Artist Carol Bass Is Committed to Living in the Present

Lisa Belisle: Hello. I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you're listening to, or watching, Radio Maine. Today I am with artist, and one of my favorite people in the world, Carol Bass. Thank you for coming in today.

Carol Bass: Lisa, I'm happy to be here.

Lisa Belisle: Carol, you just got back to Maine not too long ago.

Carol Bass: I am so excited to be back in Maine. It is where I'm supposed to be, and I'm just loving it. As E. B. White said, "I'd rather have a bad day in Maine than a good day anywhere else." Oh, I just love it.

Lisa Belisle: Yes, that's true. Beautiful. So where did you detour to while you were waiting to come back to Maine?

Carol Bass: Well, I had a cousin in South Carolina, that's where I grew up and where I was born, and she came up to Maine and she said, "Carol, you need to come back home. We miss you, and we all love you." And so I said, "okay, I'll come back home." But it didn't work. We came back after we were there for almost 13 years. That was way too long to be away from Maine. For the first few years, it was all new and I made a pile of friends and I loved it. I had my old family friends there and it was great, but not home. It's not home. So we came back.

Lisa Belisle: What did you learn about home? How would you define Maine, about being home?

Carol Bass: Well, your heart really feels like it's in the right place. Your heart will tell you and your soul will tell you where you're supposed to be if you listen, really listen. I had a lot of women friends who were into yoga and meditation and we met twice a week, sometimes three times a week. We did that for, I don't know, three or four years, but then something was missing. So we needed to come home.

Lisa Belisle: How did you give yourself the space to listen to that request from your soul?

Carol Bass: I did a lot of meditation, a lot of sitting still and looking at the marsh; we were right on the marsh. I was just really listening, listening, listening, and watching the trees and the birds. I'm trying to think if there was one particular thing that said, "okay, we're out of here, we're back to Maine." I think it was a lot of little things. I think it was mostly the people that I was missing; the Maine people. And I know people are the same everywhere, but there's something special about Maine people that I can't put my finger on. It's magical. In South Carolina where we were, we were on a place called Edisto Island. And there were only two places to go. You could go to the outdoor market, that's one place. And then you could go to the old post office for dinner. There was no place to go. There was Botany Bay. We went to Botany Bay. But Maine is just a constant adventure everywhere. I mean, everybody knows this, right? This is nothing new.

Lisa Belisle: So when did you first come to Maine?

Carol Bass: Well, I went to the University of Georgia and I had a friend, Becky Dillard, whose father was a doctor in Columbia, South Carolina. And when we graduated, he said, you girls need to get in the car and drive to Maine. He said that he had gone to Boothbay Harbor one time and that you've got to go see it. So four of us got in the car, drove to Boothbay Harbor, and got out and went up and down the streets. We went into a gift shop there. The person said, oh, you've got to go to Northeast Harbor. You've got to go up there. You'll all get jobs. This was in 1970. So we all drove up to Northeast Harbor. All of us got jobs. We stayed that summer. Then we came back the next summer. I went to Charleston and taught art and then came back to Maine. So I kept going back and forth for a while until I realized that I had the same vein. So yes.

Lisa Belisle: You've lived in different parts of Maine as well?

Carol Bass: Yes. I've lived in West Central Maine and Northeast Harbor and in Falmouth, in Yarmouth. And now I'm living in Pownal and it's just so beautiful. I just feel like I'm walking through miracles all the time. It's really hard to function to actually get any work done. I'm so lucky that I can paint because I'm always in awe and wonder at how beautiful it is. And I've decided that there's nothing wrong with being joyous all the time. And so that's it, that's just the way I feel. I'm just lucky to be here. Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: You are a very joyous person.

Carol Bass: Yes. I always have been.

Lisa Belisle: Yes, you have.

Carol Bass: They used to call me Pollyanna even when I was in grade school, but it's true. It's just the way I've always been. So yes.

Lisa Belisle: Tell me about this piece behind us.

Carol Bass: Well, you know, I was thinking that maybe you might ask me some questions like that. And so it's like jazz. I think of my painting as like jazz. I don't think about it. I don't plan it. I just do it. There's a paintbrush and lots of paint over here and I get the paint. I don't even look at the paint sometimes, I just will pick a color out and put it there and just start painting. And then the next thing and the next thing. So it's not a planned thing. And I think the immediacy of it is kind of what I'm after. I know a little story. I want to tell you this story. When I was living here on Littlejohn Island many years ago, I would ride my bike down to the end of the island. And I went off on a dirt road and I laid down. I just stopped and laid down in the grass and watched the blue jays flying up above me. And then I walked out and as I walked down this road, there was a fox that came up over the ditch with a bluebird in his mouth and the fox stared at me. And we stared at each other for a few moments. And that has stayed with me all along, that instant right there. And I think that's what I'm trying to get, that point right there. And I think that if it was planned, if I had to plan something, the immediacy would be taken out of it. The spontaneity. I think that's what I'm trying to do. And I'm trying to make the shapes speak.

Lisa Belisle: So looking at the shapes on this piece, what are they saying?

Carol Bass: I don't know. It's kind of hard to, well, it's very easy actually to come up with a name for things. I look at this and, I mean, it's obviously a heart, a lot of people will think it's a heart, but the heart is a lake, a pond in the middle of a river. So I think I named it that, "The Pond in the Middle of the River." But I also like to use art paper collage, and then the oil pastel. I have the art paper over here, the oil pastels, and I just reach for them. I don't really think. I do think it's a lot like jazz, and I always have music on, I have jazz on. One of my favorite artists is Keb' Mo'. Oh my gosh, I love it. So that really turns me on and gets me going.

Lisa Belisle: I've seen, over the years, your style evolve. The pieces that I've seen previously haven't had as much of this paper in them, this additional texture added to it.

Carol Bass: I think if you're an artist and you are having trouble getting going, or getting inspired, you can go to Artist & Craftsman and go to the paper aisle. Pick out your favorite papers, take them home and start tearing them up and throwing them on the canvas. And that will get you going. You're going to see those colors and shapes. And then you just play with those. And now I'm even getting simpler than this. Just a few shapes. Now I'm going toward just a few shapes because they say so much.

Lisa Belisle: I should say that you actually had me come to your house when you lived on Littlejohn and you were teaching me how to paint.

Carol Bass: And you did some abstract painting.

Lisa Belisle: And I did some abstract paintings. It was interesting to me because the process was a layering and subtracting process. We would add color, and then we would sand some of it away. And then we'd add more. But for you, you were always encouraging me to keep adding, keep adding. I've asked this question before of artists about when you know how or when to stop. How do you know?

Carol Bass: I think that there's a voice inside you that says that's it, no more, or a little more. And now it's telling me to, the color and the shapes say, you don't need to do much more. And so I have evolved. In my younger years, they would say mature artists, you know? And I thought, what does that mean? And I think maybe I'm approaching that. It's taken a long time, 50 years to kind of get that way. But I think maybe I'm seeing something, or maybe not. I don't know. I think I know some things and then I think I know nothing. And I'm thinking now that the nothing, this is kind of a wonderful thing. I know nothing. And that's really great when you think you know nothing from when you thought you knew everything. So I don't know if that makes sense, but.

Lisa Belisle: Well, it's very Zen. That's a very Zen idea.

Carol Bass: Yes.

Lisa Belisle: And that does come back to the almost peeling away of ideas, of experiences, of acknowledging that you've lived a life, but also that you don't have to be locked into what you've seen or what you've learned.

Carol Bass: I think some of the most wonderful things that I've seen are from people that I've worked with that haven't taken any art courses or anything, and they have an immediacy in their work and they don't think they can not think and just paint. And it's wonderful. I think it gets back to wanting to paint like a child, wanting to be like a child, but with the wisdom that hopefully you've gained a little bit of. So that's what I think I want to keep doing, is painting like a child. I just adore his work, because it's very childlike and there's just so much to be said for that innocence.

Lisa Belisle: And that again goes back to something very philosophical, that idea of the beginner's mind and always having that beginner's mind, even as you progress. So could it be that being someone who is mature actually is someone who has reached that state of understanding the importance of that?

Carol Bass: Maybe. I think you're right. I think we were trying to create a story, our life story. We were trying to create some kind of story about us. And I think I'm at the point now where I want to get rid of all those stories. You just don't need the stories. All you need to do is just be. Yes, I think you're right about the Zen thing.

Lisa Belisle: Well, that's an important thing that you're bringing up, this idea that narratives can be very useful for a time if they help to get us going through life. But then at some point a narrative can lock us into a place that we don't belong anymore.

Carol Bass: Deepak Chopra is one of my people I listen to. I listen to many gurus, and he says, yes, we've all created the story since time began. And I remember at some point he said, we should forget everything that we have ever known, even what the Egyptians taught us. Just forget it and just start where you are. So I'm really happy to be here. I'm just happy to be here. Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I'm happy to have you here because I think you and I, our lives have touched at very interesting and important points along many years. And I think that's one of the reasons you're one of my favorite people, because of those touch points. So important places for me, and you remind me of different aspects of myself from along the way. Do you have people like that in your life?

Carol Bass: Sure. I have so many, but you're going to ask me and now I can't think of any.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I was kind of helping you to say Bob, but I guess he's with you all the time, right?

Carol Bass: Yes. We have a good time working together. I have a wonderful friend that I first knew when I came to Maine, Peggy Hodgkins up in Wilton. And we actually drove up to see the leaves up there the other day. And Peggy was at her old house. And so we stopped in and we just had a marvelous time. And it was like we had always been together. So she's definitely one. Then I have Sue, Gary, who has always been there, and just so many people. Oh, Tom Higgins, who's an incredible artist. He was at the University of Maine at Farmington, and he was very special in my life. And there was a professor at USM that I can't remember his name. But yes, many people have been my mentors in Maine mostly, I think.

Lisa Belisle: So I wonder if it's almost like when you listen to a piece of music and it reminds you of a place in your life that you once were. I wonder sometimes if we get together with some of these important people, if it reminds us of a place in our lives that we once were in and simultaneously who we once were and now who we are.

Carol Bass: Yes. It does. And it used to do that more, say 10 years ago when I was in my sixties. Right now I feel like I just want to be here. I don't really want to remember anything because I want to start today, today, right today. I was never a history buff or interested in history. It was always contemporary English, whatever. I'm reading a contemporary story because I want to be right here, right now. So I'm sure that I will leave here and think about millions of things to say, but yes.

Lisa Belisle: Tell me about your children.

Carol Bass: My children are simply incredible. I am in awe of them. My son, Sam, is in Boulder and he's the funniest person in the world. And he has a beautiful family. And then my daughter, Hannah, is in Brunswick. I'm lucky that she's right here in Maine and she's wonderful. She works for Cianbro. Then I have Molly who's in Connecticut, who married a sculptor and teaches at Choate. And then I have a granddaughter, Ruby. I have just incredible family members. So I'm really lucky, very lucky.

Lisa Belisle: Do you think that having a parent who is an artist in any way influenced your children as they were growing up to approach life differently than perhaps having a parent who does something more traditional?

Carol Bass: I think they have a lot of fun. And I think they have a great sense of humor and a great love of life. And I think that we did a lot of things. We climbed mountains and we skied every week. We were always out in the open and I think that makes a difference. I think we were very, very lucky to be in the beauty of Maine. I thought when I had children in Maine, I thought this is great, they'll never leave Maine. And then Sam is in Colorado. I think a lot of people go back and forth from Maine to Colorado and whatever, but yes, I think they might end up in Maine. It's just got this beautiful pull on you.

Lisa Belisle: What does Ruby think of Maine?

Carol Bass: Oh, she loves it. She loves it. She loves Boothbay.

Lisa Belisle: As you've come back to Maine and you left Littlejohn, that's where you had been, you're on this island and now you're inland in Pownal. Was that a conscious decision to go away from the coast?

Carol Bass: No, it was not. Nothing I do is a conscious decision, and Bob can tell you that. We had sold our house on Edisto Island and it was the end of May and we're packed up and we're driving to Maine and I'm looking for places to buy in Maine. And Bob is driving. I'm looking on the phone and I see this land out in Pownal. I'd never been to Pownal. And it was in a pasture and I said, we need to buy this. So I called Brenda Whitney, who's here on the island, and she got in touch with the realtor there. And I said, you need to go see this, Brenda, please. She went to see it. Just beautiful, Carol, let's get it. You need to get it. So, thinking about this in retrospect, the traffic that is on the coast of Maine now is very impressive, and there's not that much traffic in Pownal. It's pretty quiet and I'm in a pasture and I can see the entire sky. I can see the moonrise and the sunset and the sunrise, and it's just, I'm just floored. It's so beautiful. So no, I am not sorry to not be on the coast, and now we get to the coast in the off season. So yes, I think it's okay. It's all right. I think I could be almost anywhere in Maine and it would be all right. I think so.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I think what you're describing is very true. It's that Maine is so varied in its topography that you can be in one place and it's beautiful for one reason and be in a different place not too long after that, and it's beautiful for a different reason. I love this.

Carol Bass: I love this, the stories of the people, driving around through small towns. And we were driving yesterday and there's just a cute little tiny house. And it's sitting this far from the road and it has the chairs on the front porch and they're just, you know, it doesn't matter. It's the people. It's the people.

Lisa Belisle: You mentioned the people before and yet you weren't able to quite put a descriptor.

Carol Bass: I don't think I can do it. And I think it's okay. And that's a mystery. And I think that's all right. That's what turns me on, is the mystery. And that's why I have to paint. I think that's why I had to paint, because it bubbles up inside of you, you have so much emotion that it has to come out somewhere. And so it comes out in painting. If I had known all this, I could have worked on giant sculptures and huge things. I love sculpture and I love chainsawing wood and things like that. But now I'm doing my small paintings. And as soon as things settle down with this house that we built, maybe I'll get back to my large paintings. And I hope to do that because I hope to have them at the Portland Art Gallery, some big paintings. So anyway, I'm so excited to be a part of the Portland Art Gallery. It really is inspirational. Oh, it turns me on. Thank you.

Lisa Belisle: Well, tell me about that. Why the Portland Art Gallery? You could have chosen any gallery in Maine.

Carol Bass: Well, because Kevin Thomas called me and said, "okay." And I said, well, why not? It's time. We had been renting a place in Harpswell for a year while our house was being built. And I had painted there and I had so many paintings that I couldn't even walk around the house. And Kevin called at that time. And I thought, wow, this is great timing. I have a ton of paintings. Let's get something going here.

Lisa Belisle: So you had a lot of paintings that you had created up in Harpswell and you decided to affiliate yourself with the Portland Art Gallery. And it makes me wonder, was there something that at that moment caused you to want to touch base again with this artist community in Maine?

Carol Bass: Well, I know several people at the Portland Art Gallery, people that are my friends and that I admire, and I thought, well, this would be a good place. This would be a good home because I would like to be around these people. I think the connections of the people also turn me on. I think it's so important to have connection, and a family. And that was very important. Coming home to these people was very nice. It was very welcoming. And I was kind of worried about coming back to Maine, you know, what am I going to do? But I think that's the adventure. Life is an adventure. So anyway.

Lisa Belisle: You and I had a mutual acquaintance many years ago, Laurie Hadlock, the artist.

Carol Bass: I want to start crying.

Lisa Belisle: I was always really impressed with Laurie because she had an illness that she pushed through and she kept painting and she kept creating beauty in a time that obviously was very difficult for her and for her family. Do you see that this is something that artists often do, is create a space of beauty in a life that might not be feeling so beautiful?

Carol Bass: Oh, I think so. Well, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2002, and I know Parker Hadlock, Laurie's husband, called me, I don't know, this is about maybe five or ten years after. And he was so distraught that Laurie had this. And so I kept in close touch with Laurie. And she just plugged on through. And I talked to her a lot, all the time, telling her what I'm doing and can she help me, can she be with me, like I'm plugging through this MS. And I'm stomping through it, and I'm thinking that, okay, I'm taking back this power, I'm going to do it. And I know that if I can keep on painting, I can keep on going. So yes, I know it was a struggle for her. I know it was very much a struggle. We used to talk all the time on the phone when I was in South Carolina and draw for each other back and forth. So we really inspired each other all along. She had such a great smile and presence. Yes.

Lisa Belisle: Does having had that diagnosis given to you, does that create this need or want to remain in the present?

Carol Bass: Yes, I think so. I think definitely. I'll tell Bob sometimes, Bob, I feel like I'm going to die. I know I'm going to die tomorrow. He said, Carol, we're all going to die. But I think I'm going to die tomorrow because my body is feeling so horrible. I can't function. And then I start painting and I forget it. I forget about how I feel. I start painting. And I know when I start painting, it's a spiritual thing. When you paint, it's a connection, it's an outright connection to God when you're painting. And I think people don't talk about that all the time. And I think we need to talk about that more actually. Because it's exactly a connection to God. There's something inside of me, I don't know what it is, but there's some light and it's godlike. I'm not a religious person, people say this, I'm not a religious person, I'm a spiritual person, but painting is a spiritual phenomenon. It is. It's a real gift. And I'm so lucky. And I think the MS actually made me study my painting more deeply. Yes, I think so.

Lisa Belisle: Do you think that you were connected to this godlike energy that you've been describing before you received the diagnosis?

Carol Bass: Lisa, I think that's wonderful that you asked me that, because I think I was five years old, and my mother had just built a house in Bamberg, South Carolina. I'm on the floor, I'm looking out the window and there's a man walking by with a cane and I had as much empathy and compassion. And I knew it as a five-year-old that I was made of empathy and compassion. I felt it. And my whole body shook all over with that empathy. And I didn't quite know what it was, but over the years I think I had the energy, and I would actually shiver, and I don't know if anybody else has, I've never talked to anybody about that, actually shiver like I was cold, and it was because I was so excited about the beauty of life. I couldn't believe it. And yes, it started, I think, at an early age. I used to drive home from Georgia and I would surprise my mother, I would ring the doorbell and I would surprise her on the porch, like with a cutoff of a pumpkin on my head at Halloween, just to, I would do things like that, kind of crazy things. And yes, I was kind of a goofball. But I think there's some energy. And in the past years I've always talked about what I was doing and I was painting the vibrations. I know that Van Morrison has a song, "Into the Mystic." I think that the mystical experience is very well and alive in me. So I'm not worried about that. So yes.

Lisa Belisle: You and Bob are very different. And I should say, I'm talking about Bob Newton. You've been with Bob for a long time now.

Carol Bass: Almost thirty years. Yes.

Lisa Belisle: And you have very different approaches to your art. I also think to your life in general, but specifically to art, and he works in wood and things that are more concrete and tangible. Obviously paint is very concrete and tangible, but there is definitely an abstract nature to the work that you do. Do you think that's a yin yang effect that you've experienced with one another as artists?

Carol Bass: I think you immediately could tell, if you see the writing, if he signs his name and I sign my name, you can right away see our personalities. And we very rarely get upset with each other. And we work well together. And I think we've been very fortunate that way. We're excited about being in Maine, driving around, seeing the beauty, and we have the same kind of interest, the kids, the family. So yes, it's been very nice being with him, finding him.

Lisa Belisle: And you also each have an experience in business, and as a small business owner, Bob has an experience as an attorney. So you both have lived fully in the world and then created your own worlds that you've meshed at this point.

Carol Bass: Well, yes, except right now we're trying to figure out what to do next because he actually sold his whole shop, which was beautiful, and my studio, down in South Carolina. And he has no shop now, he sold all his tools. So we're trying to think of, well, okay, what do we do next? And I think that's a good thing to say, what do we do next? I've always wanted to gather people together and talk about ideas. I've wanted that all my life. And we did that for a little while with Bill Gregory and a few friends there. And I kind of want to get that going again. It's just talking about what's important in this life, and laughing and just being together. So I don't know what we'll do. Right now he's gotten two or three huge paintings out of the shed and put them on the back porch ready for me to start painting. So I can paint there until the snow flies. And then there are a lot of people around that have barns that I can rent space in for the winter. So we'll see how it goes. So we do, we work very well together.

Lisa Belisle: Do you yourself miss having the business that you once made very successful?

Carol Bass: It was never my business. I remember I was renting a studio when my former partner came into the studio. The first time I had finally gotten my studio and he said, you can't do this, we just started a business, we started this business. And I think now I'm finally getting back to that studio that I always had a long time ago. And I'm just trying to paint a painting where you feel in your heart that you get it right. It's just finally getting it right. We're weird people, all of us humans are very weird, the things that make us tick and keep us going.

Lisa Belisle: So for you, Maine Cottage was more of a detour than anything else.

Carol Bass: It was the detour. Yes. I definitely, the colors. I know also when I was five years old, I had the color red. I pressed down, my mother had kindergarten, and I pressed down on the color red and I saw how deep and beautiful it was. And I knew that was my favorite color at five. And so I knew that color meant a lot to me, and color right out of the jar, not mixed up with anything, right out of the jar. So I always knew that I had compassion and empathy. And it's amazing that you have this, that you're a good person. You're a really good person. We're reading Marcus Aurelius right now, and we have been off and on for a long time, about everybody's born the same way, but it's the decisions that you make along the way that make the difference, the decisions. And there's sometimes tough decisions, but you've got to make them because it's your life. So enough of that, Lisa.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I'm learning a lot. I mean, what you're describing is something that many people work through in their lives, is detouring and realizing they've come to a place that doesn't feel comfortable and then finding their way back, which is not always easy.

Carol Bass: And realizing that you can't stay in the same place. You've got to fly. You've got to fly.

Lisa Belisle: And that's all part of that conversation we were having earlier around narratives. And if you decide that you are going to latch onto a narrative in a way that no longer suits you, then you can't fly.

Carol Bass: True. Definitely.

Lisa Belisle: Carol, I'm very excited about the opportunity to spend time with you today, but also to continue to work with you now as an artist at the Portland Art Gallery. I'm very excited to have you join the Portland Art Gallery group of artists. They are really wonderful people. You can feel the energy.

Carol Bass: Yes. Thank you. It was wonderful to be here.

Lisa Belisle: Well, thank you for continuing to paint and for continuing to be my teacher. And I'm sure that you teach many people who have conversations with you in your way. So I encourage people who are interested in learning more about you to go to the Portland Art Gallery, to at least see your art. They can certainly see your art and learn about you in that way. I've been speaking with artist Carol Bass. You can see her work at the Portland Art Gallery. We are thrilled that she is back in Maine and more to come in this next iteration of Carol Bass in Maine. Thank you, Carol.

Carol Bass: Thank you.