Speaker 1: Hi there, Come on in and make yourself at home.
Speaker 1: Welcome to this very special Valentine's episode of our podcast
Speaker 1: Love Someone with the Lina. Every day on my radio program,
Speaker 1: I implore you, I encourage you. I beg you to
Speaker 1: love someone in a very real way, to reach out
Speaker 1: and give from your heart. And while an overwhelming number
Speaker 1: of colors to my show where those involved in romantic relationships,
Speaker 1: or wanting to be in a romantic relationship, or crying
Speaker 1: from a failed romantic relationship, you all know by now
Speaker 1: that when I encourage you to love someone, not talking
Speaker 1: about romantic love, I mean everyone. I mean real love,
Speaker 1: A got a love, the kind of love that sacrifices,
Speaker 1: the kind of love that makes the world a better place.
Speaker 1: I want you to love your parents, your siblings, even
Speaker 1: the difficult ones. To love even the ones that just
Speaker 1: are like fingernails on a chalkboard because they get on
Speaker 1: your very last nerve, your children, even when they're teenagers
Speaker 1: and difficult, your friends, members of your community. Love is
Speaker 1: all encompassing and we need it. We need it to
Speaker 1: survive in a world that can sometimes feel very, very
Speaker 1: dark and oppressive. My Valentine Special podcast this year is
Speaker 1: going to focus on the healing hearts, specifically the healing
Speaker 1: power of art. None of us can go through life
Speaker 1: without experiencing heartbreak and loss along the way, and like love,
Speaker 1: loss comes in many forms. The romantic break up is
Speaker 1: the first form that comes to mind, but we've all
Speaker 1: suffered substantial losses. We've lost beloved people, we've lost cherished pets,
Speaker 1: we've lost jobs, we've lost homes, we've lost belongings, we've
Speaker 1: lost our way, we've lost relationships, we've become empty nesters,
Speaker 1: or we've moved to new areas, leaving all that was
Speaker 1: familiar behind. Some of us are experiencing the loss of
Speaker 1: our youth, our health, the vitality we once had. Whatever
Speaker 1: the loss you or someone you love may be feeling,
Speaker 1: there are therapeutic activities out there that can help ease
Speaker 1: the pain just a little bit, just enough sometimes to
Speaker 1: let a ray of light, a ray of joy come
Speaker 1: beaming through. Art is the therapy that we're exploring today.
Speaker 1: Art for the Heart. Art for the Heart with my
Speaker 1: now good friend Elizabeth, an artist who helped me at
Speaker 1: a time in my life when I needed it the most.
Speaker 1: I'll introduce her to you right after this message from
Speaker 1: my wonderful podcast sponsor the Home Depot. Our friends at
Speaker 1: the Home Depot helps so many people update their homes.
Speaker 1: It's an everyday activity in each of their stores. The
Speaker 1: paint department staff loves seeing someone in with a picture
Speaker 1: of a color of a wall they'd like to have
Speaker 1: in their own home. You know, the Home Depot now
Speaker 1: has peel and stick samples made with real paint that
Speaker 1: you can take home put on the walls in your home,
Speaker 1: in the room that you're thinking of painting, so that
Speaker 1: you can get a feel if you really like that
Speaker 1: color in your home. How he's to use that the
Speaker 1: Home Depot where doers get more done. Our guest today
Speaker 1: is Elizabeth. Hello, Hello Elizabeth Saint Hilaire. So I was
Speaker 1: in a restaurant, uh two years ago, just a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, maybe six weeks after we lost my son Zack,
Speaker 1: and I was in such a dark place that nothing.
Speaker 1: I couldn't feel anything like we were in love and Worth, Washington,
Speaker 1: which is this magical little town covered in snow. It's
Speaker 1: little German chalets and it was probably i don't know,
Speaker 1: twenty degrees fifteen degrees out. I could have walked down
Speaker 1: the street without a coat on. I could have walked
Speaker 1: down the street naked and not felt the cold. Wow.
Speaker 1: I was just so shut down. And we were in
Speaker 1: this restaurant. Everybody was talking and everybody was carrying on.
Speaker 1: I couldn't engage in conversation. I couldn't think straight, I
Speaker 1: couldn't I couldn't follow a conversation. And I got up
Speaker 1: and excused myself. And I was walking through the hall
Speaker 1: and I saw this rooster painting and he was so
Speaker 1: happy and whimsical, fun, fun, and I don't know, for
Speaker 1: some reason that the colors and the textures and this
Speaker 1: painting touched me like I could. I could actually feel
Speaker 1: something for the first time, I think since I heard
Speaker 1: the news that Zach was gone. And so I took
Speaker 1: a picture of it. Wow. And then I tried to
Speaker 1: research it. I couldn't read your handwriting, but you ultimately
Speaker 1: found me. I ultimately found you because I googled. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a mixed media um painting, So I googled.
Speaker 1: I couldn't read your name, so I I googled mixed
Speaker 1: media torn paper rooster or something like that, and it
Speaker 1: came up, and it came up. See, it was meant
Speaker 1: to be. It was meant to be. It was meant
Speaker 1: to be. And then I stalked you. That is a
Speaker 1: funny story. I really did well in the beginning because
Speaker 1: I just wanted to learn your style. I wanted to
Speaker 1: I mean, it was mesmerizing, it so beautiful, and I
Speaker 1: think I went in your junk folder and I'm like, no, no,
Speaker 1: this woman is going to answer me because I want
Speaker 1: to know what you do. Like I it was its
Speaker 1: layers and textures and colors and magical your style. And
Speaker 1: when you got back to me, you mentioned that you
Speaker 1: had tutorials and some books, some books, and then I
Speaker 1: teach on I teach workshops. So once I connected with
Speaker 1: you and I found out you had workshops and tutorials
Speaker 1: and book, I became a student and I found I
Speaker 1: don't know if you remember doing this, but I found
Speaker 1: an old news real story of you when your kids
Speaker 1: were running around the house, fascinating news story about you,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't know, I just oh my god,
Speaker 1: I loved this woman. That news story that that was
Speaker 1: from Growing Bolder, which was a local UM production UM
Speaker 1: And and I don't even remember how I got the
Speaker 1: opportunity to do that news story. But that news story
Speaker 1: really brought me into put me in front of a
Speaker 1: lot of people. It really gave me good exposure. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't something I was necessarily expecting. But um, but
Speaker 1: it but it was great. I loved it because you
Speaker 1: were so real. You were so ethnic. You know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't like you were posing for the camera or like
Speaker 1: anything was contrived. It was just so real and anthnic,
Speaker 1: and your heart came shining through. Yeah, they came to
Speaker 1: my house with cameras and I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was a little intimidating, you know, but
Speaker 1: but um but they were great and and I'm still
Speaker 1: friends with them to this day. I still talk to
Speaker 1: the guys that run the show and we we what's
Speaker 1: the name of the show. It's called Growing Bolder and
Speaker 1: it's on PBS stations nationwide. Very cool. Well that was
Speaker 1: I watched that and I went, I don't just want
Speaker 1: to learn from this person. I want to know this
Speaker 1: person that made me want to get to know you.
Speaker 1: But I really want people to to know your work,
Speaker 1: and to not just know your work, because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of artists I love. I love real art, I
Speaker 1: know you do. I love public art. I love going
Speaker 1: to Philadelphia. They've had a campaign the last ten fifteen
Speaker 1: years to uh renovate old buildings and that sort of
Speaker 1: thing with public art. And it's beautiful and it's powerful,
Speaker 1: and it's meaningful and it's heartfelt and its kids, and
Speaker 1: you know, I love. There's a local art project in
Speaker 1: a community close to where I live, where you've taught,
Speaker 1: and there's birds, seagulls that have been cut out of
Speaker 1: some material and decorated by grade school kids and they're
Speaker 1: along a fence, uh, you know, and and it's an
Speaker 1: ugly fence, you know, just a metal, ugly fence. But
Speaker 1: it's beautiful now with this flock of birds and each one,
Speaker 1: I mean I've taken pictures of each individual bird because
Speaker 1: the kids, their expression is so beautiful and how amazing
Speaker 1: is it for those kids to have been part of
Speaker 1: that project with that level of permanency and they get
Speaker 1: to go buy it and say I did that. That's
Speaker 1: my bird, that blue bird is mine, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. So it wasn't just that I wanted people
Speaker 1: to know you as an artist. I want people to
Speaker 1: and the and the reason I wanted you to be
Speaker 1: on this podcast that that we're calling art for the
Speaker 1: Heart is because I want people to know you and
Speaker 1: your passion for encouraging people to tap deep inside themselves
Speaker 1: and express themselves artistically. Well, it's interesting that that you
Speaker 1: say that, because I think the most common comment that
Speaker 1: I get from people is you've inspired me. You've inspired
Speaker 1: me to come back to art, You've inspired me to
Speaker 1: try and mix media, You've inspired me you know, fill
Speaker 1: in the blank, right, And I think that I think
Speaker 1: that's the best part of my job really is to
Speaker 1: know that I'm inspiring other people in art. I think
Speaker 1: that's better than me making a masterpiece. It's better than
Speaker 1: a lot of things because it's such a gift to
Speaker 1: be able to give artistic inspiration to someone else. And
Speaker 1: when people tell me your class changed my life, and
Speaker 1: I mean sometimes people really tell me that because it
Speaker 1: helped them get to a better place with art. When
Speaker 1: they say that to me, your class changed my life,
Speaker 1: I mean that's huge. That's a wonderful thing to be
Speaker 1: able to give someone else. So well, let me be
Speaker 1: one of the many to say your class change my life.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I was in such a dark place,
Speaker 1: such a sad place, that I couldn't see, I couldn't feel.
Speaker 1: I couldn't I couldn't watch a movie. I couldn't read
Speaker 1: a book. I couldn't I couldn't take my own phone
Speaker 1: calls for my own show some nights, because if people
Speaker 1: called and they were grieving like I was, I'd just
Speaker 1: be a puddle on the floor. And if people called
Speaker 1: with some trite, ridiculous, petty problem, you know, saying I've
Speaker 1: got this big dilemma, you know, and I'm like, you've
Speaker 1: got a dilemma. And so it was very such a
Speaker 1: hard thing to work through. And I had a great
Speaker 1: support system. I mean, you've met my family, now my kids,
Speaker 1: you met my husband had a great support system, and
Speaker 1: a friend named Debbie Macomer was a local author, very
Speaker 1: famous author, happens to be my neighbor. She encouraged me
Speaker 1: to find a grief counselor. But even with all that
Speaker 1: support and place, I was numb. And meeting you and
Speaker 1: discovering this this new form of art which is so
Speaker 1: whimsical and so fun. Uh allowed me to kind of
Speaker 1: unlock that passion for art that I've always had in
Speaker 1: a new way, in a creative way, and allowed me
Speaker 1: to create some works of art, one in particular that
Speaker 1: really helped me work through having to say goodbye to
Speaker 1: my son. Yeah. You know, no one can ever say
Speaker 1: that they know how you feel, right, but I am
Speaker 1: a mother, Um, I have a twenty year old son.
Speaker 1: And you know, my experience with using art to process
Speaker 1: grief was that when I was in college. I spent
Speaker 1: a semester in college in that was the year that
Speaker 1: Libya bombed pan Am Flight one oh three, and I
Speaker 1: lost all of my mates, as well as thirty five
Speaker 1: Syracuse University students. We were all studying abroad, so very
Speaker 1: many classmates that I had known since my freshman year
Speaker 1: and people that I lived with. And I'm your best
Speaker 1: friend and my best friend, and I was twenty So
Speaker 1: do you how do you even begin to process that
Speaker 1: kind of loss? I used my art and I painted, uh, paintings,
Speaker 1: but they were dark and dreary, and they were they
Speaker 1: were me processing, you know, going through the stages of brievement.
Speaker 1: But they they You've used words like colorful and whimsical
Speaker 1: and happy to describe my art just now, and I'll
Speaker 1: tell you that the art that I was creating then
Speaker 1: was none of those things. None of those things, and
Speaker 1: I had a professor at Syracuse that I stayed in
Speaker 1: touch with, and he said to me, I'll be interested
Speaker 1: to see what you create when you get through this,
Speaker 1: when you come out the other side of this. And uh,
Speaker 1: it took me a long time. It took me ten
Speaker 1: years to create anything that was happy and colorful and whimsical.
Speaker 1: Was a long, long process, probably because I was so
Speaker 1: young and was it was a huge scale. At that age,
Speaker 1: you think you're you're immortal, and you realize all of
Speaker 1: a sudden that you're not, and you're not. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: closed the curtain on my childhood. Basically, it was the
Speaker 1: end of innocence. It changed everything, and I still think
Speaker 1: about it all the time. So you work through your
Speaker 1: grief through your artwork. And you are a professional artist.
Speaker 1: You're a fine artist. You've done commercial art, you teach art,
Speaker 1: you write books about art, you do videos about art.
Speaker 1: And for for me, meeting you and becoming friends with
Speaker 1: you and buying your books and studying your style was
Speaker 1: a lot. Less about studying your style, because I think
Speaker 1: everybody who loves art has their own style or our
Speaker 1: own gift, and more about being open to being open right,
Speaker 1: being open to just trying something new and finding a
Speaker 1: way to express myself and get it out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: being open to trying something new is is awesome because
Speaker 1: I I often stress in my in my workshops when
Speaker 1: I'm working with students, it's it's more about the process
Speaker 1: than the product, you know, because when you do something new,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be great at it. And when
Speaker 1: you do something in a classroom setting, you're not going
Speaker 1: to make the best art you ever made in your life.
Speaker 1: But you're going to go through the process. You're gonna learn,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be with other people, and you're going to
Speaker 1: work through interesting and different ideas. And when you're open
Speaker 1: to that, you can you can receive a lot of
Speaker 1: wonderful things that that you may then run with and refine.
Speaker 1: We were talking over lunch about the fact that if
Speaker 1: you ask a room full of kindergarten students or first
Speaker 1: grade students how many of you are artists, they'll all
Speaker 1: raise their hands absolutely. If you give them three color
Speaker 1: crowns and a piece of paper, they will all create
Speaker 1: amazing artwork. And then by about seventh or eighth grade,
Speaker 1: if you ask the exact same classroom of kids, who
Speaker 1: here is an artist? What maybe four or five raised
Speaker 1: their hand. Many much fewer, and then by high school
Speaker 1: you might get one maybe two because they lose that joy,
Speaker 1: as you said, for the process, and they focus on
Speaker 1: the product. Yeah, they focus on the product, and they
Speaker 1: and they start comparing themselves to each other and saying, well, well,
Speaker 1: your stuff is much better than mine, so I'm no
Speaker 1: good at this, where they used to not not say
Speaker 1: that at all. And now I volunteered for many years
Speaker 1: in elementary school, from kindergarten all the way through fifth grade. Um, well,
Speaker 1: my kids were in school, and then even after they
Speaker 1: went on to middle school, I stayed and volunteered in
Speaker 1: the PTA art program. So I've seen this firsthand. And Um,
Speaker 1: in the you're absolutely right. When I would go into kindergarten,
Speaker 1: everyone would all the kids would be like yeah, they'd
Speaker 1: see me coming and they would just be like yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah art. Yeah. And then um, definitely, even in the
Speaker 1: fifth grade, there were some that were like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: no good at that. I'm no good at that. Isn't
Speaker 1: that sad? It is sad because because they're at that
Speaker 1: age where they're comping, hearing what they create with the
Speaker 1: person next to them. Um, and I guess we're all
Speaker 1: guilty of that. And I know, you know, when kids
Speaker 1: get into middle school, they all want to just they
Speaker 1: all just want to look the same and they don't
Speaker 1: want to be different. I can remember my daughter in
Speaker 1: in elementary school had the most flamboyant outfits. I don't
Speaker 1: know where she got that from. And then when she
Speaker 1: felt clue, Elizabeth Nunne as, I'm looking at you and
Speaker 1: your rose pattern bright red and pink and printed in
Speaker 1: the sparkly outfit. You gotta love sparkly. I love sparkly,
Speaker 1: not as much as you love. But but but when
Speaker 1: when Emily was in middle school, she wore the exact
Speaker 1: same outfit as all the other girls wore. And I'm
Speaker 1: talking about right down to the shoes, the brand jeans.
Speaker 1: You know this. You've got girls. I've got girls they
Speaker 1: just want to you know, they be just there was
Speaker 1: just they wanted to look just like everyone else and
Speaker 1: be just like everyone else. And when you're striving for that, um,
Speaker 1: doing anything that that kind of is individual is not
Speaker 1: what you want to do. So you're not going to
Speaker 1: be an artist. You're gonna be So how old was
Speaker 1: your daughter when she broke out of that because she
Speaker 1: is clearly you left that far behind. She's a dancer.
Speaker 1: She's a dancer, and she has a shaved head, and
Speaker 1: she dresses kind of real funky and amazing style. You
Speaker 1: sent me a video of her dancing. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: she's amazing. Yeah, she's super talented. She works really hard
Speaker 1: at it. She's so talented. Her moves are like like
Speaker 1: water that's been electrified. They're fluid and yet they're so
Speaker 1: electric and energized. That's a great description. Yeah. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: high school, high school. Um, probably not the first year
Speaker 1: of high school. Probably the second and third year of
Speaker 1: high school. She just she can't. And I can remember thinking, Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that she's back to her individual self,
Speaker 1: that she's she's back to not really you know, measuring
Speaker 1: up to others, that she's actually just doing what she wants,
Speaker 1: what feels good to her, and what is her own
Speaker 1: personal self expression. And I think dance helped a lot
Speaker 1: with that. But yeah, I would say it was probably
Speaker 1: the second year of high school that she came back
Speaker 1: to her her individual sense of style. And it takes
Speaker 1: some people a lot longer than that, it does. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of it's about confidence. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of women in my workshops that
Speaker 1: come to me and say, I love your style, I
Speaker 1: love your shoes, I love your clothing, I love your
Speaker 1: hair color. And then they I say thank you, and
Speaker 1: then they follow up by I I just couldn't do that.
Speaker 1: I could never do that. And I say why, you know?
Speaker 1: And and these are not people who are in the
Speaker 1: workforce whose employer is limiting what they look like, it's
Speaker 1: their own self confidence. They say, well, I'm just not
Speaker 1: confident enough. And uh, you know, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: used to be that person. I did, but I guess
Speaker 1: with confidence comes a little bit more willingness to be uh,
Speaker 1: to stick out. You know, he'll be a little ledgier. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you're gonna draw attention. I had a guy
Speaker 1: in Costco tell me that I was too old for
Speaker 1: my look. Really yeah wow. I was in line at
Speaker 1: Costco and he looked at me and he goes, don't
Speaker 1: you think you're too old for that? And I looked
Speaker 1: at him. I knew what he was talking about, but
Speaker 1: I go, what what are you talking about? And he
Speaker 1: made the circle like this like your whole like your
Speaker 1: whole self like that and you know I could have
Speaker 1: been was the pink shoes were wearing was one of
Speaker 1: my best It was one of my better get ups. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I just and I've got a nose piercing and
Speaker 1: great big huge earrings and and so I just looked
Speaker 1: at him and I was like knowing flaming red hair,
Speaker 1: flaming red hair, beautiful tortoise shellish reddish glasses that are
Speaker 1: the exact same shade as the hair as the hair,
Speaker 1: which is work hard at that, which is amazing. But
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I don't let stuff like that
Speaker 1: bother me. And I know that that's easier said than done.
Speaker 1: But but it's been a whole lifelong process. I actually
Speaker 1: like it when people say things like that to me.
Speaker 1: I love it because it's great material when I'm doing
Speaker 1: public speaking or when I'm on the air. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about that some more right after we break for this
Speaker 1: important message. But I love that you're not a conformist. No,
Speaker 1: And it never was. And and we had this We
Speaker 1: have this vegan restaurant in Orlando where I raised my kids,
Speaker 1: and all the staff there had tattoos and piercings and
Speaker 1: blue hair and crazy clothing and it was a vegan restaurant, right,
Speaker 1: and I took my kids there a lot, and I
Speaker 1: always used to say to them, you know, I want
Speaker 1: you to know that you can't judge someone by what
Speaker 1: they look like. You should never judge someone by what
Speaker 1: they look like. You know, because this staff at this place,
Speaker 1: we're amazing, awesome, wonderful people, you know. And uh, if
Speaker 1: I taught my kids one thing, it was that you
Speaker 1: can't judge people. You shouldn't judge people by what they
Speaker 1: look like. Not only that, but you should encourage them
Speaker 1: to look like whatever they want to look like. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you've been in my house, you've met my kids.
Speaker 1: You know that I very much encouraged them to be
Speaker 1: self expressive. And you know, whatever, whatever people are like,
Speaker 1: you're you're going to let her wear her hair like that.
Speaker 1: She's got purple hair? Why not? Uh? Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1: If I could get away with wearing purple hair, I would, Well,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't look as good on me as it does
Speaker 1: on Blessing. Let's be honest with that dark ebony skin
Speaker 1: and purple yeah, so beautiful. So if somebody Elizabeth wants
Speaker 1: to find a way to express themselves and they're like
Speaker 1: Mike Kimmy that you've met who says I can't draw.
Speaker 1: I'm not talented, I have no talent. I think, Um,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's hard to encourage people like that. But but
Speaker 1: you were so encouraging to Kimmy, and you brought her
Speaker 1: to the workshop, and I dragged her and kicking and
Speaker 1: screaming to the workshop. And now look at her. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: now she's an art machine. But I taught her a
Speaker 1: technique so that she could get past the fact that
Speaker 1: she felt like she couldn't draw. And that was the
Speaker 1: graphite transfer paper. So she out of photograph and basically, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, like the old carbon paper traced it through
Speaker 1: so you get the graphite transfer. And that gave her
Speaker 1: a proportional drawing that allowed her to feel good about
Speaker 1: where she started. And then she painted it in and
Speaker 1: made the closed paper and glue that on top and
Speaker 1: it and took it in a whole different direction. But
Speaker 1: at least from the beginning she had a drawing on
Speaker 1: her on her surface that she felt good about. So
Speaker 1: she was starting from a good place. And obviously it
Speaker 1: made her happy because she's making more art than you
Speaker 1: and me lately. Not only did it make her happy.
Speaker 1: Do you know what her kids got her for Christmas?
Speaker 1: Art supplies, not just an art supply, a desk, an
Speaker 1: artist table that tilts. And she's like, I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: it in my extra bedroom. I said, Kimmy, put it
Speaker 1: where there's light. Get rid of your dining room. You
Speaker 1: never have dinner parties anymore. Yeah, come on, and she
Speaker 1: is on fire. That's amazing to create, that's awesome, it's
Speaker 1: and it's it's so awesome to see a whole another side,
Speaker 1: a whole another dimension. Because you know, she was Korean.
Speaker 1: She was raised in a very very very very conservative family,
Speaker 1: very um traditional family. You know, mom did this, Dad
Speaker 1: did this, kids were seen and not heard that sort
Speaker 1: of thing and um. And then she was married for
Speaker 1: years and years to a wonderful, beautiful man. But she
Speaker 1: always saw herself as the homemaker, Kimmy the wife, Kimmy
Speaker 1: the mom, Give me the homemaker for me the nanny.
Speaker 1: And now that you've helped bring out this artistic animal,
Speaker 1: there's a whole another side to Kimmy that everybody's getting
Speaker 1: to see, not just not just her art, which is great,
Speaker 1: but but what it's bringing out in her. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: you know, Kimmy story is a little different. Um. The
Speaker 1: typical story that I get is that I have women
Speaker 1: who had all those roles like Kimmy. They were the mom,
Speaker 1: they were the homemaker, uh, they were the wife. And
Speaker 1: they get to that point in their life where they're
Speaker 1: retired and their kids are grown and they have more
Speaker 1: time and money for themselves, and they come to my
Speaker 1: workshops and they say, I always wanted to be an artist,
Speaker 1: but I when I was time for me to go
Speaker 1: to college, my parents said, you're not going to school
Speaker 1: for art. You're going to go to school for something practical,
Speaker 1: something where you're going to love the type typing, nursing,
Speaker 1: UM teacher, practical, maybe an art teacher, but as as
Speaker 1: close as you're gonna get. So these uh women will
Speaker 1: come to my class and say, now I'm at a
Speaker 1: point in my life where I get to do what
Speaker 1: I want to do, and what makes me happy is
Speaker 1: what I loved when I was in high school, and
Speaker 1: that's art. And they come back to art years later
Speaker 1: and they haven't done it for years, and they realized
Speaker 1: the joy that they that they had and it comes
Speaker 1: back to them and they just they're just in a
Speaker 1: beautiful place because they are doing what they always loved
Speaker 1: and didn't get an opportunity to do. And that is
Speaker 1: a story I hear over and over and over, and
Speaker 1: so it's that's inspiring as well, you know, to see
Speaker 1: someone say, well, now I've got time, I can do
Speaker 1: whatever I want. What do I want to do? Well,
Speaker 1: I want to take art classes, I want to learn
Speaker 1: a new medium. I want to take a trip to
Speaker 1: Italy and make art. I mean, these are great freedoms. Really,
Speaker 1: they are great freedoms. But like you said, give me
Speaker 1: stories a little different and that she didn't seek you out.
Speaker 1: I dragged her there because kicking and screaming, because every
Speaker 1: time I would start painting, because I've always done art,
Speaker 1: I would have become an artist instead of a radio DJ.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't pay as well. Fine, and and you know,
Speaker 1: I had to make a choice which passion I was
Speaker 1: going to follow. And I like talking more than I
Speaker 1: like painting. And I really like painting well, and you
Speaker 1: are excellent at talking, and and and so uh. I
Speaker 1: always have an art project going at the house. Always.
Speaker 1: I'm always painting on something on some surface. I'm always
Speaker 1: doodling or drawing or painting, and Kimmy would watch me
Speaker 1: and stand a couple of feet back and watch over
Speaker 1: my shoulder, and I would say, try it. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: So three or four years ago we started painting rocks
Speaker 1: with the kids, and I'm like, oh my gosh, she
Speaker 1: is loving this and it was so relaxing for her.
Speaker 1: So I knew that locked up in her beautiful little
Speaker 1: heart was an artist just begging to be unleashed. Well,
Speaker 1: now she's unleashed. So if somebody is hurting, or somebody
Speaker 1: has gone through a great tragedy, I can't imagine losing
Speaker 1: thirty friends, thirty four friends like you did, but losing
Speaker 1: a child, losing a spouse, losing a job, losing a marriage,
Speaker 1: or if somebody is just trying to get in touch
Speaker 1: with the creative person that they were in kindergarten, what
Speaker 1: would you say to that person? What? What would your
Speaker 1: pearls of wisdom be? Well, you just mentioned that she
Speaker 1: can be found the rock painting relaxing, right, and not
Speaker 1: something that I hear a lot when we paint papers
Speaker 1: in my workshop. People say this is so relaxed, saying
Speaker 1: and fun. I could do this all day. I could
Speaker 1: do this all day. And I think that Um. That
Speaker 1: is therapeutic, you know, the process of of of you know,
Speaker 1: playing with color, painting rocks, painting paper, something, um. Not
Speaker 1: stressing yourself out with details of making a meticulously realistic watercolor, right,
Speaker 1: but doing something that's just enjoyable. Maybe it's doodling or
Speaker 1: or like when we do in my class, we paint
Speaker 1: the paper. Um. It takes your mind off what is
Speaker 1: stressing you. When you were in that relaxing, therapeutic zone
Speaker 1: and you are focused on the art, You're focused on
Speaker 1: what you're making and what's in front of you. You're
Speaker 1: not When you're focused on that, you're not thinking as
Speaker 1: much or maybe even at all, about what is what
Speaker 1: is bothering you, hurting your heart, or what you're what
Speaker 1: you're mourning, you know, and you can get a little
Speaker 1: a little break, You can take a little mental break
Speaker 1: from all that is is on your mind when you
Speaker 1: can get involved in art. When I first found you
Speaker 1: and I told her I was going through and still
Speaker 1: I'm going through the grief of losing Zach and now
Speaker 1: my stepson Ryan. We've lost three boys in seven years.
Speaker 1: It's incredible. And the artwork didn't take my focus off
Speaker 1: of my son's but what it did was it gave
Speaker 1: me a creative way to express my love for my boys.
Speaker 1: It gave me a creative place to put all that
Speaker 1: love that is inside that I just can't get out.
Speaker 1: I understand that I did a portrait of my best
Speaker 1: friend for her mom, and I used all this memorabilia,
Speaker 1: papers and stuff that I had collected in London, including
Speaker 1: two subway tickets and cork corks from wine bottles and
Speaker 1: candy bar rappers and and and made this portrait of
Speaker 1: her for her mom. And that was the same thing
Speaker 1: for me that it was me expressing my love for
Speaker 1: my best friend and and and giving it to her
Speaker 1: mom and telling her mom that I thought she was
Speaker 1: amazing too. I think she's amazing too, you know, so,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of sharing that and the process of
Speaker 1: creating the portrait, I went through all the memories of
Speaker 1: the things that we did together, and it was healing.
Speaker 1: It really was healing. And I think when when I
Speaker 1: gave it to her mom, it was healing for her
Speaker 1: as well. And at the ten year anniversary of of
Speaker 1: the families of the victims of Pan m one oh three,
Speaker 1: I spoke in front of about four people and they
Speaker 1: put the slide of the collage of my roommate and
Speaker 1: best friend up on the screen behind me. It was
Speaker 1: a little nerve racking, but it was pretty cool really,
Speaker 1: you know, to have it give yeah to just to
Speaker 1: to share it without many people, and to have it
Speaker 1: be a candy rapper from the candy bar she ate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was all those subway tickets that she held in
Speaker 1: her hands. Stuff from our pockets. Yeah, that's wonderful. So
Speaker 1: if somebody would like to to try their hand at
Speaker 1: eating paper, or try their hand at sketching, or try
Speaker 1: their hand, how will they find? You make it easy
Speaker 1: for them. Unlike me who write, unlike you who had
Speaker 1: to figure out my signature. Well it's here. It's real
Speaker 1: easy because I'm all about paper and I do collage.
Speaker 1: So my website is paper Paintings dot com. Very simple,
Speaker 1: very simple. And if you if you put that in
Speaker 1: you find all all my stuff, you can go down
Speaker 1: that rabbit hole. You can go down that rabbit hole
Speaker 1: like I did. I've got all your books, I've watched
Speaker 1: all your videos. I consume your little tutorial tidbits that
Speaker 1: you send out because they just inspire me. I just
Speaker 1: can't even It's like surreal that I'm sitting here with you,
Speaker 1: especially now that I know that you're not just a
Speaker 1: local DJ, and that you are telling me that you
Speaker 1: enjoy my YouTube videos like I love them. That's awesome,
Speaker 1: I love them, you know, it's it's These are the times,
Speaker 1: well I've told you this before too. These are the
Speaker 1: times when because my parents didn't really want me to
Speaker 1: go to college for alart either, So these are the
Speaker 1: times when I want to send a post it note
Speaker 1: to my parents and say, remember when you didn't want
Speaker 1: me to go to college for art? And my my
Speaker 1: parents know who you are. I didn't know who you
Speaker 1: were but my parents, but your dad knows who Oh,
Speaker 1: my dad knows who you are. So you have basically
Speaker 1: validated my entire life. So all, you've won all the
Speaker 1: none of the competitions, you've entered, the magazine covers, you've
Speaker 1: been on Pier One Imports, Reproductions, and yeah, that the
Speaker 1: aprons that have your artwork on them, and the bed
Speaker 1: sheets and the tea towels. Right, but that the Delilah
Speaker 1: been to your class. Dad, check it out. Here's a
Speaker 1: picture of me and Delilah and her project from my class.
Speaker 1: And he goes oh boy, you're famous. Now did you
Speaker 1: thank you for that? Did you tell him she actually
Speaker 1: came and found me? Dad? I did, Yeah, I did
Speaker 1: that that. I love you. I love your art, but
Speaker 1: I love you, and I love that everybody that that
Speaker 1: you encounter you encourage. I do. I think that that's
Speaker 1: just a good thing. It's a good feeling, and who
Speaker 1: doesn't like a good feeling. You encourage people just by
Speaker 1: being true to yourself. You encourage people by being honest.
Speaker 1: You know, you're very transparent. You're not you, don't you know,
Speaker 1: hide behind this veneer if I'm perfect or I'm this,
Speaker 1: or you're just you. And you encourage people by saying
Speaker 1: you can do this, you can do it. Try it, sure,
Speaker 1: try it. I'll help you try it. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are there are many things that you have said. I've
Speaker 1: heard you say that's not my skill set. You said,
Speaker 1: I can't do math. You and I are both on
Speaker 1: the same page, and I can't measure anything. Don't ask
Speaker 1: me to measure anything that's math. Which is really funny
Speaker 1: because like all your canvases are like the same dimensions.
Speaker 1: Did you have somebody else to do that? Well, no,
Speaker 1: I bought those that way. But they were hanging them
Speaker 1: up with tricky. Hanging them up at the same white
Speaker 1: was tricky. I bet there's a lot of holes behind us.
Speaker 1: We won't tell anyone. We won't tell any Elizabeth. Thank
Speaker 1: you for being with us and our art for the
Speaker 1: heart conversation. Because you know Valentine's month, we celebrate the
Speaker 1: whole month on the Delanta show. That's that's awesome. And
Speaker 1: I think you know what you should do and everybody
Speaker 1: should do, is make a handmade Valentine with whatever art materials,
Speaker 1: whatever art materials you have, whatever. Remember elementary school when
Speaker 1: we made the Valentine some red crayons. Break them up,
Speaker 1: put them between two pieces of wax paper, use your iron,
Speaker 1: iron them out, make a cut out little hearts. Just
Speaker 1: make a Valentine. Enjoy the process of making that Valentine,
Speaker 1: and then maybe send it to someone that you care about,
Speaker 1: your child, your mother, your sister, or or your sweetheart.
Speaker 1: And you know what I'm gonna do. I'm going to
Speaker 1: make like five thousand. Well you better send me because
Speaker 1: you know I get obsessed with things. You better send me.
Speaker 1: Start painting rocks. And I've got five thousand painted heart
Speaker 1: rocks in the house or whatever it is, well, I'm
Speaker 1: going to be expecting my heart rock and my wax
Speaker 1: paper contribution in the mail Elizabeth sat Hilaire and paper
Speaker 1: paintings plural dot com. Try some art for the heart
Speaker 1: in this new year. When was the last time you
Speaker 1: allowed yourself to be creative without worrying about how the
Speaker 1: end product would be judged. If it's been a while,
Speaker 1: and especially if you're the kind that says to themselves
Speaker 1: and others, I'm not creative or I'm not artistic, then
Speaker 1: I want you to be brave enough to give creativity
Speaker 1: another chance. Go back in your mind to your early
Speaker 1: grade school days, when art, loving art was as natural
Speaker 1: as breathing to you. Draw some stick figures, Pick up
Speaker 1: some crayons and doodle. Grab a glue, stick, a magazine,
Speaker 1: a pair of scissors. Make a collage, still too scary.
Speaker 1: Ring some rocks, pebbles, pine cones, or petals into a
Speaker 1: pattern outside. Grab a stick, make some swirls in the
Speaker 1: sand of the dirt, of the mud or the snow.
Speaker 1: Decorate a mud pie. I think you'll like it. And
Speaker 1: while nothing but time and space, faith and compassion will
Speaker 1: mean to broken heart, art can be and certainly is
Speaker 1: for me a salve of bomb, something that helps that
Speaker 1: healing process along. I hope your hearts are feeling uplifted
Speaker 1: and hopeful, and I wish you a very, very happy
Speaker 1: Valentine's