Radio Maine with Dr. Lisa Belisle

There is much about Portland Art Gallery director Emma Wilson that may surprise you. Emma has been a traveling military spouse (caring for three children while their father served in Iraq), spent time as a social worker, and has strong ties to the non-profit world. Her early love of art, growing up with access to New York’s renowned museums, stayed with her as she moved around the country. She rea...

Aniella Salko’s career path seemed pre-ordained. The “family business” was medicine. For years she had imagined being a doctor, a surgeon, or maybe a scientist. At the same time, her sketch books and school art classes were an important part of her early years.  As she progressed in high school, Aniella realized that she wanted to do something that she loved. After much consideration, and with the...

John “Jack” Gable has been a full-time artist for more than four decades after an equally successful career in automobile design. Jack trained to work for his initial profession at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California.  While there he explored artistic creation in various forms, affording him the opportunity to transition between watercolors, oils, acrylics and other mediums.  I...

Rick Hamilton has had many careers, but he has always been an artist at heart. In addition to traveling the world while in the Navy, he has worked as a framer, a machinist and a salesperson. Throughout these adventures, Rick remained connected to a creative spirit that was reignited by a chance encounter with a young artist on the Eastern Prom in Portland.  While he names Picasso, Modigliani, and...

Page Eastburn O’Rourke brings joy to people of all ages. A full-time artist and children’s book illustrator, she developed her artistic style at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where she was heavily influenced by the color work of Josef Albers, and then Parsons School of Design in New York City. Page is beloved in the Yarmouth Maine area, and her travels have allowed her to introduce wha...

Alexandra Maurer is passionate about her work—both as an artist and an acupuncturist, two topics she is willing to explore deeply. In this episode of Radio Maine, she also touches upon the ideas of “fledging” one’s children, finding one’s voice, and embracing what Alexandra calls her maintenance phase. With her recent decision to join the Portland Art Gallery community, Alexandra has continued her...

Heather Shields grew up on North Haven, a remote Maine island with a year-round population of 350. Reaching the mainland by ferry boat was a 75 minute commitment – one way. Join Dr. Lisa Belisle as she discusses Heather’s formative island years that led her to understand, profoundly, that we all must learn how to get along. Heather built upon the foundation of her childhood experiences when she be...

Architect Josh Lowe lives with his wife and daughter on a coastal Maine island—a decision that was as carefully considered as the process he uses for design creation. Less than three years ago, their young family was in San Francisco, with Josh working on residential and commercial projects coming out of the Bay Area tech boom.  Many of their friends were transplants like themselves, who had moved...

It is said that change is constant, and most people will agree this is true. Along with change, which may be symbolized by an external shift in circumstances such as a birthday or retirement, we transition to new roles by revising our internal perceptions of ourselves and our interaction with the world. This may also take place during travel, and through finding art where it may not have previousl...

As the world reopens, there is a strange reawakening that we're all experiencing as the springtime has woken up the birds and the buds are on the trees. Some of us are planting our gardens. We are realizing that things that we thought we lost over the last year were there all along. Maybe that's what creativity is; the ability to have things continue on. Maybe despite us, while our focus is elsewh...

Have you ever wondered about how priceless artwork gets moved from one location to another? Artist Stew Henderson has the answer. He recently retired after two decades working in Maine’s fine arts world: first with the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, and then as the senior preparator at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville. In this latest episode of Radio Maine, Stew talks to Dr. Lisa...

Artist Helen Lewis creates her pieces, in part, by adding layer upon layer of molten beeswax to a panel, and scraping it away. This process creates great depth and luminosity. This practice reflects her life’s work of finding meaning from what remains after loss. Helen’s mother died suddenly when she was five-years-old. Soon after, her father brought Helen and her brothers on a trip to New Orleans...

Hadley Powell has spent a lifetime “training her eye” when it comes to art. Visits to art museums were an integral part of her childhood vacations and time at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine expanded her view. She went on to complete formal educational programs in art at Union College and with Christie’s world-renowned art institute.  Now, in tandem with nurturing her young family, Hadley is maturi...

Dr. Brooke Jackson is a practicing clinical psychologist living in San Rafael, California. She is also a lover of art, lifelong learner and gardener. Join us for episode eight, as Brooke tells us about searching for, and finding, her genuine life path after a career trajectory that included jobs as a paralegal and educator, before returning to college later in life to earn her PhD in psychology. F...

Carlos Gamez de Francisco knew that he wanted to emigrate from Cuba to the United States when he was 14-years-old. According to Carlos, the generation before him had moved to Cuba for opportunity, and now his generation was leaving for opportunity. After early studies in dance, at age fifteen Carlos began devoting his time to studying and perfecting his art. He would eventually find his way to the...

In this episode, Lisa Belisle connects with California-based artist, Andrew Faulkner. Andrew has an unusually rich lineage of creativity.  His great-grandfather was an accomplished professional artist who traveled regularly to Europe for inspiration before returning to Connecticut to paint. His grandfather, father and brother are architects. Andrew’s mother was an interior designer. However, Andre...

Dietlind Vander Schaaf’s life, as Walt Whitman might suggest, “contains multitudes.”  Not only is she an artist and teacher of art, she is also a writer and yoga teacher who has undergraduate and masters degrees in history (as well as a masters of fine art in writing!)  Lisa Belisle’s interview with Dietlind explores her unique practice of creating encaustic art on wood panels: a laborious process...

Host, Dr. Lisa Belisle, connects with artist Jane Dahmen in her Newcastle, Maine home for Episode 4 of Radio Maine. Jane has created a well-established art practice over the course of 50+ years. She was first introduced to Maine as a student at Colby College in Waterville and, after vacationing here for several years, moved to Newcastle full time with her husband, Joe, in 2005. Jane talks about ov...

Our host, Dr. Lisa Belisle, is one of ten siblings. Her father's 50-year career as a family physician led her toward a similar professional path adding studies in pubic health (MPH), acupuncture and business (MBA). While she's currently in a primary care leadership role for a Maine-based healthcare system, she has always continued a parallel path as an on-air interviewer, writer and presenter. Lea...

Missy Dunaway talks with host Dr. Lisa Belisle about realizing she was going to an artist from the age of 6, her wanderlust for world travel, a Fulbright Scholarship that took her to Turkey, her visual travel journals, and more. Missy is one of the featured artists in March 2021 at the Portland Art Gallery. Every week, Dr. Lisa Belisle brings you an interview with a member of Maine’s community, in...

In her inaugural episode of Radio Maine, Dr. Lisa has a conversation with Gallery Director, Emma Wilson. They talk about the past year of doing business during Covid and how the gallery, and artists, forged a path forward while taking care to provide needed connection, communication and compassion along the way. Hear about how the team at the Portland Art Gallery expanded their artist roster and a...