Andy Gelinas: Maine Island Poet and Artist

Lisa Belisle: Hello, I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to or watching Radio Maine. Today I have with me in the studio Andy Gelinas, who is an artist and poet who comes to us all the way from North Haven. Thanks for coming in today.

Andy Gelinas: Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: It was quite a journey to get here, wasn't it?

Andy Gelinas: Not too bad. A boat ride and a little car ride.

Lisa Belisle: Well, you say that because you're probably kind of used to it, but for most of us who just get in the car and then go up I-95, it's a little bit more of an issue for you.

Andy Gelinas: It goes with living on an island.

Lisa Belisle: How long have you lived on North Haven?

Andy Gelinas: 15 years.

Lisa Belisle: And what was the original draw for you?

Andy Gelinas: Pretty much the beauty of it, lobstering. I just fell in love with it. It's a wonderful community, very supportive. It's a wonderful place to call home.

Lisa Belisle: Where are you originally from?

Andy Gelinas: I grew up in Athens, Maine, which is a little north of Skowhegan.

Lisa Belisle: Okay, alright. So that's a very different kind of feel to it, the Skowhegan area versus the North Haven area.

Andy Gelinas: Yeah. Central Maine has its upsides and downsides, I guess you'd say. It's certainly a change, that's for sure. But I like it. I like it.

Lisa Belisle: We've already said that you're a poet and you have with you so many poems, which I'm amazed by because I think poetry is incredibly difficult to write.

Andy Gelinas: Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: And I'm wondering if you'd be willing to read one of your poems for me.

Andy Gelinas: Sure. So I'll read this. This was from a quarterly that I got published in 2014. It's called Unbroken. Unbroken. If I should break myself today, unchained from every bird and bear determined unafraid to say that I shall find the strength to wear whatever fortune, great or small my maker has bestowed on me by chance. Wherever I may fall, I forge alone my destiny, then I may find the eyes to see beyond the trembling darkness. My will shall not yet conquer me until I have shown my greatness. I will not yet abandon you. My heart, my soul, my memory. I will struggle and stagger through until it lasts. I shall be free.

Lisa Belisle: That's an amazing poem.

Andy Gelinas: Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: What was the inspiration for that?

Andy Gelinas: Sort of just something to remind myself of, I guess. Inner strength.

Lisa Belisle: And what about your life has caused you to really need to draw upon inner strength?

Andy Gelinas: I was born with cerebral palsy. That might be a little underlying note to it, but I've always been imaginative and ever since I can remember sort of did rhymes in my head. It took a while, but once I figured out what to do with it, it's become really fun. It's a good outlet and release to get stuff down and to get it out.

Lisa Belisle: For you, what has it meant to live with cerebral palsy?

Andy Gelinas: I don't really see it as an obstacle anymore. I'm a really determined person, and it might take a little bit longer to do some things, but I find a way to get them done.

Lisa Belisle: So it sounds like the inner strength that you are describing in the poem is something that you've been practicing, you've been cultivating over years.

Andy Gelinas: Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

Lisa Belisle: It sounds like you were a child when you started creating rhymes in your head and poetry in your head.

Andy Gelinas: Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: What were some of the things that you would write poetry about or create rhymes in your head about? What were some of the subjects that caught your interest?

Andy Gelinas: Well, nature was one of them. Obviously love, once I got old enough to realize what that was all about. And then I like to write about the passing seasons, stuff that I see in my daily life that I could sort of put in little metaphors and make memories for myself that I can go back and read. Sometimes when it's there, it just comes right out, and sometimes it's hard to get it out, but I'm ready for it when it comes. And sometimes it comes in spurts. I'll write a whole bunch and then I'll go stagnant for a few months. But I think that's part of the creative process.

Lisa Belisle: So tell me about your writing process specifically. I know everybody does it a little bit different. Do you get up in the morning and write? Do you write in between your other work obligations? Is there a specific time that you write or don't write? I'm just always fascinated to understand this.

Andy Gelinas: I keep journals or notebooks or whatever and I'm constantly adding stuff to it. Nothing is usually ever dated, but I'll go back to stuff and finish stuff and then start stuff over. It keeps me going as far as something's always there that I can go and draw from to finish. There's always a few ideas that are already down, maybe the last ideas I was thinking about. So for me, I like to just jot stuff down and then when I have time or if inspiration comes, then I'll sit down and write. But typically in the morning, yeah, I think that's when most people are at their most tuned-in time.

Lisa Belisle: So this looks like a kind of old-fashioned composition notebook.

Andy Gelinas: Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: So for you, putting something down on paper sounds like it has some strength to it?

Andy Gelinas: I think so, yeah. I've grown to see the digital age happen. Having a touchscreen was a dream of mine going through school, so it took me a while to even learn how to navigate a pencil. I used to break the pencil lead all the time and it was frustrating, but I kept going. And writing is a very important life skill. I think people don't do it enough. It reinforces your ideas. When you put it down on paper, there's something to that. Your intention goes into something. And once you do that, it changes it.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah, that's actually a really good point. There's a lot of times where I'm sitting and thinking about things and I think there's an idea here I'd like to come back to, and I'll pick up a piece of paper and a pen and I'll put it out there, and there's something about it that just creates a little pathway in my brain. It's right there. I'm going to come back later. I'm going to kind of play that out and see where it goes.

Andy Gelinas: Yep. I think it's important. It is how thoughts can become powerful, but you have to sort of reinforce that. And writing it down is one of the ways you can reinforce a thought. So it does help.

Lisa Belisle: In addition to being an artist of words, you're also an artist of other sorts. And you've brought some of your works here today, specifically some of your paintings. So talk to me about that. How did you get into painting?

Andy Gelinas: I've been painting for 25 years at least. I just started one day with some pastels and started drawing and wanted to keep going on it and just figured it out. One thing led to another. I had a couple good coaches along the way. And yeah, 25 years later, I'm doing pretty good.

Lisa Belisle: And pastels are not always easy to use.

Andy Gelinas: It gave me a good base of what to do as far as drawing with color as opposed to just drawing with shades of black and gray. It trained me a little bit, I think, for the next things that I would get into, watercolor and then oil paints and stuff like that.

Lisa Belisle: So the piece that you brought here today, what medium did you use for that?

Andy Gelinas: That is an oil painting and it's on canvas board. And it's actually a scene from North Haven, Crabtree's Point, looking down towards town.

Lisa Belisle: Andy, would you be willing to read another poem for us?

Andy Gelinas: Sure. So this is a sonnet. It's called Flowers. I try to tell myself that it's okay. Tangled up, dust floating in the sunbeam. Nothing fancy about an old bouquet falling apart, like a broken-down dream casting long shadows in the morning sun, beautiful and bright swaying in the breeze, gracefully gathered up there one by one in a field near to some old spruce trees. I see the seasons now come apart in an old summer cottage tucked away where I'm no closer to finding your heart in a chipped crystal vase of green and gray of flowers fading like a memory forgotten, like a love lost out at sea.

Lisa Belisle: That's intense.

Andy Gelinas: Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: Was it inspired by a love interest perhaps?

Andy Gelinas: Obviously there's metaphors in there, but I actually think I was trying to describe something that I'd seen in a little cottage. One of the first places I painted when I got to North Haven was a little cottage on the shore of Banks Cove, and it reminded me of that time passing by and a bouquet of flowers just watching it.

Lisa Belisle: So it sounds like more of a theoretical love that may have existed in this cottage inspired you.

Andy Gelinas: Yeah, I think that's more accurate. Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: So why the sonnet as a form, and why do you choose any particular form for your poetry?

Andy Gelinas: I have always been fond of rhyme schemes and structure. I think it's a game for me to sort of fit things into a pattern. And it's easy for me to write in iambic pentameter. It just comes out that way. Sometimes the rhyme's not so much, but that's easy for me to just sort of nail out.

Lisa Belisle: So you said that you had people that maybe mentored you or worked with you or taught you when you had an early interest in poetry. There must've been somebody who sat down and said, this is iambic pentameter, this is a sonnet.

Andy Gelinas: All my teachers, most of them still follow me on social media. Mrs. Blaisdell at Madison High School was integral. I had a professor at the University of Maine, Constance Hunting. She was wonderful. I think I was one of her last classes. She passed away two or three years after I'd gone there. She was wonderful. And I have people that give me good feedback that I can always send something to, no matter if it's something that I might've just wrote, I can send it to someone and I know it'll get read and I'll get some honest feedback, and that's sort of good. And then sometimes I'll make changes, sometimes I won't. But that for me is a nice release too, as far as getting stuff off my chest or whatever the thought is. It's nice to get it away and have it appreciated too.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah, I think having somebody who's giving you the gift of reading your work, I think that's really powerful.

Andy Gelinas: It is.

Lisa Belisle: On the off days when you're not painting, you're not creating, not writing your poetry, what do you do for work?

Andy Gelinas: I work at the golf course on North Haven, a little nine-hole course since 1916. There's just a couple of us that work there, so it's pretty time-consuming in the summertime, but I couldn't have asked for a better day job. It's wonderful. I get to be outside all the time. Mowing the grass this summer was quite a bit of mowing, but the course stayed green for the first time in memory for most people. And I get to play golf, which is great exercise and it keeps me active. It's wonderful. I have other hobbies too, but golf, it's become a nice side job.

Lisa Belisle: Were you playing golf before you got this job?

Andy Gelinas: Yeah, I played golf in high school and it just worked out that they were looking for someone, and this is eight years later, I'll be there again next summer.

Lisa Belisle: It sounds like a perfect job for somebody who likes to play golf.

Andy Gelinas: It is. Yeah, it is.

Lisa Belisle: And also somebody who likes to think up rhymes in his head.

Andy Gelinas: Well, I've got plenty of time on a lawnmower or a tractor just to think. And it is sort of a blessing to have that free time. It is monotonous, but it does give me a lot of time to think about things.

Lisa Belisle: So when you were growing up and you were interested in poetry, did you ever think, someday I am going to be a poet, someday I am going to be an artist?

Andy Gelinas: I think so. Yeah. I think I willed it to happen. But it took a lot of time, the art thing, 25 years of doing it, and I'm just getting to the point where I'm comfortable writing. You don't necessarily know where you're going to end up when you start, I should say. And yeah, I think the whole way through it, I was pushing myself to become a good writer and a good artist.

Lisa Belisle: And did you have anybody in your family who was an artist of any sort or a writer of any sort?

Andy Gelinas: My grandmother was an oil painter. She didn't paint very many paintings. She taught herself with paint by number, but her paintings were beautiful. So yeah, I grew up looking at artwork for sure. And that helped.

Lisa Belisle: During the winter when you're not working for the golf course, is that a time where you find yourself writing more or creating more?

Andy Gelinas: Yes. Yep. I try to get as much work done in the winter as I can, especially if I know I'm going to have a show or something like that the following summer, and it's a great time to do it. Everything's slowing down and it's peaceful. It's a nice end of the season to just kick back and relax a little bit and then get back into painting.

Lisa Belisle: So I know you've had your poetry published and obviously people could buy your poetry in publications, but it sounds like you're also out selling your art.

Andy Gelinas: I actually have work in Portland right now at Uncharted Tea, and it's at 662 Congress Street. And next summer I'll have another show on North Haven. People can find me on Instagram. I'm in a good situation where I'm almost out of inventory, and it's a wonderful feeling to know that when I do something, it goes, and it goes to appreciative places. The success side of it is just a bonus. It's good to know that they're going away. I am lucky to be able to say that I paint pretty paintings that people like to have. There's a lot of good art out there, but it's hard to have customers for them sometimes. And I just found the perfect niche on North Haven.

Lisa Belisle: So the people who buy your art, are these people who visit North Haven, people who live on North Haven? What would one of your art buyers look like?

Andy Gelinas: Friends, family, the many summer residents, many local residents. The whole community is a very, very supportive place for any sort of creative process. We have a community center that anyone can write a play and put it in the one-act play contest that they do in the spring. And that was the first place that I had a show on North Haven. Friends saw that I was getting a little bit better and I got asked and had a show. It wasn't the first time I'd had a show. I'd had showings before, but it was the first time on North Haven. And slowly over time, I got to know just about everyone on the island and the summer community as well as all the year-rounders. And I have a lot of fans out there that really support me, and it's a wonderful feeling to have. But I'm trying to get work in other places. Like I said, I'm trying to get stuff in more places in Portland, maybe Rockland, Camden, but it's a slow process.

Lisa Belisle: And the pieces that you do, you've described one of these as a very specific place that's actually on North Haven. Are they all in that same kind of vein?

Andy Gelinas: Some of them are. I can paint the Camden Hills without thinking about it. There's certain scenes that I just have ingrained in my memory. So for people that see what I've done, they recognize it as something, and they'll tell me, oh, is that this place here? Or what it might be? But for the most part, I just pull it out of my mind, and sometimes I have a directive of what I want to do, if I want to paint Pulpit Rock or if I'm going to do this or that. I'll do paintings from photographs once in a while if it's a commission, but I have more fun just winging it.

Lisa Belisle: I know that at least one of our artists, I believe, has a North Haven connection. Do you have friends on North Haven who are also artists?

Andy Gelinas: Yeah. I mean, I know Eric Hopkins, David Wilson. There's a few of us. As far as in my little friend group, not so much, but in the summertime there's a lot more going on and there's more people that take part in that. There's an annual fundraising event that the North Haven Library Association does, and I'm always big about trying to make sure that I get a painting for that. We have an elder care place that is wonderful and they have a silent auction. I always try to put something forward to donate, and those get gobbled up real quick. So that's a good feeling as well. It's a double whammy because you're raising some money and it's going to a good home.

Lisa Belisle: Have you ever seen any of your pieces in anybody's house that you've been to? You said friends and family, so I'm assuming your family members must have some, but what about other people that maybe you don't know as well?

Andy Gelinas: It's always exciting when I walk into a house and see something I've done that I hadn't remembered doing. I always get a kick out of it. It's wonderful. I think probably 300, maybe more than that. So they're out there, and many homes on North Haven have my paintings hanging in them, so it's a nice feeling.

Lisa Belisle: So it's probably more often than not that you walk into a house and you see one of your pieces out there. That's pretty cool actually.

Andy Gelinas: It is cool. Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: How far is it from the mainland to North Haven on the ferry?

Andy Gelinas: It's 12 and a half miles. It's about an hour and 20-minute ride.

Lisa Belisle: So when you're on the ferry, are you creating, are you thinking? What do you use the time to do?

Andy Gelinas: Depends on what I'm doing that day. If I'm going to go run errands, sometimes I'll go through my notes, shopping lists, stuff like that. If it's a nice enough day, you could take a nap. There's certain things you could do, but if I'm in the creative mind, yeah, I will totally jot notes down and do some writing.

Lisa Belisle: I think it's such an interesting notion that there's really nothing you could do other than be on this ferry. It is absolutely the only way, unless you have a boat, I guess, or you could take the plane, but most of the time this is the way that you're going to get back and forth to the island, and you just have to be patient because it's going to take what it's going to take to get back and forth.

Andy Gelinas: That's right. And once you're out there and say there's a storm and the ferry doesn't go for a couple days or a couple runs, that's when you realize you're really in a good community because everyone sticks together. Everyone's looking out for each other, and it's great in that respect.

Lisa Belisle: Do you still get back to Athens?

Andy Gelinas: Yeah, I do once in a while.

Lisa Belisle: Do you still have family over there?

Andy Gelinas: My folks live in Skowhegan. And my father is my framer, so I see him very regularly.

Lisa Belisle: So it's a whole family business.

Andy Gelinas: Yes. I'm very, very lucky to have my father to help me with the frames. I get handed a three-pack and then he'll give me the canvases to go with 'em. So I'm in a good spot as far as that goes. I just got to keep busy.

Lisa Belisle: So it sounds like you feel like you have a very supportive group around you that's encouraged you to continue to do your art and your poetry.

Andy Gelinas: Most definitely. Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: Well, Andy, I'm really thrilled that you took the time to get off the island, take your very long ferry ride and then drive all the way down here and sit with me today and read your poetry and bring your artwork. It's really been a pleasure.

Andy Gelinas: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lisa Belisle: I've been speaking with artist and poet Andy Gelinas, who you can find on social media and on the websites that he has described, and we will put his information up on our website so that you have access to that information. I encourage you to learn a little bit more about the work that he does and his beautiful poetry. I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you have been listening to or watching Radio Maine. Thank you for joining us, and thank you for joining me today, Andy.

Andy Gelinas: Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you.