That's why this job feels so right to me, because I get to integrate my business experience and my fundraising experience and my marketing experience, plus my passion for photography and all of these things together and for education.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And that is. I think I referenced the right brain, left brain, as I was introducing you. And that's in the conversation that we had had yesterday about the need for creativity within business. But I think you're actually right that it's not one side or another side, and you have to follow one side or another side. It's that you have to find the connections. You have to be able to do both to really proceed in the world.

Meg Weston:

I think that's very true. And we each find that connection or that integration in different ways. I was thinking as I was driving down here about one of the inspiration inspiring students that came to a workshop last summer, and she wrote in her evaluation something like, I'm 73 years old. I've been an artist all my life. I was feeling tired and worn out and in a rut. And I came here and I was so inspired after a week that I just want to go out and feel, take on the world. And that's what I think I look for. And all of us look for wherever we find that in life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about that. I mean, she found this at Maine Media Workshops and College. So this is why you're now the president there. This is why you're helping them celebrate 40 years. This is why this has become such a passion for you, because it's not just about you. It's about bringing other people kind of into the fold.

Meg Weston:

It's not about me at all, really, even though for me it just feels so right. But for all the people that come there, no matter what walk of life, I believe that we teach the art and craft of visual storytelling and we allow people in that process of telling their story, whatever that story is, whatever medium, whether they're filmmakers, whether they're photographers, whether they're designers or book artists, whatever that is, they have a story to tell. It might be very personal, it might be about the environment. It may be a documentary or an advocacy story, it may be abstract. But we give them tools and inspiration and an opportunity to leave the distractions of their everyday life and just immerse themselves in that. Whether it's for a week or for four weeks or for our nine month long certificate program or the three year long MFA degree program, that's the opportunity that they have and they join a community. We refer to it as under the Tent because when you come to Maine Media, you not only study and work with other folks, but you also eat the meals. And in the summertime you're eating meals outside at picnic tables under the tent. And it's what happens under the tent. It's what happens when you connect with other passionate people and you find that inner source of inspiration in yourself.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast hope that our listeners enjoy their own work lives to the same extent we do and fully embrace every day. As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth Main to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcie

[Unidentified voice]:

no matter what we do for work, there's always a busy season and it's very easy to become overwhelmed by all that needs doing. This is when one word needs to come to mind. Perspective when we need to remember that no matter what, we all work hard to do our best and get things done efficiently and in a timely manner. At the end of the day, we need to look at what we've accomplished for the day and not obsess with what we didn't get done. Our to do list or our inbox will never be empty. If it ever was. That would be kind of disappointing, don't you think? The nature of your in basket is that it's meant to have things in it. In fact, it could be argued that a full basket is essential for success. It means your time is in demand. A favorite line from a John Lennon song I sing to my girls is Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. It rings so true when it gets hectic. We need to acknowledge the fact that nothing is more important than our own sense of happiness and inner peace. Very little in our lives. It truly falls into the emergency category, albeit some fall into urgency. But there is a significant difference. If we stay focused and prioritize, it will all get done. It it always does so when it gets a bit crazy in work or in life, remind yourself of what you've accomplished during that day. You'll be amazed and feel good about what's coming down the pike. For tomorrow, I'm Marcie Booth. Let's talk about the changes you need. Boothmaine.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We have now YouTube where anybody can film anything and put it out there in the world and we have Instagram and anybody can pursue their own visual artistry. So I think people are even adults, kids and adults are coming to the table with this knowledge that it doesn't have to be either or. They don't have to choose business or finance or being an artist.

Meg Weston:

I think that's true. I certainly haven't. You know, it took me a while in my life to stop dividing my life between the business person that was Meg and the artist or my, you know, my photography has been around photographing volcanoes around the world. And I, you know, I didn't let a lot of people know that that was a very private thing. That was what I did on vacation. And to be able to come together in a place in life where it's not an either or, that it's important to be both and in the world is wonderful that you can be a business person and an artist and it is important to be both, that those things feed each other.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I love that photographing volcanoes was your sort of, I don't know, almost a dirty little secret for you. I mean, of all the things that people worry about other people knowing about them, that is very interesting, you know. And why volcanoes?

Meg Weston:

First of all, why did you feel

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

like it had to be so private? And why did you pick volcanoes?

Meg Weston:

You know, a lot of kids when they're young are fascinated by volcanoes or dinosaurs or music. You know, we all play an instrument when we're young and then we grow up and we forget about those things. So for me, I didn't forget about it. As I said, my mother was a scientist and an artist. She graduated from Barnard with a degree in chemistry, and yet she was a housewife, if you will, in that era. And she became a potter, and she used her chemistry in glazes. And she introduced me to the wonders of science, and she introduced me to the island of Surtsey that erupted in 1963. And I looked at those photographs in National Geographic magazine and I was just in awe. It was magic. It was something being created out of nothingness. Land that came up from underneath the ocean and the colors, the red, the lava flowing into the ocean. So maybe my passion for photography was also related. Related to this fascination with what can happen in the natural world. So I didn't lose that later in life. I just said, this is something I want to see. And I used to go out and see. So the second part of your question was, why was that a secret? Well, I think when I was in business, there weren't a lot of women in business. There weren't a lot of women, certainly at the levels. And it was very important to me to pave that path, if you will, or to be accepted. So, you know, in that day and age, you wore blue or gray or black suits, you know, so you looked sort of like a man and you did the things that were kind of accepted in that realm and those that interest didn't seem to fit. So I, you know, I thought that that's not something that people need to know about me. They need to know that I'm competent, that I'm capable, that I can get results, that I can grow a business, and that I understand the numbers and those were the things that were important. And the rest of it, I kind of thought, you know, that's my private life. And it's lovely to get through an age in life when they're both the same, that they're both important and that you don't have to kind of hide who you are. Who you are is the essence of what you bring to your work.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is a funny social commentary considering how many people say, I won't gender specify, but feel like they can talk about golf or talk about sports or talk about lots of other things that have nothing to do with work, and they can bring that into the workplace. And yet, as a, you were. You're a woman, so this happened to be you. You didn't feel like you could bring your art into the workplace. That's just, to me, it's just a funny cultural thing.

Meg Weston:

And it is funny because my work was about photography. It was about consumer photography or media. But I learned to play golf too. So I could talk about golf and enjoy it. Because working for a Japanese company, they all, when they visited, wanted to play golf. And that's okay. You know, I lost it on some other sports metaphors.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about what is going on. It's been 40 years now, Main media workshops and college. And you're doing some really interesting things this year. Some really exciting things that I think people are going to want to hear about.

Meg Weston:

It's great. Forty years ago, this was a vision from the founder of the school, a man named David Lee Lyman, who created main photographic workshops. And then a few years later he added filmmaking and broadcast and really expanded that. So people have been coming to this somewhat out of the way place in Rockport, Maine from all over the world, 44 different countries around the world for 40 years. And it's just wonderful to honor that history. So we have some things going on. This summer, for instance, we have a photography show with CMCA that's called Mentor 40 Photographers 40 Years. And it will exhibit some of the photographers who have been with the workshops or taught at the workshops over the years and the people that they've mentored who have then gone out on to teach and mentor other people. So it's that concentric circles that go out into the world. And we'll also have a filmmaking mentor event with featuring one of the wonderful filmmakers who have taught at the colleges and somebody that they've mentored. We'll have an alumni weekend and we'll have a gala in Union Hall. So those are things really about the 40th anniversary. What I get excited about is also the future of the school. So we've launched two new programs. I talked a little bit about the Professional Certificate in Visual Storytelling. We also have a new independent film certificate program that's a modular program so people can come there and study for four weeks and learn basics of filmmaking. And they can come back for six weeks and do a more advanced class. And then they can come back and do a series of master level workshops with professional filmmakers. And then they can come back, they can do them sequentially or they can come back year after year and produce their own film using those wonderful incredible facilities that we have, soundstage and equipment and all of that, or go out into the world and have a field experience that with our networks and our connections that we Help place them in. So we have launched these two new programs that this year, which is very exciting. We have our MFA degree, low residency degree program, which is really the gem of what we teach. And I'm so excited that we have guest faculty that come in. Sig Harvey is coming in in May to be guest faculty. And she's just a wonderful, vibrant photographer. The photographer, I don't know if you know her work. It's just incredible work. And I think Ross Katz is coming, who did Lost in Translation to be the filmmaking guest faculty. And our core faculty is just wonderfully gifted. So I'm just very excited about the programs that, that we have and the way we're thinking about our longer term programs and our workshop programs and how they integrate that word again, but how they intersect. That somebody might come for a week and want to stay, decide they want to stay for the 12 week residency program. They may come for that and decide they want to stay for a year. Or they may come and say, I want to study for three years and be part of an artistic community that really supports me in my art. And those intersections between all of the things that we do, short term, longer term, weekend, week long, three year long. Whether you're coming as a young artist and you're 14 years old or you're coming at 72 years old and finding a source of inspiration that you've been doing year after year. I love the fact that we do all of that and I'm looking forward to the future of the school. It's a very exciting time for us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How do people find out about Maine Media Workshops in college?

Meg Weston:

Well, I believe word of mouth is the number one way. We certainly have a large alumni base for over 40 years of being in business, and people feel so strongly about it that they come back time and time and they tell their friends to come. So that's one way. We have a website that's mainmedia.edu and certainly people come to the website. They sign up for our newsletter and our mailing list on our newsletter comes. We advertise in different places. We certainly use Google AdWords to get the message out. We try to get the message out in a variety of different forms. Very active on our Facebook pages and a lot of people come to us through that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's been my pleasure to have you in talking to me today about the Maine Media Workshops in college and the 40 years and the celebration. I've been speaking with Meg Weston, who is a photographer herself and also president of Maine Media Workshops and college and also volcano enthusiast. So thanks for coming in and being with me today.

Meg Weston:

Thank you so much for having me. Lisa.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 88 main on film. Our guests have included Barbara Goodbody and Meg Weston. For more information on our guests, visit drlisabelisle.com the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E. Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and well being on The Bountiful blog. Bountiful-blog.org we love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. 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 the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that you have enjoyed our show Maine on Film about the Maine Media Workshop and College. We also hope that you will take the time to look beyond in your own life. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.