Lead Singer, Sailing Captain, and Acclaimed Landscape Painter: Meet Maine Artist Joanne Parent

Hello, I'm Dr. Lisa Beil. And today I have with me in the studio artist. Joanne parent. Thank you for coming in. Thank you, Lisa. So I learned right before we started talking that you are a performer and a singer. Mm-hmm tell me about that. Oh, wow. Okay. Um, I've been performing since middle school and then decided to, I was in the eighties, you know, the kind of new wave movement. So I decided I started a new wave band in the eighties, graduated singing in a band and then moved out of this area that I was, that I was growing up in, in Belfast, and then went down to Portland here and was in another band or two, and then moved mass and just kept going with it. And in, throughout my life, I've been lead singer songwriter for about 15 or 20 different bands ranging from a three piece all the way up to a 12 piece recently, a 12 piece right before COVID. Yeah. So still with eighties Tunes or have you progressed? I mean, the stuff I write is just my own, but, um, we ended up being a band that would be like out playing for big venues. You know, we had a horn section and I had two backup singers and we'd, you know, we'd go to weddings and it's like a wedding band, like the movie it's like that it's really fun, but it was like a lot of work you put in like a six or eight hour day, and you're exhausted afterwards. So it kind of went by the wayside. When, when things started ramping up. After my kids got a little older, my artwork started really taking precedence over anything else. And then I haven't done it since, but I still miss singing. Now I just do a little jazz. And So do you feel like you'll go back into it If I do anything, it'll be jazz cuz I really, really enjoy singing jazz just myself and a couple of other guys like guitarists and pianists. Yeah. So it's fun. Tell me it's a good release. Tell me a favorite song. Oh my gosh. I'm jazz wise. I like to sing like all of me. It's a really good fun, happy song. It's a really popular one. I like singing anything that can Cole and Natalie Cole. Probably my two faves. Yep. How do you feel about Belinda Carlisle and the Gogos Love? Love, kidding. Anybody like that? Love them all. I love 'em all. I, I love Madonna, all that stuff. It's really a big part of, you know, we grew up in that. I grew up in that time, you know, like I really enjoy, um, it's all coming back now. Cindy, LAER gotta love her. Love her boy, George, all that stuff. I was on my way down here today and the Thompson twins came on the radio. I was like, oh my gosh, that's Right. A little hold me now. I love it. Yeah. I love it. It just makes me laugh. Makes me smile. Yeah. Eighties music was a lot more happy. Yeah. Fun. It's kind of dark sometimes now I think the new stuff A little bit. Mm-hmm totally. Yeah. My first concert when I was in eighth grade was Carlisle and the Gogos at the civic center in Portland. Mm-hmm and I had a lovely off the shoulder mint green top, which was, um, accompanied by a lovely mint green mini skirt. And I just thought I was all that I, I honestly I felt like, okay, my life is started Now. I'm cool. Yeah. My first concert was Billy Joel when I was 14. Oh my gosh. I love Billy girl. He played Him Portland and he was literally, it was like, I mean I was 14, so it was one of his, you know, very early albums. Like The stranger, Maybe one of those is when he was, uh, he was wearing a, I'll never forget it. I was 14 years old and with my best friend and we just thought he was the coolest thing. And he was wearing, you know, a tux and high top black converse. And I thought this is the coolest guy in the world else. I was no world. That was my first concert. And then it was the B 50 twos who I'm still in love with. So I've been to lot, uh, Billy Joel, Annie Lennox, all that stuff. But I haven't gone to a concert in a long time. I know that's unfortunate. Yeah. I haven't been for a long time, you know, I don't think I'd be going anytime. So, oh wait. I did go take my son, eldest son to a ghost concert right before COVID, which is a metal band and they all dress up like the lead singer dresses up like a Bishop, like a satanic Bishop. It's really odd. I was like, well, sure I'll go. But it was fun. I good time. I really don't get it, but okay. So that's the last one I've been to. Wow. Yeah. Life. Well, it sounds like there's music in your future. Yep. And in my family, all the people in my family are musical. Okay. So you'll be, you'll be singing again at some point. Maybe I will. And also you have this long line of people kind of pushing you in that direction. Oh yeah. I still get people calling and asking for me to sing jazz at their restaurants or, you know, brunch and stuff like that. So I'm sure at some point I'll, I'll do it for fun. Just for fun though. Yeah. Well, so that's interesting. So we just spent all this time talking about you as an artist singer songwriter. Mm-hmm , but there's this other very different side of you that I would assume would need a much more quiet and introspective setting in which to engage in art. Absolutely. You know, I like to be completely alone when I paint, but I also listen to music when I paint. And so the music selections, when I paint, you just never know, like it just, you know, you never know what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes it's, you know, 80 sometimes it's the cure when I'm in like a dark mood. And then sometimes it's like, you know, impression is classical for a week. I don't really know. It's just like I have to, I listen to music a lot. When I paint, I find that really, um, a part of who I am to be musical all the time. So I use it, use it to work and it really does influence paintings. It's weird. Yeah. That's what I find. I mean, if it's, if I'm painting, if I'm in, if I'm doing an impressionist classical mood, things are much more dreamy and you know, light colors come out. Cuz I am very intuitive as an artist. My painting style is I never even really know where I'm going with it. And I did say that in my remarks of my last show, I just, I start where I think I'm gonna go, never ends up exactly where I think I'm gonna go or even close to it. But that's part of the process for me. So it's all fun. I enjoy it. You know, some days are complete and utter failures and I just go, oh, and I'm just gonna turn off the music and leave the studio. Same kind of thing is make writing a song. You know, sometimes you like get the, you get the hook right away and then other times nothing's happening. So it's kind of the same. It's weird. Good parallel. I could think in art and music, it's all, it's all art. So, So looking at the piece with us in the studio, first of all, what's this one called Homage. And, and what, what type of music were you listening to? If you can remember when you were doing this piece or what might you have been listening To? I most like, I mean, it, it, this piece took like, you know, three or four weeks because my work takes a lot of different sessions to make it come to life. You know, I might do one really good session for like a good four or five hour period and feel good about it. And then, you know, it gets too wet and I have to put it away. I usually work on four or five pieces. So this one could have been, it definitely had classical in there had some jazz, would've had some jazz in there. You can see that it actually, this painting was much brighter at one point, much, much brighter. So it was a homage to an artist that I love. That's why I call it homage. And I, um, I kind of have always looked at his work and, and like striving to be able to get the, you know, uh, ethereal kind of lighting and also the mood that he creates in his work. And I just, that's what I was kind of going for when I saw it. I was like, oh, this is a homage. This, this artist I love so much. So that's why I called it that, but it went through, this, went through a lot of, uh, different iterations before it came to the right one Who, who is the artist? His name is, I just forgot it. Hold on. You asked me and now I forgot it is, um, a, how do I say it? Adriano Ella. He's amazing. He teaches online courses. He just has this kind of like ay ethereal kind of muted tones, which is what this ended up being. But, uh, I usually paint much brighter, but I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna really see what I can do with these muted tones, which is hard for me to be anything muted. I don't do anything really muted so that was, it's hard for me to kind of do like less he's like teaches a less of a palette, you know, I'll have literally the colors of the rainbow on my, in my palette. And he teaches like do four or five colors, the whole painting. So that's been a challenge for me, probably always will be, but that's him Adriano. He's amazing. Everybody should go look at his work. Yeah, he's big. So how do you get to the place of using fewer colors? If you're typically a bright many colored palette artist, how do you pair down? It's really hard for me. It quite frankly, is a big struggle. I try so hard to be more keeping all of the colors and the tones congruent in the painting. And it's really hard cuz I'll, I'll just wanna throw in like a bright turquoise or something or a pink or something or peach. I like peaches, but it's it's if you paint with 12 colors, typically it's really hard to only paint four. So it's a challenge. I don't, I haven't really felt like I've really gotten it yet. I'm still working on that. So, you know, I think that I'm getting there and, and the pieces will, as I progress, I think, speak for themselves, cuz I think you can kind of tell when an artist is painting with less of a palette, um, because the painting is more harmonious in color. Yeah. Like I don't use color wheels or I don't use any of that stuff. Like, you know, if you ask me what the, all the color wheel, all the colors in the primary, I know what the primary colors, but you know, and I don't do the, you know, balance, you know, purple and yellow. And I don't, I don't think about those things. It just happens. So it's just a weird, intuitive process, I guess. So you, you have to actually trust yourself in order to engage in an intuitive process the way you describe you have to trust that whatever it is that you're intuiting mm-hmm is the right thing at that moment. Yeah. And sometimes it isn't sometimes I like, uh, this last round of, uh, of pains I did for Portland art gallery, I did all of the paintings underneath were bright orange. I'm talking like, like almost a Niani orange, which is not like me, but I wanted to try something different. And so I didn't know where it was going and sometimes it would work and sometimes it just wouldn't work and I have to repaint over the canvas and then, and then move on from there. But trying to Intuit the work as it comes is a part of it for me. So I have hung up all these, all the paintings, all around me in the, in the, in my studio, I have a small space. And so I hang them up on the walls. I have high walls and I just look at 'em, you know, and I might work on one for three weeks or two days and then be like, Ugh, I don't wanna see that anymore for a bit. And I just have to kind of kind of revolve the work, if that makes any sense, just kind of move it different and then different paintings will give me an idea to go back to the other one will get me excited to go back to another one. So it's definitely a, I never know what's gonna happen process. I just don't know. I know where I want to have happened at the end, you know, for feeling for, for myself and for the viewer, but I never know how I'm gonna get there. I wish I did. It's actually somewhat comforting to hear you say this because even though I do not paint, I find that I need to have multiple things open all at the same time. And so I'll be in a situation. People are like, oh, multitasking's bad. You can't get stuff done that way. I'm like, but, but I have to, I have to have lots of going on because it kind of enables me, I focus on one thing and a different part of my brain is focusing on something else without my even really realizing it mm-hmm so I, I, I, I can't, I, I don't like the idea that one can only be linear sequential in order to kind of achieve success. Absolutely. I mean, I've been called, um, actually a friend of mine said you're, you're like an ameba last week. And I said an ameba thanks. You know, I was like, what she said, you're like, you're not, you're not linear. You're very, you don't, you're your form is constantly moving and shaking. And you know, you're, you're a thinker that thinks outside of the box constantly. And she said, and I, she said her words were, she's a therapist. She said, I invite you to think about thinking more in the box sometimes. And, and, and having a little bit more direction because you have that, you know, kind of a D D personality where it's squirrel, you know, or, or, you know, it's, it's, I also think it's a mother. I mean, I'm a mom, I've got two boys that I raised largely on my own. Their dad was a traveling sailor. And so I was with them 24 7, and he was gone for large periods of time. Um, so I had to really learn how to multitask with a four and a seven year old boy, that energy. And I think that is kind of how I still live, even though they're are both out of the house now, still that way, you know, multitasking is a part of, kind of my personality anyway. So I wouldn't wanna, I kind of wouldn't wanna be, like you said, like, I can't just do one painting from start to finish right now. I'm trying my very first online art course, people have been asking me to do them for years. And since COVID, especially, I don't really wanna teach classes in person a lot. Like I used to teach like 10 people at a time, but I just don't really wanna do that now. So I've been really having a hard time with this course because my son is, is a filmmaker and a photographer and he's doing the filming of me. So he's trying to get me to explain my process from like, start to finish if a pain he's like, mom, can you just explain it while you're like Bob Ross? You know? And I'm like, I'm really not very good at doing that, to be honest. I mean, I try try, but it's like, okay, why did I do those two colors together? Um, trying to explain that when it's intuitive is really, really difficult to do, breaking it down into like segments and thinking of it as a class where you're trying to pretending you're trying to teach someone that's never painted before. Maybe how did I get from blank canvas to end? I usually have about six paintings going, you know, so this is a, this has been taken a while this class. So Also related to how much time you've spent training in how to do this. So it's intuitive, but it's also, it's an intuition that you've trained that you've spent years and years kind of going, developing, developing. Exactly. So I would think that would also be one of the challenges of trying to teach this, because you're, you're saying here person who is learning is something I have spent years doing, and that's how I know to do it, but I'm giving you suggestions as to how to start doing this now. Right. And when I've taught before, you know, I say, I asked the students, so what did you think of the class? This was a six, six day course, you know, oh, you're such a great teacher and you spent so much time with me. And I said, yeah, well, thank you for that. That makes me feel really great that you got a lot out of it, but, you know, did you find what I was instructing made sense? Because if you're just trying to explain the Intuit process, it's very, it doesn't, it's hard to put into words really. I mean, I can't, I still can't. I still have a hard time doing it. So this online course is gonna be, I haven't looked at it yet. So once he gets it done, I'm gonna have an interesting time watching myself go from beginning, middle to end and seeing, you know, kind of watching myself teach this is, is gonna be interesting to watch. Also you seem like a pretty interactive teacher Very much so. So I would think that teaching to a camera or teaching to yourself and being filmed would not come as naturally To you. It's not natural for me. It's not. And I, you know, he's saying, you know, he is telling me to give more dialogue in the background or turn toward the camera because I, you know, I'm like, oh yeah, you know, if I have a co, if I have someone in my room, I'm constantly with them at their easel, you know, looking at what they're doing, giving them instruction when you're trying to do it with no one there, it's just so alien. It's just weird. And it definitely stifles my creative process, having a camera on me the whole time. I love that, Which is fascinating again, because you're a performer. I know I don't, I don't know what to say. It's just weird. Like, it's almost like when I get up on stage, I can switch goes off. I become, you know, singer extraordinaire MC our extraordinary MC have a good time tonight. Ooh, we're gonna have fun. And here's our dance hits coming up. Right. It's like a different personality comes out when I, and I've told a lot of people this, including Kevin and Emma, a million times when I'm doing, getting ready for a show and I'm painting work for the show and that's okay, I can do that. And trying to have a cohesive unit, a body of work is great. As soon as I think about going up there in front of all those people, I just start to profusely sweat. I feel like one of those nightmares, when you go to waitress or bartend and you have got forgotten to get dressed, you know, like one of those nightmares or something like, you know, I forgot to, I don't know. It's just like a nightmare of being naked out in front of all those people. It's a strange thing for me. Like this is from my soul, I guess, is the word, like my universal connection. My soul connection singing is, yeah, it's a soul connection, but it's like, uh, a different me. Does that make sense? It's not really the, the mean here. Yeah. So, so when you're engaging in painting, mm-hmm and that aspect of your art, there's a, an intimacy that's involved and it, it causes you to need to, to be vulnerable because you really need to be open to your intuition. Yeah. And then getting up in front of people to describe that vulnerability, I can understand why that would be really challenging. It is very challenging for me. And, you know, I get up there and I think I know what I'm gonna say. And then I just kind of do the freeze thing, but I make it through, get through it as best I can. And then I'm just so glad when I'm not talking anymore, but it's a it's I can't explain how it comes out. And I think that that comes across to, to the listener is, you know, Joanne's, you know, this is how she paints, you know, I try to explain how I do it and why I do it. What, how important it is to me in my life is creating this, these pieces and having that in my life for myself, my personal life and my personal coming back to my center and, you know, really being better to myself right out of the rest of the stuff that we all do in our lives is taking that time when you're in the studio and you listen to music, that's your time. So there is a connection there with the, with the, with the power, the universal power that I like to tap into, I try to tap into and that's, and I think that's it for me just trying to connect to that part of myself. It's like when you're meditating, you know, same thing. Well, it makes a lot of sense because I think when you try to put words to something that's not easily verbalized, then that would be really frustrating. Mm-hmm I mean, so I remember when I used to, I used to sing and I would sing in mass and I'm, I'm a lapsed Catholic to be clear. But, um, the reason I did it was because it was something so profound about the connection to something that was much bigger than me. And I don't know if somebody said to me, Hey, could you talk about your singing when you're in front of a group at mass? I don't know that I could have said anything other than I feel this larger connection. It feels deeply spiritual. I think that would've been the end of my conversation. Yeah. It's the same kind of thing. That's exactly the same. It's like, how do you explain the feeling that you're having when you're emoting through any kind of art form? I, I, I don't know how to put that into words. Really. It's just kind of a part of what you do. A singer is coming. Gural coming from your, coming from your, you know, your, your vocal chords and, you know, you're, you're pushing out that energy. This is almost kind of drawing the energy out from a different place. Does that make any sense, say, but we're still vibing with the same universal energy. It's just a different way of expressing it. I guess. I, I don't know. I don't know what it is. It's always gonna be a mystery. I think, I don't know if I'll ever figure it out, but that's the journey, isn't it trying to figure it out. That's why we do what we do. That's why we're creative people. Yeah. I mean, I think it is actually kind of interesting and fun to kind of keep getting a little closer and a little closer and a little closer to being able to actually describe that, that energy or that set intangible, something that exists that is causing you to be able to engage in art, whether it's in your case, you're painting. And in my case, you know, my singing was always, you know, during mass was, sounds more similar to what you're describing in painting than what you're, you Know, describing, you know, how sometimes when you sing, you start to cry, you know, that feeling. Yeah. When you sing, you get all, you get choked up. Mm-hmm sometimes if I'm really singing and I'm really feeling it, I can't sing anymore. It's my vocal chord just tighten right up. That's the feeling. Yeah. That's that connection, right? That, that like, oh, okay. That spiritual moment. And that's what, you know, this also does in a different way, but it just, you know, have I painted and cried? No, I haven't cried in the middle of painting, but if I do a piece or I'm starting a piece and I have that moment of like, oh, that just happened. I definitely have had tears come to my eyes. Like I have been struggling with this portion or this, this breakthrough that I wanna have. And you know, usually it's right that moment before you just wanna take a big brush and just paint right over the canvas is when that, that happy accident happens. Right. Which makes it to me, that's the, that's it, that's the journey trying to find that breakthrough to the next level. Right. I don't know. People ask me all the time. They say, so I really feel like your artwork is just, you know, you're channeling something. People will say that I'm like, oh, you know, you're talking to people that are interested in the work or you're friends. And I don't know where you come up with these things or you're just channeling this energy. Yeah. I think we're all everybody's channeling energy all the time. You know, it's just tapping into that, um, creative energy flow. It's like, like yoga, yoga, meditation, same kind of thing, which I do love doing as well, even sailing, you know, sailing for me, it was a real big part of my life for a long time as a profession. And, and I tried to travel the world and I, I got to see countries from, you know, yachts that I would never be able to have on my own. And I was working on for someone else, but it was wonderful experience, which always, I think, which really drives me to paint the big ethereal sky ocean, bigger than life. The big moment when you look out there and you go, oh my, oh, this is amazing being alive. That is it. That's it. And, and I can, I can see that. I mean, there is when I see the piece behind us here and also other pieces that you've done there is that sense that it's, it's kind of that breakthrough. It's that, that moment. And so I think that what you're describing that is that kind of that strong connection, the moment where you feel like I could weep, you know, this connection is Here. And sometimes, you know, you do weep. If you're on the beach and you see this sunset and you know, you're in the Caribbean, you see that green flash, which very few people get a chance to see in their lifetime. I have cried seeing that, you know, you see something that just hits you the right way. And it just is that I like to call it the aha moment. That a moment, right. That is it. That's it. If you could, if I can paint that sound and that feeling, then I have reached my that's what I've always want, not my plateau, but reached my goal. I'd love to be able to paint that aha moment. Every single one of my paintings, it doesn't come out that way. But I like to think that I would, could get there someday. Yeah. And is that one of the reasons that people like your work so much is, is that their sense that this is the aha moment in that That is the reason, I mean, that is what I get. I get that via email text on Instagram, you know, they say the, what you get, what I see when I look at your work and how I feel is AMA. I love the way I feel when I look at your work. And that's the feeling that I want is people to have that like, oh my gosh moment, like, wow, aha. You know, that, that angel singing from on high or whatever you wanna say. I mean, however you wanna put it. That's the that's, that's what people feel like when they look, I have a, I have a client that I did a commission for 15 years ago and I, they still have the painting above their mantle and the woman is a healer. And she says, I, I, she does, uh, you know, she has like meditations and she does classes in her living room. She's I she's like Joanne I've looked at that painting thousands of times. And every time I look at it, I see something else. Like some kind of, she, you know, she says she sees like, you know, angels or whatever. I mean, I didn't paint angels. Trust me. There's no representation of angels in there as far as I can see, but she sees it. She said, I don't know what is channeling through you, but it is happening, girl, you keep going. And I was like, wow, that is so cool. You've had that painting for 15 years and you still see something different when you look at it. That is, makes me get a little teary eyed talking about it. But that's kind of what my journey is, I think, to connect with people that way. Yeah. So in things that I've read about you, things that we've put out there through the art gallery or in other places, it's always interesting to me with, I, it starts with, I was born on an air force base. Gosh, can I just say, I really need to rewrite that thing. I had somebody wrote that for me and I feel like it's not me anymore, you know, years ago was me, but I think I need to rewrite that. So tell me why it was you years ago. Because, because it, I thought that my artist statement for the gallery would be my whole life encompassed in a few paragraphs, but why I don't think that needs to be that I think it used to be who I am as a person, not where I was born. Not that I was born in an air force base or not that I did these 20 things and that I have kids. I mean, I wanted to be about who I am as a, as a human being and how I connect to the planet. So I think that that exact thing that you just said, the very first line, I read it and I go, oh, it's a little cringy. So I don't want that anymore. It's not the same. I don't feel that way anymore. I don't want everybody to know every little thing. You know, some, the person that wrote it, I read it and I was like, that's great. Thank you. You kind of gave them the, the well rounded vision of who I am as a human being, but it's not really how I wanna represent represent myself now. So I think that's some work that I have to do is, is re have that rewritten and, and do it, how I feel, who I am today, not 15 years ago or 12 years ago when I wrote it. So, I mean, I think that's very fair. I mean, it's not, it's, it's not untrue now anymore than it was when you wrote it, or when you were born, when you were, you, you were born in an air force base. I believe in Nevada, In, uh, Omaha, Nebraska Omaha, Nebraska was one of the end states. I'm sorry. No, that's fine. I haven't been in Nebraska only. I mean, I don't even think I've ever been, I mean, I was born there, but I don't remember any of that. I never least once at least for a few days anyway. Exactly. Yeah. But, but I think that's an interesting point that, um, there is, I, I think it is sometimes for us to look at a piece on the wall and say, well, that is that artist. That is that person, but that is not that artist. That is where that artist was at that moment in that artist's life mm-hmm . And so what you're describing is I have evolved as an artist and I want my artist's statement now to reflect who I am today. Exactly. After the kids had just left the house after, you know, I, I let's see, I sold a painting to a woman, I don't know, a couple years ago. And she looked at, I, I, I had, you know, staged some work for her and she said, is this an earlier piece? And I said, yeah, how did you know that? She said, I can just tell she's like, you just, you just change your, your style has changed. And every artist style changes or else we'd be stagnant. Right. And, you know, I've developed a very distinct style now, but at, you know, you never know where it's gonna lead or, you know, you, where you've come from is a big part of who you are right now. So I wanted, I wanna talk about who I am now, not when I was, you know, 30 seconds old on an air force space. So yes, I will be changing that very soon with some help from a professional, probably I'm not a writer I'm long winded. Well, and maybe that's why they, they, they started with that one salient point. They could boil it down to that. That was the aha moment. But it was probably the aha moment more for your mother than for you. I think so. I think that's exactly what it was her a one of her aha moments in her life. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that is, that is very interesting. Cause I have spoken to in particular writers before who have large bodies of work, I will read through their body of work and I'll refer back to an early piece and that that's so far back in their, in their memory that it's almost like, well, I really don't wanna talk about that now. Cause that's not who I am anymore. Right. And I, and I think that is an interesting, uh, scenario that artists find themselves in particular because unless you live your life on Instagram and it's out there in perpetuity, most of us do not live our lives so fully out loud. I think mine sometimes is too out loud. I've had to have to, had to reign it in, even on Instagram, I've been, you know, these days you have to be on social media. You have to do that as part of growing a