Maine Healthcare Professional Laura Mrazik Discusses her Enduring Passion for Art

Today I'm speaking with an individual that I know in a slightly different capacity, but I'm going to introduce her as an emerging artist, and her name is Laura Merak. Thanks for joining us today. Yes, thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here. Now, Laura, I can't mysteriously, um, talk about my different capacity without acknowledging that you actually have a master's in public health and you're a, um, I believe you're the director of telehealth. Is that your title? Correct. The manager of telehealth. Yep. Manager of telehealth. And I, I won't out the major health, um, system that you and I both work for, but that is your , that's your alter ego. It is. That's right. So tell me about the art since that's really what we're here to talk about today. Yeah, so I, uh, reached a point, you know, I loved art as a child and went through school. And then when I decided to, you know, begin pursuing a professional career, went to college and was, you know, playing soccer, really putting my focus, I put art to the side and was focusing on those things to build my career. Um, you know, built a house, got married, had kids, and then by the time my daughter was one, I sat down and thought, Hmm, well, you know, I've done a lot of things on my list, but now and I just had an inkling to return back to painting and to kind of see how that felt. I wanted something where, you know, I was a mother to two year very young children and wanted to be able to do something that was a creative outlet where I wasn't leaving my kids. You know, they're sleeping. And I just started 20, 30 minutes a night after they went to bed, and it really became, it just ignited something that I had forgot. I didn't realize I'd been subdued for so many years and I really played around with a lot of different subjects and found flowers and portraits are my passion. Um, and often, you know, my, throughout my life, my grandmother is an artist. She goes to Monhegan Island every summer with her, her, all of her friends, and they do plain air painting, um, throughout the summer. And my brother, my older brother, um, was an art major in college. So I've kind of had that artistic example set for me throughout my life and it's just been a wonderful outlet and learning opportunity and it's been really wonderful. So I can also, I'll back up a little bit and, and ask you if you knew that art was something that you really had this passion for, then what caused you to make a decision to go on and get, um, a bachelor's? I think you have a bachelor's in science and then you also have a master's in public health. So you, you really went, um, in a very more science and public health direction rather than going in art direction? Yeah, so two, I had two, I would say passions as when I was, I was younger, one was being artistic in any way I could, and the other was athletics. And I played soccer in college and I went to University of Farmington for my undergraduate with a community health education degree. So I thought I was going the fitness, personal training, wellness route. And as I got into a role in that, right out of my undergrad, realized I wanted to do something. If I was going down that route, I wanted to do something at more a global level, hence going for my master's in public health. So it really, one thing that's been so wonderful about this painting is, you know, throughout my adolescence thinking I, I needed to pick a path. And now being able to show my children I have a career, but I also can pursue my creative passion. It doesn't, they don't have to be mutually exclusive. I can do both and it can be very fulfilling. Well, I'm also really interested by this idea that you went back into painting, um, as the mother of really two very young children. And I know you said you do this while they're asleep, but, so here you are, you have a pretty serious job and you have two young children and you're thinking, oh, well I'm just gonna pick up painting again. I mean, what what kind of got you to that place where you thought, oh, this is a good idea? I, I think one thing that's so beautiful about painting is there are no rules. And in parenting and in my career, you know, in healthcare we're surrounded by red tape and we have to follow rules and regulations. And at home I get everyone to bed. There are no rules. The canvas is mine. I can create what I like. Um, this painting here is my most recent, and it is representative of helping my son navigate through the transition to kindergarten. It is so overwhelming and we've only been able to take it one day at a time, and I just felt the urge to do this larger. I haven't done a larger scale one flower ever really. And I thought, you know what, we're just gonna take it one pet at a time, just like my son and I are taking it one day at a time. And when you break it down into smaller chunks, it just was a way for me to translate the way I was feeling in something I didn't have control over to something that I could control and have a visual representation of it. So from a, from a technical standpoint, is this, did you do this from a photograph that then you were able to work from or did I do tend to, um, I have done some still life. I typically work from a photograph I take. Um, this is from actually, um, an Alaskan, a Penni farm in Alaska, very remote Alaska farm. And, um, they do subscriptions. And so once a year I get their p and e sent to our house, um, in sort of a one sample. And then we take a ton of photos and, and work through them. And sometimes I work from the farms photos that they share with me as references as well, Well, I could recognize it as a p and e. And I was wondering if this is something that also you do, do you garden as well? You know, I don't, um, I, my, my husband has the green thumb in the family. I'll say that. . So he raises the flowers and then you're able to take the photos of the flowers and you can, you can then translate them into art. Right. I hope to get into gardening more in the future. Well, we've already, we've already acknowledged that , you have a few things going on right now, so you know, that additional thing, you probably could wait a few years. Um, agreed. So what is it about flowers that speaks to you? I think the, the simplicity and I also, I have found even before I was painting, I have a few pieces of art that the simplistic beauty of a flower I can look at. I'll give an example of I have a, an artist who I've admired for years and I have one of her paintings in my home. Regardless of my day, I can go and have a complete visual escape to that piece. And, um, you know, I have done some pieces before. A lot of the florals I tend to do as well are, um, not this one in particular, but you know, with a very moody, dark background. And a lot of times the flowers being emerged from the darkness, you know, acknowledging that there are balances in our day or, you know, any given day we do have those darker moments and there can be brightness in beauty e even emerging from that. So it's really, I think the power of nature and a simplistic beauty that flowers can give us just a momentary escape from our day. And when you're looking for flowers to paint, do you, is it simply the ones that your husband has put in your garden or do you go to other places? Are there, um, have you ever been to the botanical gardens, for example, up on the coast of Maine? Yes. So, um, it's, my favorites are pans. Um, every year, once or twice a year we go to the botanical gardens, we take the kids and, um, the kids help pick out which flowers they think, you know, might look best. And one other thing just about setting an example as an artist for my children as well is because I paint while they're sleeping, they wake up and see what mom's done overnight and it's like magic all of a sudden disappeared the next morning. So it's been a really wonderful thing to share with them and for them to see the process and, and then, you know, on weekends we paint together and, um, it, it's just, it's been really fun to do with them as well. I love that. So instead of being like a Christmas elf or you know, like a shoe making elf all, you're like, you're like an artist elf and the next day Yeah, there's something beautiful there and your kids get to experience this when they wake up. Exactly. So what about the portraits? What is it about doing portraits that cause to you? So it started with painting, you know, as I first started and was just practicing and not selling artwork, anything, it started as painting people that I love and have a strong connection to. And my favorite portraits to do are either the, you know, of course individuals who I know and care for deeply, but also when there's a backstory in understanding who that person is, there's something so beautiful with taking hours upon hours to look at every wrinkle in a person's face and think, you know, how did they get that, how did they get that scar? And, and at what point in their life did that emerge? But having that give my grandfather for an example, he passed maybe eight or nine years ago, and I spent 20 plus hours looking at his face. And I had, I hadn't looked at his face for that long in so many years. It was just a beautiful experience to feel like I was spending time with him just looking at a picture, but spending so much time making sure I represented every detail of who he was through a painting, you know, making sure he still had that same twinkle in his eye. So, um, one other thing I have done with portraits is I really am passionate about art being accessible as well. So, and I'll say painting for people is one of my love languages. Perhaps I, I'll say once a quarter, think about a person in my life or someone who I think may really benefit from a portrait and I do sort of a surprise portrait that I just sent to them. Um, it could be of a loved one or their children. And so it's been sort of a, you know, it's, it's become a little bit of a small business, but also this opportunity to just be able to spread love and light through artwork in a way that's surprising and let someone know I've been thinking about them and thought it might be something they didn't enjoy. So as part of your business, do people commission you to do portraits? They do, yes. It's been, um, it's something that, because I have other things to balance in life, I only take a select number at a time, but I'll, you know, say commissions are open up for a certain amount of time and then I'll close them up again just making sure, like for example, I have a handful by Christmas, um, but they're closed up close anymore and it's, it's intended to be fun, not something that is stressful. So, um, but it's, it's very envo enjoyable to do portraits. And when I do commission portraits, I want to know a person's backstory, what they meant to that, that person, a few key things about their personality. Um, it really helps, I think, translate it to something meaningful. When you decided that you wanted to start doing art again, did you seek out any kind of education? I know I've talked to other artists that took online classes or, um, even in person classes. Did you, uh, do any of that? I have not. I have a number of art and painting books. I'm, I tend to want to jump to where I have a specific question. And so I find reference books very valuable and helpful. A lot of, a lot of color theory and, um, books on composition and color mixing specific to portraits. So, um, I definitely say I've referenced more written material and, you know, they're of course YouTube videos online if there's a specific question, but I've really tried to, um, learn by doing and just kind of making an exploration and each portrait, each painting I learned something new, something either that worked really great or that I'm learned a lesson from and will change the next time. Um, and I also have a number, you know, on the, the social media community, Instagram specifically, there's a vast array of artists who are sharing their lessons, learned their tips, and I've really made a lot of great artists friends through that community as well and just had some really great, um, partnerships to be able to ask specific questions or, or just share stories and ideas with. So give me an example of a, a question that might arise for you that you would then go looking for an answer on. Sure. Um, so one thing I'll just think of, for example, in, um, flowers wanting to get a specific, I may have seen, I think I had seen somewhere, um, perhaps a, a video of someone quickly glazing doing a glaze over a painting. It's something I had not done before. So wondering how I could add a glazed to add sort of a shaded effect to something that you don't wanna paint over completely. But, um, so really techniques or specific things that I may have seen done before or I recognize in a painting and haven't applied myself, but those sort of things can be helpful when it's a specific technique you're trying to learn or or achieving a specific color perhaps, um, in the color mixing process. So one of the things, one of the reasons I like to do these, um, have these conversations is because I learn myself regularly and a question that I've been wondering about is, is based on color theory. So when somebody says color theory, what, what does that, what does that mean? So to me, and I am not necessarily the expert on all things color theory, it's always, always learning progress. But the, the concept of color theory is really, you know, how complimentary colors or the balance of light and dark, um, and using different hues and shades can impact what brings a certain aspect. Either what makes a certain painting look more appealing to the eye, what makes it more visually interesting, what draws your attention more to a specific piece of the painting and what can be really your focal point. Um, and so there, uh, there's a lot of depth to color theory and I really, in my two years of really diving into this have just scratched the surface, but there's really a lot of wonderful resources and that's, that right now is probably the part that I am trying to learn more about at this point in my journey. Well, that's actually really helpful for me because I mean, I'm, I'm starting with an understanding of it's pretty basic. So to even under, to even know what it is that you are looking to better, um, incorporate into the work that you're doing is helpful to me. Um, who are some of the resources that you've looked to? What are some of the books that you've found helpful? I would have to look back at what, um, at the titles and the authors of them, to be honest with you. I will say when I first started, so my brother was, uh, he was a double English and art major and when I first started I would have a portrait and I would ask him, what color should this background be? Cuz I, I hadn't even gotten to that point yet. I just wanted to focus on, you know, being able to appropriately capture a nose accurately. Um, and he would always gimme something and, and as soon as he, you know, I may have painted a, a yellow background and he said, well, why don't you try stage green and it would look great. Um, and then, you know, after a few months I really started to explore in, you know, why are those colors? And, and it really comes back to color theory and you know, how a different balance of a complimentary color can really make your entire painting look more visually pleasing to the eye. So when I look at the piece that you've done, um, behind you mm-hmm. and all the pinks and the, and the depth that you've created, what types of color theory would be applicable in this case? So this painting is mostly pinks and there's not a ton, but there are bits. So I would say pink is, you know, in the red family and there's pieces of green here. Um, and green is a complimentary to red also, when you are mixing colors to create a darker shade and you're trying to get a neutral, it took me some time to, to create a shade shade that doesn't just look gray, where you added black. So when you're trying to create a neutral that balances with a colored flower like this, you can mix the complimentary. So a lot of these shaded areas are pink, mixed with green, um, to create that shade without making it grayed out. That's fascinating. So even in your non-science work, you're actually doing a little bit of science. Do you make it possible to do your art? Mm-hmm. ? Yep. Science truly is everywhere. science is everywhere. Well spoken. How about the portraiture? I know that figurative work is actually quite challenging. It's not as easy as people might think to draw a nose or a hand. Um, so how do you work on that yourself? I really focus on, so I paint in acrylics, so I, part of my process right or wrong, it's just something that works for me and that I really enjoy in the process is I paint in layers. So I first, when I'm doing a portrait, sketch out, you know, the lines of what a portrait will look like and then I go through with an underpainting. So that's like painting in the shaded area. So I can capture the values with one single color. And then, you know, once you have the values, the dark and the light and the shape, it's much easier to then go in and only focus on the specific colors you're putting in each area. And even then I end up putting on maybe two or three layers until, and it's me looking at the painting, looking at the reference until I feel like it closely matches, um, to, to what I'm trying to accomplish. So if you're working in layers, is there also a kind of a timeframe involved? Because I'm assuming you have to wait for things to dry, Acrylics dry so incredibly fast. I typically, back when I first started I used what's called a retarder that can kind of slow down the drying time. I don't even do that anymore, uh, because I often don't have long to paint at night. You know, some nights I have 30 minutes, sometimes I may stay up for three hours and paint in one session. If I'm working on one side of the face and I go, let's say I'm working on the nose and I go down to the chin. By the time I get back to the nose, it's typically already dry. So That's much different than working in oils. So that's good for me to know. So if I were to, um, have a conversation with a mother of a young child who needed to paint after hours, then I would certainly suggest acrylics might be a better option than oils. If, if they enjoy painting in layers, I'll say I personally have not explored oils yet and my grandmother, who I mentioned is an avid oil painter and it's something, another thing someday I would love to explore. I'm really enjoying acrylics right now. So talk to me a little about your grandmother. Did she paint when you were growing up and going over to her house? Did you get to see her doing this? I don't know that I ever saw her actively painting. She does a lot more, she does the plain air painting where she's out in the scene. She does a lot of landscapes, so we always had her paintings in our house of our family, home of, uh, she goes to Camden a lot and painting Camden and Monhegan. So we have a lot of, I have a few in my office that are just landscapes and buildings that she's painted. Um, and she had a, her studio space was a spare bedroom, so whenever we'd stay we would be sleeping in that room, seeing all of the works in progress at, at that given time. It was always really great to see and it really wasn't until I started painting up again that we began to talk about it. I think my brother probably spoke with her about art in years past and I just, it hadn't crossed my mind. I looked at it as something that was, she was so skilled that it wasn't anything I'd ever even come close to, um, to have the knowledge, to have an articulate conversation with her about it. But it's been really great to, to circle back to that. Now at this point in life, Have you ever thought about yourself delving into landscapes or doing the plain air work? I have done a few landscapes. Um, I, well I say a few, I've probably done 20 landscape paintings that I enjoy and, and those tend to be the pieces that fell out very quickly if I'm coming home, just from a creative inspiration standpoint. If I'm coming home after a long day, landscapes don't ignite that creative passion. Something about flowers and portraits and really interesting faces, does that. So I certainly do landscapes and I've done condition landscapes for people. It's just not the thing that I'm most onto. But I do enjoy them. I love, you know, ocean scenes, water scenes. I've done some woods, um, you know, my husband hunts, so I've done some wildlife scenes as well, um, that are still fun to do and explore different subjects and, and how the light hits, et cetera. Now you've mentioned your brother a couple of times. Is he currently working as an artist as well? No, he actually is the, I think his title is the director of operations for the Jobs marine graduates program. So he is, he double majored in English and ed education, um, to be like an English teacher. And then Art was his double major. So he's always been very creative. He made a comic book in college, a very, very, uh, creative and comical comic. He, he does a lot of sketching and he's actually translated it in a different way after having, he also has two children where he creates music, just records music, records sounds in his own time. I don't think he does much with them right now, but he has this collection of music and he was, he's always been very musical as well. So he still has that creative outlet and using his artistic talents just in a different way. Now I have the benefit of knowing your father cuz we also work with him in our health system, which won't be named, um, . Does he have any artistic, I'm, I'm poking around behind the scenes here. Does he have any artistic, um, sensibilities or No, no. My mother, so my grandmother was very artistic, is my mom's mother. And, um, my mother takes watercolor classes now, but it hasn't been anything, you know, aside from doing the crafts with us as kids and now with all of the grandkids. Um, but it, it seems that drive to create art has sort of skipped a generation it seems. So your father and your mother are creative in their own very special ways. That's right. , just not necessarily watercolors, acrylics or, well, I guess you said your mother's doing watercolors, but not necessarily landscapes, not necessarily plain air, but it sounds like creativity is emerging in, in other ways. Mm-hmm. . So looking forward into the future, um, how do you see your art being integrated with your professional life, Would you say, into this coming year? Well, just into the future we won't, we won't restrict it. Mm-hmm. . Sure. I think parallels, maybe, perhaps not integration, but parallels. You know, part of my work is finding how the specific telehealth focusing on access, so how telehealth may be accessible to more people around the world. Um, and in our specific communities I do want to focus on making art more accessible. So that could be having art that's available as note cards or things that people who perhaps can't afford a large piece of art but can still enjoy. You know, some people will just buy a note card and frame it so they can have something that they can look at that's visually pleasing to them, but they may, may not be able to afford, um, a large original piece. So having prints available, um, having, you know, something that's again, lower cost but more accessible and still being able to spread the joy of art. Cuz in, in my experience, the greatest art is something that really makes you feel something and it's, it's a shame if others can't experience that at any level. So I would say those are two sort of parallels. Um, it, the other thing about art integrating is I have a few paintings that I remember having a day at work in my office job where I was strung, we were hitting the barrier or strung up by red tape all day. And I went home and did a one session full painting. It was done in one night. I stayed up until it was done. And a couple of those are some of my favorite pieces and I just needed to release whatever I was feeling. We'd just been held under so many rules all day or things that felt like in that day they were insurmountable and just needed to completely release and create. So there are definitely paintings when I look at them. I remember the day I had at work that day, , um, and they just, they're more freeing that way as well. Yeah, you're raising something that for me is extremely relatable that, you know, what you and I are doing in on the healthcare side of things very much, um, sends your mind down a specific path. You know, what am I, who am I trying to satisfy? What, what are the regulations we're trying to deal with? You know, everything is, there's a lot of com compliance conversations and, and you're right, it kind of, it, it can twist your brain up into pretzels sometimes. I would say It can absolutely agreed. So sometimes I know myself, I, I come home and I un pretzel by having a conversation with my husband. I don't have the the painting yet. I have not explored that yet as my creative outlet. But is there something that you do, you know, once you've put the kids to bed and you're, you're ready to transition into the next thing, is there something that you do to kind of make that space for your brain so that you can move from one way of thinking to another? Um, I would say it depends on the day. You know, of course sometimes my husband and I just decompress from the day. Sometimes depending on the weather or, um, the time of year, I may go for a walk to clear my head before entering in that space. Um, or just exercising before getting into a creative space. Sometimes I even on my drive home kind of feel it. And, and I will, it may have been more difficult at first, but now I feel like I've gotten to a place where it could be a particular day at work and I may already on the drive home have in my mind what I wanna put on canvas because it's maybe has been in my mind for a while and it's just come to the service, oh, I think this would really translate well and this would make me feel better or make me feel some sort of a, a creative release of it varies by day. I'd say those are the things that in any given week could happen. Well, I appreciate your taking the time out of your very busy schedule to have a conversation with me and, um, I really enjoyed getting to know this, this other aspect of you. I also very much enjoy just working with you in our healthcare system. You do a wonderful job. So anybody who, uh, has a chance to meet us professionally in, in that sphere also know Laura is talented in many, many ways. Um, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to share your information so that anybody who wanted to look up your art can find you. Where is the website that people should go to? Sure. Thank you. And it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me. I can be found at www dot Laura Merak, which is M R A Z I k.com. Um, or on Instagram it's laura merak.art a r t. And um, happy to connect with anyone, neither of those places. So thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure and as always I love working with you. Well, very good. Well, I will see you back at work, but in the meantime, um, thank you. Those of you who have joined us for Radio Mae, I am Dr. Lisa Bilek and we have been speaking with Laura Merak, who is a wonderful artist. I encourage you to take the time to connect with her to learn more about the work that she is doing and, um, we hope that everybody takes the time to bring art into their lives.