She Started Art School at 50. It Changed Everything.

Lisa Belisle: Hello, I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to or watching Radio Maine, our video podcast where we explore and celebrate creativity and the human spirit with a Maine connection sponsored by the Portland Art Gallery in Portland, Maine. Today it's my great pleasure to speak with Susan Newbold, who is many things, but foremost among them, she is an artist, she's a teacher, she's an author, she has a past history as an interior designer. She is connected to our Booth Bay and our greater Maine community. She comes to a lot of our openings and that's how I first met you. So thanks for coming in today.

Susan Newbold: We were just standing there at the painting looking at it and admiring it and started talking.

Lisa Belisle: Isn't that a great way to connect with people?

Susan Newbold: That was very special.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah. To just have that art in front of you and be like, "Oh, this is a really nice piece."

Susan Newbold: And discuss why you think so.

Lisa Belisle: Yeah, exactly. So tell me, I mean, you've been teaching for a long, long time and you also, you're an artist yourself, you're a printmaker. Does that kind of parallel looking at art and creating connection with humans, is that something that you see often in your past?

Susan Newbold: Yes. I love communicating with ... I love having students. I love sharing that of all the aspects of my work that's been the most meaningful, the teaching. And so yes, and you get to know people by going to those openings and seeing the kind of work they do. And I've picked up teachers, I've picked up students. It's just been a wonderful part of my life that I've loved and pursued for a long time. I lived outside of New York for many years and I was in there maybe once every two weeks and going to galleries and museums, but you don't get the kind of interaction you get here in Maine. There's this wonderful community of artists here.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I agree with you and I have to admit, I've been to galleries and museums outside of Maine, but the one that I have most connection with obviously is the Portland Art Gallery because it's my family business. But one of the things that I noticed in learning about you is that you made a pretty dramatic life change when you were 50. You said, "I have this background in interior design, but I'm going to go to art school. I'm going to get some additional training here." And it sounds like that's actually worked out really well for you.

Susan Newbold: It really has. It was a big leap of faith. I'll never forget my first morning in Boston. I moved to Boston to go to the museum school and I never forget my first morning when I'm standing there in the MTA and everyone's all dressed up like I always was every day for my design business and I'm in jeans and a sweatshirt and it was very humbling and it was exciting and also daunting, very daunting. I was the only one there without a lot of ear piercings and purple hair. I eventually did find quite a few people my age and so it was not as abnormal as I thought it was initially, but it was great for me. It just propelled me forward in a way that I just needed and wanted to. I wanted to go back to school for a very long time and it just was great.

Lisa Belisle: So what was the sort of dividing line for you? What caused you to think, "Oh, I'm going to start this whole other path even though I have this successful business that I've been doing for years."

Susan Newbold: Making money. Big difference.

Lisa Belisle: Okay. Yeah. Right. So what was the thing that caused you to decide that you wanted to show up with people that were a little younger than you and had piercings and different color hair and such?

Susan Newbold: Yeah. Well, it's a complex answer to that. I actually had been married for 27 years and we had a really lovely marriage, two daughters who we adore. They were out of college. I was just done working so hard and I wanted to pursue this art, which I had kept going on ever since college and just taking classes and doing shows, but nothing, just fitting it in in between. So I just felt like I just had to follow my heart. And unfortunately it ended in divorce and I moved back east and my husband continued to pursue his career, which was really important to him and the whole image part of it was critical to his wellbeing and I just was ready to be done with it. And it just felt so good. It was traumatic in many ways, but it felt like just the right path. And my advice is just that you've got to listen to your heart and it's going to lead you in ways that you are uncomfortable.

Lisa Belisle: That's a big life shift.

Susan Newbold: It was a big life shift. Yes, it was. So fortunately I'd worked hard and I had some financial resources that made me feel comfortable and I loved Boston. It was really fun being in a big city and not knowing anyone. And so that part was all very energizing and the school was fabulous. The museum school is wonderful and they have excellent professors and they pushed you so hard, which was just what I was looking for. One day you're a loser, the next day you're on top of the heat. It was just kind of an emotional rollercoaster.

Lisa Belisle: I hear that a lot from people who have gone through specifically art training, I mean other types of training, but that you really have to get to an okay place with getting feedback.

Susan Newbold: Yeah, you really do. You think you're pretty good and you really aren't. What happened to me was I went from doing a lot of very pretty landscapes that people wanted to buy to doing more conceptual work, which felt really interesting to me. So that was a huge shift. I still adore the landscape and that's still where I gravitate. But just saying, "Well, what is this about? What are you talking about here?" It doesn't mean anything if it's not about anything. So that was okay. I started digging deeply and it was about something. It always is.

Lisa Belisle: So why for you is printmaking, book binding, I mean, it seems like when I talk to people, there's usually something that kind of pulls them in a direction and that's why they end up doing the type of art that they do. But for you, you've gone not only into book binding and printmaking, but you've also gone into teaching and teaching journaling and that other side of art that I don't think is quite as common as I'm going to be a landscape painter.

Susan Newbold: You're right. It's more anal. I really like the precision of bookmaking. There's something that was very appealing to me. I took a class up at Haystack that was just life changing with Siri Beckman and Hannah Henchman who are quite famous in their field and they were just so inspiring that I just couldn't get enough of that after that. But that was my first kind of introduction to it. And the printmaking is just such a welcome relief from painting because there's so much about it that's really accidental and it's all about layering and learning a new technique that's going to push you in another direction. And it's complex in a way in a different way than painting. So that was always really refreshing to me. So then I started just combining everything, which was really fun. And I think I include this in my survey, but a friend of mine came to my studio and looked at some of my journals and she said, "This work in your journals is some of your best work. You need to blow it up and get it in your show." I was going to have my first solo show in Connecticut. So I found someone who was capable of doing that. They did a great job and I did some huge pieces from these little illustrations in my book. And so then it started taking on real meaning. And I'll never forget when I walked into my show and all of my journal framed pieces were in the back room and in the back room of the gallery and I was just shocked that everyone was in there looking at those and reading the text. It was kind of a voyeur experience for people, I think. And so then I started taking it more seriously and also wanting to teach it and share it because it was so exciting and so doable. It combined writing and drawing and painting and just in a way that pulled it all together, which was very gratifying to me and continues to be. It's been like a long time now, like 25 years and I still get such a kick out of it.

Lisa Belisle: So have you always had a love of books and journaling?

Susan Newbold: Yes. I've always loved memoirs and digging into the past and why something's meaningful to you. Yeah, that's been a passion of mine since I was a little girl, I think.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I read that you would often go on restoration projects at historic sites like Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, Monticello with your mother and obviously there's sort of a past present connection in that sort of work. Do you think that that has contributed to this?

Susan Newbold: I do. I do. Yes. My mother was in charge of a good friend of her put her in charge of all the restoration in Virginia, the major homes, which was a huge leap from this little family business to that. And she's working for the Rockefellers and we were the lucky recipients of going along and we got parked at the documentary film at the front for a lot of Saturdays while she had to do her work. But yeah, growing up in Virginia, it's very steeped in history and that was an important part of our education and our upbringing. Yes, that's a good question. I never put that together. Very insightful.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I wouldn't have actually ... I mean, there's so many interesting things that I was thinking about when I was reading what you provided in the background information to us, but I wouldn't have necessarily kind of tied it back to history. But it's interesting when you brought this book, Reveries, Journaling in Place, which just, I love the cover. I'm showing it to the people who are watching this on video and it's got all these sort of bound handbound

Susan Newbold: That's a Coptic binding that is on all my books. Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: Well, why don't you show it to the people who are ...

Susan Newbold: Okay.

Lisa Belisle: You can see it and people who are listening on podcasts will just have to go to the YouTube video so that you can actually see it for us. But tell us more about this.

Susan Newbold: Yeah. I just brought these at the last minute. Well, so before I go anywhere, I make a book like this. I take the covers, their cardboard. I cover them in prints usually. And this actually was a residency that I went to in Ireland several years ago and I write down my thoughts about what's going on and just the joy of the landscape.

Lisa Belisle: These are beautiful.

Susan Newbold: And this is what I blew up, but this is what I started blowing up. Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: Okay. And so is this watercolor?

Susan Newbold: I use everything I can get my hands on is pens and watercolor and colored pencils and stuff I find on the ground and yes. And then I really enjoy drawing a lot.

Lisa Belisle: I mean, these just bring these locations to life in a way that, I mean, I think words can be very powerful, but this combination and your color and I mean, I'm not saying not just landscape, but landscape and words and journal and this sort of tangible feel of the paper.

Susan Newbold: Yes. I love all of those things you were just saying. And I guess the journaling has given me permission to use everything I can think of and that's always what I wanted to do in art. And they'd always say, "No, no, no. We're studying watercolor. No, we're doing oil paint." And I always want to go, "But why can't we just mix them all up together?" So that's kind of what these are about. And they're wonderful souvenirs. They're a great way to just keep the experience with you after it's all said and done. I love to go on artist residencies. I've been to about six or seven in France and New Zealand and Italy and all over and each one is different and culturally just so enriching. I can't say enough about that experience as just recommendation to artists. A teacher I had one day, I said, "Boy, I'd love to go to an artist's residency, but I don't think I can get in. " And she goes, "That's what everyone thinks." So she said, "Just apply. Just send your work in. You'll be amazed." And I did get in. I didn't get in every time, but I got in most of the ones I applied to and they were unique and wonderful and I'm so grateful to her for just saying, "Just go for it. " And you meet artists from all over the world and keep in touch with them. I'm going to visit one of my friends I met at my first residency in Bordeaux this summer and it just opens up your world. And I have my mother to thank for that. She always was saying, "Now, get yourself an interesting summer job. Don't just work at the dime store here. You got to get out of Dodge and do something different and interesting." And so that created some pressure, but it was really just so right and I've always sort of continued feeling that way that I don't feel comfortable when I'm ... It makes me uncomfortable to feel comfortable about just my life path. Does that make sense?

Lisa Belisle: You don't like the grass growing under your feet. No. Is that what I'm hearing?

Susan Newbold: Yes.

Lisa Belisle: I can actually relate to this.

Susan Newbold: I'm sure you can.

Lisa Belisle: It's an interesting thing because I love being places and I love being present enough so I can sit and paint or I can write, but I also love to get up from those places and move somewhere else. Me too. Me too. It's this sort of dualism that is always an interesting ... Like you have to sit down long enough to actually get your watercolors out or to put your pen on everything. You do.

Susan Newbold: There is a being there that's important, right?

Lisa Belisle: This combination of words and imagery is something that I hadn't really considered as a specific art form really until I think there are a few different ... So we have Missy Dunaway who works with us and she creates, she does a lot of artist residencies and she does these wonderful drawings. She did a whole thing with, I think, Moroccan rugs that did-

Susan Newbold: Oh, that sounds great. That's on my bucket list.

Lisa Belisle: Well, so hopefully next time you go to the art opening at the gallery, you'll see Missy because you can talk to her about it. But we also have somebody that we did a series called Artful Escapes and he's an architect and he showed me his journals where he's painting things in between the words. And as somebody who grew up loving books, I never would've thought, "Oh, you can put paint there too." You don't have to just keep your lines on the page and keep

Susan Newbold: The words on the lines. Yeah. I grew up in a very conservative educational system and that's all I could think about the whole time was, "Oh boy, I got to bust out of this.

Lisa Belisle: " So clearly you and I have some shared feelings around this, but if you're in a system and it's the only thing you've ever known that here's a book, you open the book, it always looks kind of the same, the words on the page and words are great. I love words. Yeah,

Susan Newbold: Me too.

Lisa Belisle: But if you only ever see something one way and you only understand it to be that one way, how do you come to understand it diferently and how do you give yourself permission to understand it differently?

Susan Newbold: That is a really good question. I think everyone has that desire somewhat to, is this all there is that's that famous song You just follow that a little bit and just start applying to stuff. That's a wonderful way to start. There's a whole raft of information about artists residencies or writing residencies. I'm on a board for the Vermont Studio Center. I've been on it for 10 years. It's one of the oldest artist residencies in the United States and they're a visual artist and writers and sculptors and they're all just thrown together, 40 of them for a month and it's just a great way. And everyone comes out of there sometimes something quite different than what they went in as. So just reaching out and don't worry about being rejected because you will get rejected, but you just keep trying. I know I got into there the first time because I applied three times.

Lisa Belisle: And they finally just got tired of sending the letters that said no.

Susan Newbold: They really did.

Lisa Belisle: I mean, I do think that that willingness to be persistent and say, "All right, I don't know why I'm doing this, but I'm going to keep showing up and doing this anyway." I think that's certainly a part of it.

Susan Newbold: I definitely think so. Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: I also wonder if, I mean, the class that you teach, this sort of committing to some sort of external form, the images that are coming through to you, the words that are coming through to you, that ongoing commitment, the illuminated journal, that must somehow rewrite the neurons in our brain to enable us to sort of understand the world differently.

Susan Newbold: That is the fun part of teaching that class. You can see that excitement start to happen. "Oh, I can do this. Oh, look what happened here. "And we mix things up in a way. I teach the drawings so that it's about marks and not about outlines. When you give people the permission to do something that they've been afraid to do for a very long time, it's exciting to see and everybody has it in them to come up with something and they do a great job and they're amazed at themselves. The key thing is to say at the beginning that we're not going to be comparing ourselves to each other. Everybody has a unique vision and you're going to be discovering yours and they do. So it's exciting.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I'm thinking about as we're talking a mutual acquaintance of ours and that is artist Joan Fischer who works with the gallery with her art. So she's an attorney. People who watch or listen to Radio Maine have heard our conversation before with mine with Joan and she creates these beautiful fish, painted wooden fish. I know. And I mean, it's fantastic because I mean, I love all kinds of art. So literally I can go and-

Susan Newbold: She's found that niche.

Lisa Belisle: And that's exactly what I was just thinking. It's a fish, it's made out of wood and she paints these amazing colors and designs.

Susan Newbold: She does a great job.

Lisa Belisle: Yes. But that came out of years of this parallel, like, " I'm an attorney on this side, but over here at an artist.

Susan Newbold: "And she was frustrated by that. She painted in my studio. She's always had her own little place, but we've worked together a lot and I've always told her," This is not incidental. This is really exciting. You need to pursue this. "And she definitely has that kind of drive. So it's been a little frightening I think it is for everyone and because when you're so comfortable about what you did, I was a respected interior designer and suddenly I'm an artist. What? It's an uncomfortable situation, but it's also very freeing. Yeah, I'm so proud of her.

Lisa Belisle: Well, and to think that you and she ... I mean, you kind of helped her with that be like, " This is something that's special. You should do something with this the same way that you had teachers who said to you, Just apply to the art residencies.

Susan Newbold: "Yeah. No, for someone as confident as she is, yeah, she needed a lot of encouragement, but she had a mother who was a wonderful sculptor, so she had a background.

Lisa Belisle: I don't think we're saying anything, just for those of you who are listening who are like, " Why are they talking about Joan Fischer behind her back? "I think Joan actually said these sorts of things to me and with me, so we're not really telling her story for her, but I do think- I

Susan Newbold: I watched her video. Yeah, it was great.

Lisa Belisle: Okay. So you can verify that we actually had this conversation.

Susan Newbold: You certainly did.

Lisa Belisle: We're not talking about her without her knowledge, but I think my point-

Susan Newbold: But it's Inspiring.

Lisa Belisle: It is inspiring. And I think that this is the sort of pay it forward thing that I see a lot in the artist community. You and I were both at this art opening, it happened to be the May opening last night at the art gallery and at the art opening, Paige Eastburn O'Rourke was there. She's friends with Rick Hamilton whose pieces were being who were on the wall. But then also she has been a mentor to Sarah Ingraham, so one of our younger artists and then we had other people that had connected with ... So the artist community, I think the importance of that can't be understated.

Susan Newbold: Absolutely not. And you just reach out in every way you can and there are so many avenues to get in there really are.

Lisa Belisle: So if you had people who are interested in the work that you're doing now, but maybe they're not quite there, they're not quite ready to take your class, they're not quite ready to commit to art school, what are some initial steps that they could take? They're not going to apply to the artist residency, but how could they-

Susan Newbold: That's a very good question. Well, I lived in Santa Barbara for 10 years and that's when I was first thinking like, okay, there's more the remodeling houses and interior design in my life. I know that. How do I integrate myself? And so I started taking community at the Santa Barbara City College and they had that here, community classes, just sort of get your feet wet kind of things. But I met some really interesting artists and we ended up forming little groups and yeah, it was great. And I think that's when I really started thinking of myself as an artist. And I had this epiphany one day I was parking my car in the lot and the guy, the parking attendant said, "Hey lady, are you an artist?" And I went, "Yeah, I am an artist." And I think just the acceptance of that side of yourself, just going with it. And who cares if anyone likes what you do or that's so unimportant, it's just so good for you. It's so healing. I mean, art is really healing. I've been in some very sad situations and when I go in my studio and start to work, they just lift right away. I mean, it's just that wonderful inspiration and something that's always there. It's the rock in your life. So it's worth pursuing. It's worth putting yourself out on a limb.

Lisa Belisle: So as you're looking at your life and where you've been so far and you've been all over the world, all over the country, you've met so many different people, you've had different careers, you've had different educational experiences. Are there any gaps that you're still thinking, "Oh, I need to go over there and explore that thing?"

Susan Newbold: Oh, sure. Yeah, there always are. You mentioned Morocco. I love to go there and pursue that whole line of pattern and yes. And I'm always looking for ways to reach out to students. That's really important to me and mentor them. And so I think when you focus on giving, it's going to happen. When you focus on yourself like, "Oh, poor me, I don't have a very interesting life and what should I do? " And the answers are rarely there, but I think if you really reach out and think about the healing aspect of art and that's what you have to give and that's what you want to impart to people, there are always avenues. So I think that's been key to me whenever I've gotten sort of Hitting a wall, I just think, okay, what am I supposed to do next here?

Lisa Belisle: And I've been wondering because I know that you have this connection to Booth Bay, East Booth Bay and that there seems to be a little creative group that-

Susan Newbold: Very much so. Yeah.

Lisa Belisle: But how did you end up there of all places?

Susan Newbold: Well, that's an interesting story. My second husband and I, we had a business of remodeling homes and we had to turn them over pretty quickly for the capital gains thing. So we came to Maine for a board meeting of a camp where we're both involved in and we wanted to just kind of look around Maine and we went to East Booth Bay and met a wonderful general manager of the hotel where we were staying. He said, "Well, why don't you look for ... " We told him what we did and he said, "Why don't you look for a place in Maine to do? " And at the time we were living in Santa Barbara so that wasn't exactly didn't make a lot of sense, but we started looking and we'd always been in love with Maine. And so we found our house that we are still in and we never turned it over. We just all fell in love with it. It's over a hundred years old and Maine has got a soul to it that's unlike any place I've ever been. And I think that's really what drew us here.

Lisa Belisle: Well, it kind of brings us back to this idea of you go and you travel, but then at some point there's a return and it sounds like Maine has become that return for you.

Susan Newbold: It really has been. Yeah, it has been. I love traveling, but I'm actually not as drawn to it as I was before. I really think there's so much just right in your own backyard that's so amazing. I mean, a day like yesterday when everything just lit up, it's spring and Maine when it finally comes is quite extraordinary.

Lisa Belisle: Yes. I mean, when we were driving home last night

Susan Newbold: Your husband was telling me it was so beautiful.

Lisa Belisle: I mean, absolutely. The light coming in from the other direction and shining on the trees and it only does that for a very short period of time every year.

Susan Newbold: Yeah, that magic time of day. Yes. Right.

Lisa Belisle: Well, it makes up for all the deep march days. It does. Don't have quite the same level of light and loveliness.

Susan Newbold: We definitely pay our dues, don't we?

Lisa Belisle: Yes. Makes it worth staying though this time of year.

Susan Newbold: It does. And I thought winter as bizarre it was this year, it was so gorgeous. It was so beautiful.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I'm wondering, Susan, if you would like to share your website so that people who want to learn more about your work can find you.

Susan Newbold: I would love that. It's very simple. www.susannewbold.com.

Lisa Belisle: I've really enjoyed our conversation tonight.

Susan Newbold: Me Too. You ask great questions.

Lisa Belisle: Thank you. You answered them very well too, so I appreciate that.

Susan Newbold: I learned a lot from answering your questions.

Lisa Belisle: Well, very good.

Susan Newbold: Thank you for having me.

Lisa Belisle: Well, I need to stop now in part because I need to go take this beautiful book that you brought me as a gift and I just love books so much that I think my husband, he's like, "You better not give her that book before you start talking because she might not want to have the interview."

Susan Newbold: I sort of debated about that, but it seemed like the right time.

Lisa Belisle: I think it did. It worked out very well. Yeah. Yes.

Susan Newbold: Thank you. And I appreciate your enthusiasm.

Lisa Belisle: Well, it's organic. It's not forced in any way whatsoever.

Susan Newbold: Oh, thank you. It's in its third printing now, which I never thought would happen, which is kind of exciting.

Lisa Belisle: Well, it's very beautiful. So I hope that those of you who are listening and watching, you will take the opportunity to go to Susan's website, as she's already said. It's susannewbold.com, correct? Maybe by her book, Reveries: Journaling In Place by Susan Newbold. Maybe take a class with her, however your entry point is. Maybe you can come join us at one of the art gallery openings on a Thursday, the first Thursday of every month. It's been my great pleasure to speak with Susan Newbold. She is a painter, printmaker, bookmaker, teacher, artist of so many different directions that she's gone in her life, but really wonderful to have her here today. I'm Dr. Lisa. You've been listening to her watching Radio Maine sponsored by the Portland Art Gallery in Portland, Maine. Thanks for being here today, Susan.

Susan Newbold: Thank you so much, Lisa.