A Professional Hockey Player from Canada Becomes a Surgeon and Moves to Maine: Meet Jarrod Daniel

Lisa Belisle:

Hello, I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to, or watching, Radio Maine. Today I have with me a fellow health care individual, Dr. Jarrod Daniel. He's a different sort of healthcare provider than I am, as a plastic surgeon operating out of Portland, Maine. Great to have you here today.

Jarrod Daniel:

Thanks for having me, Lisa.

Lisa Belisle:

Some people might wonder why we have a plastic surgeon in to talk about art. But you're an interesting individual because you are not what you appear at first. You have a very interesting and complex backstory. Is that fair?

Jarrod Daniel:

I would say that's fair to say. Yes.

Lisa Belisle:

You're not from Maine originally, although part of your wife's family is from Maine.

Jarrod Daniel:

That's right. Yes. Her father, so my father-in-law, is from Bangor, Maine. I grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Lisa Belisle:

And you met at McGill University?

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes. We met at McGill in 1995. Freddie, her name is Frederique, was on the track and field team and I was on the hockey team.

Lisa Belisle:

Which led to, I would say, one of the first parts of your important life existence as a hockey player.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes. I would say that. And it was interesting, as you know, I played a lot of hockey up until that point and then another four years at McGill. It was just wonderful being part of a school team, having that school spirit, and living in Montreal was also fantastic. It's obviously a hockey town.

Lisa Belisle:

How did you first get interested in hockey? What was the draw?

Jarrod Daniel:

I grew up in Canada, that's it. Everybody played hockey growing up and I went from playing defense to forward. And then finally I settled in as a goaltender.

Lisa Belisle:

That's a lot of pucks flying at your face.

Jarrod Daniel:

It is a lot of pucks at high speeds, and they're frozen.

Lisa Belisle:

And it seems like you had to somehow decide, well, now instead of being possibly damaged by things coming at me at high speed, now I want to go help fix people.

Jarrod Daniel:

Absolutely. Yes. You know what really happened at the beginning at McGill, I studied anatomy and physiology. I knew I wanted to go into medicine. It was kind of a pre-med course. I knew that my hockey career was probably going to be done at the end of that and then it was just a matter of what I wanted to do.

Lisa Belisle:

Why medicine?

Jarrod Daniel:

My mom was an RN, a nurse. And I remember as a young kid going through all of her textbooks and really getting interested in anatomy, and just helping people seemed like something I wanted to do. I wanted to do something tactile with my hands because of my physical background. And that's why surgery really became what I wanted to do.

Lisa Belisle:

Did you have an interest in actually creating art when you were growing up?

Jarrod Daniel:

A little bit. My parents would tell me that I'd sit in my room and draw a lot. I'd like to make things, make things with Lego and build. But as far as really artistic, not particularly.

Lisa Belisle:

I have two siblings who are orthopedic surgeons and both of them actually have very artistic backgrounds. In fact, either one of them I could have seen going into the art area rather than surgery. I suspect that it's not unusual and that there is something about the visual sense that crosses over.

Jarrod Daniel:

Absolutely. There's no question. Especially with my patients now, I almost see it as a canvas. So it's an interesting profession because you're restoring somebody's natural beauty and trying to help them achieve their goals. Getting on the same page with the patient, understanding their desires, where they want to be, and then producing that for them is a wonderful way to make a living.

Lisa Belisle:

Jarrod, how did you end up going to medical school in Australia?

Jarrod Daniel:

Great question. In 1999, my wife and I decided to go over to Nepal and do some pro bono work. It was something we always wanted to do. We did a lot of mountaineering and outdoor activity as well. We had the opportunity to go to Everest base camp, Annapurna base camp. While we were there, we worked with a lot of Australian physicians, and when we were finished with our travels, they said, come back and visit us in Australia. So my wife and I said, you know what, we're young, let's go ahead and do that. We went down to Australia, to South Australia, to Adelaide, and met up with the same physicians there. And while we were there, they said, you know what, you're Canadian, you should apply to medical school here. And I'd never thought of that idea. Canada is part of the Commonwealth. It just kind of made sense. So while we're there, I applied to medical school, my wife applied to do her MBA, and we both got in, in the same city. So we decided to stay there for four years.

Lisa Belisle:

Is there a difference between the way medical education is approached in the Commonwealth versus in the United States?

Jarrod Daniel:

A little bit. They're actually the ones that started the problem based learning rather than the systematic learning. And that's being adopted now in the United States. So it's obviously working.

Lisa Belisle:

And you at some point decided, okay, I'm going to do a residency in surgery and another one in plastic surgery, but was there some turning point for you? Was there a class that you took or a rotation that you did that made you feel like, okay, plastic surgery, this is what I want to do.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes. In my second year at the Mayo Clinic, during my general surgery residency, I did a plastics rotation and absolutely fell in love with it. I love the fact that we worked on every single part of the body from the toes to the top of the head, and that you were creating something, and you were fixing problems, you were filling holes. That's why it's called plastic surgery. So it was fascinating to me. While I was at the Mayo, I did as many rotations as I could in plastics. And then in your fourth year, you have to decide whether you're going to go on and do a fellowship. And I had a lot of support there from staff to apply to plastic surgery. I wanted to go to Emory University, which is kind of the Mecca of plastic surgery, and I ended up getting a spot there and was thrilled. And so we spent three years in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lisa Belisle:

What's your favorite part of the body to work on?

Jarrod Daniel:

I actually operate on all parts of the body. Right now I'm probably doing the majority of breast surgery. I did a lot of breast reconstructive surgery when I was accepting insurance. Now I'm mainly doing cosmetics. So, really enjoy breast surgery. Having said that, I do a lot of body contouring. Recently, I've been doing a lot of massive weight loss body contouring. And my practice in facial surgery has really picked up as well. So I do a lot of eye surgery, rhinoplasties, facelifts as well. So I pretty much do it all.

Lisa Belisle:

Does that have something to do with COVID and people seeing themselves on Zoom?

Jarrod Daniel:

Great question. It's called the Zoom boom. I don't know if you've heard of that term? But yes. We have seen an uptick. I don't know how much of it has to do with that, or that people just have more time at home, more time to recover from surgery. Additionally, that stimulus check has given patients some money to put down on surgery and then put the rest on something like care credit. So all of us have really seen a boom in business.

Lisa Belisle:

How does plastic surgery contribute to people's self-esteem? What do you see from the beginning to the end of the process?

Jarrod Daniel:

It's quite remarkable. I could have a 17 year old female who is not happy, let's say, with their nose. And so ever since middle school she's not been in any school photos. She doesn't show up to photo day, and with family photos she kind of stands in the back, she struggles with her self-esteem. She doesn't go to the school dances, she doesn't do anything. And then, an hour and a half surgery and they come out of it, just changing one small thing like that, and it changes their entire lives. There are a lot of people out there that would say, well, just be happy, be happy in your own body. And you know, I believe in that, I've got three girls as well, but if there is something there, something that can be changed. I mean, we do not give anybody a hard time about getting braces, do we? And that fixes crooked teeth. So I'm fixing a crooked nose.

Lisa Belisle:

Your story about the 17 year-old girl reminds me of when I had a patient come to see me, this was probably about 10 years ago now. She was in her twenties. I couldn't figure out why she had a hard time looking me in the eye. She had a hard time answering my questions and she kept her hand over her mouth. And then, when she finally moved her hand, I realized she had no teeth. It so impacted her ability to communicate with me or to just eat healthy foods. It just struck me that there's some things that we take for granted. Right?

Jarrod Daniel:

Absolutely. We do take it for granted. Yes, it is interesting. With maybe an older patient, someone that comes in for a facelift, it's not like we're trying to change the way they look. They just want to be rejuvenated and feel young, and it's just part of their whole persona and it gives them that extra boost. So it is really interesting to think of that dynamic.

Lisa Belisle:

And you mentioned the removal of extra skin for people who have had dramatic weight losses. I know people that I've had as patients have worked so hard to decrease their body mass index. You know, they've gone through the bariatric surgery and they're really in a great place, but then they come in and they show me their bellies or they show me the skin under their arms. And it really feels a little demoralizing to them that they put all this effort into trying to get healthier again and look better and they can't quite get to that final place.

Jarrod Daniel:

That's a big one. And that's one of our most rewarding surgeries. I really enjoy doing massive weight loss surgery. It's a long day. Those surgeries can take six, eight hours, but the transformation for me, I just feel so much gratitude that I get to complete their journey. As you said, they do all the hard work, the weight loss, going through the surgery, keeping the weight off, doing the exercise, putting in all that effort. And then I get to give them the final result, which is very rewarding.

Lisa Belisle:

You have to have a different type of relationship with your patients than say I do as a family practice doctor. Obviously my patients have to trust me and I have to go into my conversations in a really collaborative way, but they're handing you their face, their bodies. And they're saying, okay, I want you to bring me closer to how I see myself. How do you navigate that? That's a lot of pressure.

Jarrod Daniel:

It is a lot of pressure, but I see it as a collaboration between myself and the patient, and every single patient is different. You've got to walk into every single consultation thinking that way. And I need to get on the same page as the patient in a hurry. There's going to be a type A patient that wants to know everything about surgery. And then there's going to be a patient that will come in and say, do whatever you want doc. And so, getting on that same page, getting their goals pinpointed, but also setting realistic expectations is a big one. And so if we can come together and get a realistic expectation of what they're looking for, and I feel like I can achieve that, then we can proceed. And then afterwards, the aftercare as well, and just holding their hand through the entire process, it's a lot of work and it's a lot of pressure delivering those goals for them.

Lisa Belisle:

It's also important for you to have a nice space for your patients to go to. You can't have a standard industrial medical setting. You need people to feel comfortable. You need them to feel a little pampered, I guess, going into this. Tell me about that. That's not something that every medical practice has to take into consideration.

Jarrod Daniel:

You're absolutely right. And we've built a beautiful space that I think is welcoming to patients. You're right, I don't want it to feel sterile. I don't want it to feel like a hospital setting. I want them to feel a comfort, almost like they're in a spa-type atmosphere, which I think that we've created pretty well. Additionally, all my staff are trained a little bit differently. This is more of a concierge type service.

Lisa Belisle:

Do you think there are lessons that we in medicine could learn from the type of practice that you have as far as patient experience and interactions?

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes, I think patient experience definitely. I mean, nobody wants to go to the doctor, right, that sterile smell. The other thing that you touched on, which I think is very important, is the way each one of my nurses, my staff, my MAs treat each patient. They know each patient, they follow each patient from day one until they're finished with our care. So that continuity is very important. I think it makes them feel at home. So I think that sometimes in the large hospital settings, that's difficult to achieve.

Lisa Belisle:

Speaking of spaces, I know that you and Freddie have not too long ago completed a home, not very far away from where we're located now on Cousins Island. It took you a while to get that built, but it's beautiful. It's a really lovely space. You have four children, you're all occupying that space well, and art is an important part of it.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes. Art is a big part of it. You know when you asked me for the interview, I kind of went back and tried to figure out how that developed. And so, growing up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with my parents, my parents traveled a lot and wherever they went, they brought back a piece of art, whether it be China, Indonesia, Mexico, and they'd bring it into our home. And it was just part of the way I grew up. And then they got really into Quebec art, into Quebec artists and landscapes in the snow scapes. And so, growing in that atmosphere, going to galleries to look at paintings, really got me interested. And then my hockey kind of took over and I kind of lost that. Fast forward to going to McGill and Montreal and meeting Freddie, who is from France and who would go to the Louvre once a month growing up. And so she was very, very interested in art. So she forced me to go to museums in Montreal. And I really started getting back into it. Her family was big into art. Her father, who was from Maine, they own a lot of art from Maine. And so we really started to get into it at that point in time and started collecting on our own. So then when we started traveling, whether it be Nepal, Africa, Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, we made sure that we brought something back. So yes, our house is filled with all these beautiful items. And then decorating the house and finding beautiful artwork was very important to us. I just think that it brings so much culture and just atmosphere to your home.

Lisa Belisle:

Who are some of your favorite Maine artists?

Jarrod Daniel:

Well, obviously the one behind us that happens to be Eric Hopkins. And he just struck me. When I was speaking with your husband, he brought some samples of different artists for us to look at, and I just took one look and I was like, that's it. The reason is because my first few times actually coming to the state of Maine, I flew in a small plane to get here. And I remember looking out and seeing this and just falling in love with Maine right away. And so to capture that, just wonderfully the way he has, just really struck me. Other artists that we own, I mean we own a bunch, but Colin Page just really captures the coastline, the ledge. We really, really enjoy his work. I don't know if you're familiar with Anna B. McCoy, but she's a descendant of the Wyeths and she does still paintings. So we have a few of her works. Yes. We dabble in a little bit of everything.

Lisa Belisle:

Your house is located in a very interesting place, you're kind of on the backside of the island. It's tidal waters that come through so there's a lot of changeability compared to other parts of the island. You know, there's a tide, but it doesn't impact quite as much. Was that important to you?

Jarrod Daniel:

You know, we didn't think about it because I grew up in the Rocky Mountains and so we didn't really think that much about it. It was more the piece of land and we were able to get six acres right there on the water. And now that it is tidal, we love it because the kids go out on the flats, they're digging for clams, there's all the tidal pools. And then during high tide, we can fly fish for striped bass. We can paddleboard and we can kayak, but you're right, it's an ever-changing scenery, which is wonderful.

Lisa Belisle:

Now you actually own your business. You're a small business owner, which is different from most physicians, probably about 80% of us are employed by large healthcare systems. That's a lot of pressure on you. How do you find time to go fly fishing?

Jarrod Daniel:

I force myself to find time. It's difficult, you're right. Owning a business, operating, worrying about your patients being on call, four kids and their activities. It gets to be a lot, but you just have to make it a priority. And you know, this summer, I'm really trying to find more of a life work balance and taking a lot more time off.

Lisa Belisle:

I also owned a small practice while I was raising my kids, probably around your kids' ages. And I thought, you know, there are actually some benefits to that because you make your own schedule. If you want to go to a soccer game, you know that maybe you're not going to be generating the revenue from a patient visit, but it's a choice that you're making.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes, you're right. In that aspect, if I want to schedule vacation, I can schedule vacation. And the other side of the business, the spa side, will keep running. So it continues to bring in revenue while we do that. And so I'm trying to take advantage of that as much as possible.

Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about Freddie and the kids, you have a lot going on there.

Jarrod Daniel:

I do. Yes. So Freddie and I have been married for 21 years. We have four children. Hugo is 13, Delphine is 10, Capucine is eight, and Emiline is seven. So yes, four kids, they're all very athletic and go to North Yarmouth Academy and all do very well in school. We're proud of them all. But chasing them around at sporting events and that sort of thing, and flying around the country, flying around the world for their sporting events is a lot.

Lisa Belisle:

How do you find it to be simultaneously deeply rooted in Maine and also still very international? That's not something that everybody experiences. So for you, it's kind of an ongoing back and forth between being here and being elsewhere.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes, it is an ongoing back and forth. My parents are still living in Canada. My brother lives out in Oregon, and Freddie and I have lived around the world, around many different cities in Canada, many different cities in the United States. But for some reason, coming back to Maine always feels like home. I don't know why. Juggling that, getting out of the Portland airport is sometimes a little difficult, but yes, we manage.

Lisa Belisle:

What did Freddie end up doing with her MBA?

Jarrod Daniel:

Great question. So when I was at the Mayo, she was actually Mayo's international marketing consultant, which was a fascinating job. In fact, she had the opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama when he came to the Mayo. So she did that for two years and then we became pregnant with our first in 2007, Hugo, while I was at the Mayo. And since then she's been running our home business, which is a lot of work.

Lisa Belisle:

Yes. Four kids. That's a lot going on.

Jarrod Daniel:

She's busier than I am.

Lisa Belisle:

I don't know if you can answer this question for her, but to move from Paris, France to Bangor, that's a big shift. How did that work for her?

Jarrod Daniel:

It was tough. A 13 year old girl moving from Paris to Maine, not speaking English well. She tells me she learned watching Three's Company. But it was difficult. Kids called her French fry. You know, she was tall, skinny. It was difficult for her, but by the time she got into high school, she had found track and field and excelled at that. She actually held the Maine state record for high jump for 15 years. And so she really found something in sports and academics, and then coming up to McGill, Montreal and getting back into her French culture, I think was very important for her. But it wasn't easy for a few years. That's for sure.

Lisa Belisle:

It's interesting because Maine is so steeped in French Canadian culture. So you'd think that a French speaking 13 year old maybe wouldn't have such a hard time, but it sounds like her French was Parisian French versus kind of the dialectical French Canadian French.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes, completely different. And she said that when her grandparents came to visit and went to Montreal, they said that that was the French they heard on the farm from their grandparents. And so, yes, it's completely different French. In fact, when we'd be sitting in lectures at McGill, I'd be there with the hockey guys and half the hockey team were French. She'd say, I can't even understand what they're saying. So yes, it's different.

Lisa Belisle:

Yes. I know traveling to Northern Maine and I spoke high school French, which is more Parisian French and a little bit of mill town Biddeford French from my dad. I would go to Northern Maine and listen to the valley French and there's even a couple of different dialects going on there. And I had a hard time kind of understanding what people were saying.

Jarrod Daniel:

Oh yes. There are a lot of dialects. Just outside of Montreal, as soon as you get to the city center of Montreal, you're speaking French. And then the next township, you're speaking a little different French, next one, a little different French. It's unique.

Lisa Belisle:

So if you travel all over the world, then it's not just French that can be a useful language in its various forms to know, but just understanding people, because there's probably no way you could know all the different languages needed. You just have to kind of figure things out as you go along.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes. I agree. And we're really trying to instill that in our kids and getting them to travel as much as possible. Now that our youngest is seven, we're going to take an adventure next year and we think we're going to head to South Africa. So we've got a lot of things planned, but you're right, just relating to people. I mean, we've been to Czech, to Slovakia, to Greece, to all of Southeast Asia, but yes, just communicating with people is a skill that is important to have.

Lisa Belisle:

How did COVID impact you and your family?

Jarrod Daniel:

We were fortunate in a few ways. Number one, we'd just built that home. And so they had six acres to play on. So they had a playground in their backyard. We had the paddle boards, we had kayaks, we built a zip line. We had mountain biking trails. So we had a lot of outdoor activities. The social interaction was the more difficult part, but at least they had the four of them, the siblings. I think we were fortunate from our standpoint being in the position we were. From a work standpoint, I only had to shut down for six weeks, so it wasn't too bad. We're also fortunate that they're at North Yarmouth Academy. So they did a lot of the courses online that were very interactive and the teachers would actually stop by the house at the end of the driveway to kind of interact and give them their assignments. And then starting last year, they'd been in school full-time with masks. So it actually wasn't too bad for us.

Lisa Belisle:

I have a brother that moved back to Yarmouth from California, and he has three little boys. One of them went into the public schools and one of them went to NYA and then the other one is too little to go to school, but he had kind of the same experience with it, because it was a private school, they were able to accommodate the educational experience in person in a much different way than I think that public school teachers had to navigate.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes. I think that it was very important for our kids to have that face-to-face interaction with their peers and with their teachers, because you just can't learn the same way if you're not in that classroom or face-to-face with your teacher. We have a lot of friends who were at public schools who came to NYA, and in fact, NYA had to increase the number of classes they had, but they still kept the classes around 10 kids per class. And I think that's how we were able to get through the pandemic. If anyone tested positive, nobody did in the lower school or the middle school, a couple of high schoolers did and they just shut down the high school and did it all remotely. But the other thing that's come from it is I don't think we're going to have snow days, no snow days. And so, I actually think that coming out of the pandemic, we've learned a lot of skills that are going to be helpful down the road in education.

Lisa Belisle:

When I think about many people who send their kids to public schools versus people who are able to send their kids to private schools, there's an ongoing kind of discrepancy, a conflict. And if there was a way to bring lessons that are financially feasible, I guess, from the private into the public, what would you say those are?

Jarrod Daniel:

Well, first of all, Freddie and I were both public school educated. The main reason why we're at NYA is for Hugo's hockey because he can go from the classroom, they have a study hall where he has to study and then he steps on the ice. And so that just worked beautifully for us. And then we're like, okay, if he's going, we better send the rest of them. As far as lessons between the private and the public, I think the big thing is the class sizes. And I don't know if you can get around that in the public system due to funding. That one-on-one interaction with the teacher is so important. If one of our children has the slightest problem during the week with something in math, we'll get an email that Friday that gives me the opportunity over the weekend to sit down and say, hey, what's going on here? Like, let's work through this instead of at the end of the semester saying, well, why did you get a C in that subject? So I think that close interaction is just so important.

Lisa Belisle:

Yes. You're right. And that is tough to replicate in a public school setting. And I know that my mother was a public school teacher for many, many years, and she worked really hard to do this individualized approach with each of her students, because I think as we know now, not every student learns the same. So some kids who did just fine during COVID because they were able to do the non face-to-face education, they're maybe gonna not do as well when they go back into the classroom.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes, you're right. I mean, our 13 year old, he's a social butterfly, he'd do fine learning at a public school, but our 10 year old, she's kind of a little bit more withdrawn. She may have been pushed to the back of the class, but in the private school they're pulled forward and pulled forward and things are drawn out of them that I just don't think would be otherwise.

Lisa Belisle:

And even as we're talking, I hope that there's a way that we can do the same way in medicine. I mean, I do telemedicine now, virtual visits with my patients. And there are some patients who will never go back to doing those because they never liked them in the first place, but there are some patients who really like them. And so having the ability to do the video based visit, that's really important for those patients. And likewise for children, maybe there are some children that doing stuff online is going to be better for them long-term.

Jarrod Daniel:

Right, better for them, but as you were speaking, I was also thinking, in addition, now that we're used to this interaction, getting a tutor online, a tutor face-to-face, getting more used to that interface is important. And I have patients coming from Canada, from Northern Maine, from Vermont, from everywhere. So I'm doing virtual consults as well, just to kind of get a feel like, is it worth coming all the way down here? So there are great things that have come out of the pandemic.

Lisa Belisle:

Do you talk with your children about art? Do you talk with your children about the works that you have in your home, or when you go to museums with them?

Jarrod Daniel:

Absolutely. Hugo's first book was Lichtenstein, something about Lichtenstein, and it was a picture book. So yes we do. And they love it. Hugo made team North America for hockey before the pandemic. And so he played over in Pulsano, Italy. On the way there, we spent a week in Paris and we did Musée d'Orsay, did the Louvre and we had like a tour of each place and the kids just loved it. So they're all into art and really enjoy and appreciate it. And it's funny, I saw our daughter the other day walk past one of the paintings and just stare at it. So yes, it's wonderful.

Lisa Belisle:

My husband and I also have a lot of art in our homes. Neither one of us grew up with art in the home. Both of us are public school educated. Both of us have parents who worked very hard at what they did, but just didn't have an art background. And so, because we now have art in our home, we'll have people over and when they look around our house, that's what is noticed. It's, I see this on the wall. I relate to this piece, and it really becomes a way to start conversations.

Jarrod Daniel:

Absolutely. It really does. And again, as you were speaking, I was thinking about the private school, public school again, and last year our third grader did a unit on Monet and they had to replicate his paintings. And so it's just getting it into them when they're young. But you're right, it is a conversation starter and everybody sees every painting differently and sees something different in it.

Lisa Belisle:

One of the things that I've enjoyed about doing Radio Maine is that I personally am not trained traditionally in art in any way. My training is mostly going to museums saying, oh, that's beautiful. And then learning more about the artist. But what I've enjoyed is getting to know artists themselves, talking to them about technique, talking to them about how they're inspired, what their work looks like. And for me, that's really wonderful because as a physician, that's just not the way we do things. And it's an opportunity to learn. I feel very fortunate. I feel a lot of gratitude for the opportunity to spend time with artists.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes, yes. That must be wonderful. And I've watched some of the artists' interviews on the website and have really enjoyed them, because for the exact same reason, just to know kind of what's in their head. I mean, it's a completely different mindset than what we're used to in textbooks. This is black, this is white, that's it. There's a right answer, there's a wrong answer. So it is fascinating.

Lisa Belisle:

And the conversation too, there's a lot that can be learned out of a conversation that you might not get out of, say, a lecture or reading a book. And I think for me, it also makes art accessible. For quite awhile, I felt almost as if I didn't belong in a museum when I was growing up because that was for the people who could belong. And I wasn't one of those people, but somehow, I mean, there is an accessibility to art. We just have to play with that. We have to be open to that idea.

Jarrod Daniel:

Yes. I agree. We have beautiful art galleries here in this city and I see school kids going through them. It starts when you're young and getting that appreciation, and you're right, it is accessible to everybody. It just takes the exposure.

Lisa Belisle:

Do your children, besides replicating Monet, actually enjoy creating art?

Jarrod Daniel:

The oldest no. The second oldest no. But the youngest two do. We have a little art studio, a kind of craft area in our home. They'll just go in there and start drawing and painting. We've bought them watercolors and oils and crayons and everything. And they'll just go in there for hours on end and come up with their own creations. So my office and our bedroom are filled with all their little pieces of artwork.

Lisa Belisle:

What's next for you? You have a busy life, you have a career, you have a beautiful family, a wonderful wife, a great home. Anything else that is kind of in the back of your mind? I mean, you've had so many different iterations of being Jarrod Daniel. Do you have another one, or two or three?

Jarrod Daniel:

I'm not sure. I mean, I've just begun to pause, after playing a little professional hockey, after medical school residency, I joined a practice in Charlotte for a while, then coming up here to Maine, starting my own business, getting my feet under me. And I'm at that point now. And I'm looking for more balance.

Lisa Belisle:

Well, I've been at the stage that you're at and it takes energy to even get to the place where you realize, all right, I have got to pull back a little bit. I have got to put more energy on one side so that it can balance out the other.

Jarrod Daniel:

You're exactly right. That's what we're looking for.

Lisa Belisle:

I really appreciate the opportunity to spend time with you today. I've been speaking with Dr. Jarrod Daniel. He is a plastic surgeon in Portland and also a neighbor of ours. I encourage you to go to the Portland Art Gallery. Access some art. Look at our Eric Hopkins pieces, look at our other Maine artists because, as we've been talking about, there's really an access point for everyone when it comes to art and creativity. I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you've been listening to or watching Radio Maine. Thank you very much for taking time out of your very busy schedule to come talk to me today.

Jarrod Daniel:

Thank you for having me in your beautiful home.