 Aloha and welcome to the Creative Life brought to you by the American Creativity Association in collaboration with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Darlene Boyd and I'll be hosting today and our co-host Phyllis Please is with us. Phyllis joins me in welcoming our guest Noelle Mecca-Linden. Noelle is joining us from Northern Ireland. To date the Creative Life has taken our viewers on conversational interviews of renowned sought after researchers practitioners and consultants today we shall dig deeper into the heart of creativity as we discuss how the arts may contribute in meeting the social emotional needs of creative individuals and in particular the creative artist. Let's get started Noelle by asking you to talk about the uniqueness of the social emotional needs of creative producers and why you often refer to yourself as a creative catalyst and compassion advocate. Noelle. Thank you very much Darlene, it's lovely to be here. I suppose as an artist and a creative advisor and mentor to many other artists I feel really strongly that we need to really delve deep and support our own creativity and often we can burn out or simply self-destructive. We don't invest in our own creativity so for me as a practicing artist as an arts activist I know it's really really important to be in the company of creative people to inform myself about creativity but also in order to sustain and nurse me I need to take time to be creative and self-expressed and particularly during this pandemic if you like I felt it's really really necessary to invest in that and because of that I've become much more aware of the need to be self-compassionate before I could be compassionate to others. Noelle let me just begin and ask you to clarify and help me with something and then I'll ask Phyllis to chime in and talking with you. I know sometimes we often confuse the concept of compassion with sympathy and empathy they're all often tossed in with each other could you help us clarify the difference I have some suspicions but let's see I'd like to hear what you how you would differentiate those three for us. Well I suppose I'm a huge fan of Brené Brown and her conversations around the whole area of vulnerability and for me just to share and show vulnerability is a sign of strength. I think in terms of being compassionate and having empathy for others it's very very different from having sympathy. Empathy suggests a sense of connection a sense of real understanding. Sympathy implies that you are not necessarily on the same level or indeed seen as an equal but rather someone who is making a judgment that perhaps you are stronger rather than vulnerable so I think this idea of being compassionate and having empathy is something that we need to nourish and instill you know from a very very early age and continue to actually invest in that and invest in opportunities to show our vulnerability in safe places and I feel the arts have a huge role to play there you know in business and economics and cultural tourism and simply living and living a fulfilled life. I think that what really helps clarify as we move to empathy I know scientists will tell us that if you were truly empathetic we almost mirror the neurons if in fact you slam your hand in a car door you know if we're being empathetic we'll feel that pain but then compassion really bumps us into a higher level and I know that as we talk about your personal challenges that we'll be dealing with compassion so I really appreciate that you took the clarity of your definition is and enhancing the concept of vulnerability is really important to me and I know to Phyllis to Phyllis. Yes thank you Noel and Darlene and I'm thinking about the title of today's show how creativity is a healing art and as we talk about compassion and empathy we I know we're going to be talking about how you use creativity to transform however the pain is showing up into something that shifts us to healing and even flourishing and that creativity is a medium by which we can move from the despair to the divine and I wondered if you could share with us your personal story around that and then of course your craft how art was your creative medium if you would. Okay well I have been very very fortunate to be to have been involved in arts for almost 38 years. I trained as an art design teacher I have taught in schools colleges universities and in the prison sector so I know firsthand how important creativity is and to me it's almost like a muscle it's not necessarily exclusively a tool it's a way of being and I'm a huge huge follower of Sir Ken Robinson and was privileged to be awarded an individual award for my services to creativity from the work that Sir Ken Robinson did in Northern Ireland so this idea of unlocking creativity and sharing creativity and nurturing creativity is really really important and I am the house of seven children and I have been very much immersed in the in the arts and the cultural life for many many years not just in my working life but also in my voluntary work and also in my community and commitment as well and that's something that I've learned at Ada was a child and as a member of a very loving family. Unfortunately like many families we have been brave by suicide and I lost my first sister 22 years ago at Rushing and it was just it was a just a horrendous experience to lose a sibling at any stage in life is very very difficult but to lose a sister and through sudden death is really really really just hard to comprehend and the weight of grief and the void that's left behind is is unimaginable. I suppose my first role was to as the eldest child was to continue to support my parents and the rest of my family but I also realized I needed to nurture myself and because of that experience and being truly vulnerable and truly you know not in control of what the circumstances were I had to seek support and also to invest in my own in my own self and that wasn't about being selfish it was about being self-compassionate and I think it's only when we invest in self we be compassionate towards others otherwise we're we're we're pouring from an empty cup for me my my creatively was really tested and and and obviously my my ability to function as a as an adult my work became became so so important to me because it was something that it was very driven about and it was a way to function but I wasn't you know I wasn't truly I suppose in touch with my feelings and what I've learned in reflection is really the importance of being still and being present to those feelings of loss and sadness and grief and using the arts whether it's music or dance or the visual or performing arts they are really I suppose access to a way of being that recognizes and celebrates life as well as as those that we've lost and for me I've given many many talks and many I've had many opportunities to share I suppose the learning for me and what I choose to do is celebrate life rather than focus on the ending life I think if we can encourage young people older people all generations to invest in celebrating life you know as opposed to ending it using the arts is a really really important way of doing that the painting behind me is a painting called Little Blue and I know that Eric has a slide and this is the painting that I painted one year on after we lost our first sister Rosy. No I'll hold if I may ask how old was your sister when this occurred 36 years old and her twin brother obviously we all were devastated but her twin brother wife gave birth to a baby then three days later so this painting represents for me I suppose the birth and the the loss and the love between a mother and a child because the grief that my mother felt as you can imagine was just heartbreaking to witness to have lost a child you know an adult a child nonetheless at whatever age is heartbreaking for parents that's not the way or the logic of life but for my parents to watch them grieve it was just heartbreaking and yet three days later the birth of our my nephew and my mother and father's grandchild was a very very bittersweet experience as you can imagine but because I come from a family that has huge faith and I suppose investment in in in ourselves as a family we managed to get through that but with a huge amount of personal family support and so for me this particular painting represents and symbolizes not just the importance of acknowledging love lost but birth and rebirth and a sense of connection and for me that the complementary colors the oranges and the blues and the tones are very important I come from a tiny little village on the shores of Loch Ness I live in a skillen now which is the only island town in the island of Ireland so the waterways are very important and hence the reference to the mermaid so this this theme has been carried with me for many many years and many of my exhibitions so so this idea of precious cargo the cargo we carry inside us the losses and the gains the opportunities and the mist I suppose lives lost for me can be represented in very very creative and beautiful ways and while that was a heartbreaking time 22 years ago when I have the exhibition I called it out of the blue and I wanted to play on words play on the words of you know the the colors and not through sadness but through joy and celebrating new life and my parents joined me for the exhibition up at Emma skillen which was one year later after we lost Roshi and the birth of Nile the little boy and that's that painting was one of the paintings in the exhibition and it was the first night our parents were up in a public event it was the first time there were huge tears of joy and laughter and it was very special very very special you know well thank you for that story and your journey and doing the painting at that time tell us about the process that that you were doing that changed the process that you were being like was were you did you feel was a healing process in your body as you were creating the artwork and then how did you feel when you completed it did it take you through your own journey and by the time you were done with the art did you feel that you had had a nice kind of a cycle of completion of fulfilling your your angst around the grief did you have some transformative feelings at the end of the art or has it been every time you show the art or look at it yourself and those of us in the audience maybe you aren't artists maybe you're talking about using colors to represent how you feel and is that you know give us some guidance about how your process might be one we could adopt and well if I could just ask didn't you share with me that you had a cancer diagnosis at this time you were yes well actually what I what I haven't said was that we lost our sister 22 years ago Roshan when I painted this painting and then four years ago or five years ago I was diagnosed with cancer I had cervical cancer which is ironic and that I would be a mother hen I have no children and but I would be very maternal and to lose as opposed to the your being or the center of creativity in terms of what is perceived as a woman and my own creativity I've focused on nurturing that so I was very lucky and very fortunate I had a hysterectomy loss I had my my womb obviously and my ovaries removed and but then shortly eight weeks later then we lost the second sister to suicide while she was in the hospital and that was just unimaginable so for me and Phyllis and darling the whole idea of art both both the points that you made about my own personal creativity the source of my creativity the potential of being a mother and losing that potential has been really really important to me and the point that you made Phyllis as well about the making of the art when I when I was making that art I probably was in the saddest time of my life and it was a very very sad time I was returning to my own home here which was about roughly two hours away from my parents after being with them for a number of weeks after we lost her sister the funeral the weapon all of that and then to return back to my own home and my marriage ended around that time as well so it was a really a period of great great sadness and yet in that sadness and in that stillness what I have created is a is a thing of beauty of a thing that gives me great solace to this day actually throughout lockdown the conversations that I've had particularly to do with sudden death I would be an arts activist and I'm also a hope ambassador in terms of supporting opportunities for people who have faced adversity in the most challenging of times and I've used this painting and so many more of my paintings to bring joy and to bring support and also to acknowledge you know the stillness and the sadness because you have to be with both you know you have to you have to know what darkness is like what darkness is like before you can experience the light you need to know what gray is like before you can experience the color and you need to know what sadness is before you can experience the joy so I consider myself very blessed and very very fortunate that I am living a creative life but I have access to the tools to the experiences so to the losses and the gains but most of all the precious cargo that can be translated in the sadness and in the joy and what what I think is really important is that artists who inspired me and teachers and my parents and all of the guardians that I have been fortunate to have met have been a crucial part in this journey and I remember one of the artists that I had as a as a lecturer at college EP Flanagan he told me that a piece of art is never fully experienced until it's shown to someone else so the artist as a creator is really really important whether it's poetry song or dance but when they're shared with an audience there is a different dialogue there is a new synergy there's a new experience that can be enjoyed time and time and time again so that period of my life while it's been it's been very very sad and to create work in the stillness and the silence and the emptiness of my space provided me with the necessary I suppose ecosystem to start to build to grow and develop and to nurture and I suppose that's that's when I became I suppose really aware of the importance of being self-compassionate first and then compassionate for others that's very touching Noel as we listen to you and also as we we look on the screen certainly when we first looked at your painting little blue it's it's absolutely beautiful and I'm looking at it above your head now and I'm looking at it on the slide to the side her face is just lovely and the child but as you continue to speak that painting I think those would agree speaks to us more almost second by second it should go through your story and I believe that's what you're trying to bring forth to us and to the viewers and I'm still looking I'm still enchanted by her I'm still getting quite attached how much you feel as I am I am and what I'm really interested in for the audience and for ourselves is this creative process so you you could have read somebody else's work and poetry you could have listened to somebody else but what this art is and we I suppose we could do it with finger painting or our own mandalas or you know use a medium that we don't have to be great at but you created something out of nothing and that that manifestation of that new medium that new artwork and I or it could be it could be a flower garden but I've never thought before of how creating something so there's your creativity is a ray of of taking the old and making processing your feelings and making something new and that journey is is very thoughtful and impactful for thousands of people don't need anything special to use something to transform their own grief into healing and it comes to this to this door of creativity so have you walked other people through this process of transformation if you have you kind of taught this journey of creative healing yes I think I think I have and I wouldn't have I wouldn't have thought so until particularly I've got quite a bit of feedback and opportunities to speak and ironically a lot of it has been through this last you know the pandemic I mean I've spent 30 years invested in arts and creatively and culture and I would have I would have continued to mentor artists and educators and you know students and teachers the old student that I had was an 83 year old ex-Japanese prisoner of war who could see for himself the opportunities in creating and making I used to be a lecturer in one of the local colleges here and I ran a lot of evening classes as well as during the day and what I found were lots of people who at the time in my naivety I was about 20 at 29 I thought they were old but really I mean I would be 60 in December so I'm only still a young thing and the reality is that there were people who are coming to the the the classes the recreational art classes for the shared joy of reconnecting with people and this idea of being part of something being part of a community being part of something that that they could return to and this particular gentleman Harry was just a lovely example of somebody who flourished and grew into a completely different evolved human being that was loving and compassionate but most of all compassionate towards himself he had lost his wife as well she had died sadly and so the companionship was very important as well and arts and creativity is one of those things it is contagious the joy that we feel and I I'm on I'm on a mission to make creativity the antidote to covid I'm on a mission to encourage people to really embrace their own creativity whether it's music or dance or gardening or just reading or or or poetry or spoken word there is such potential and I think all too often many many adults have been scarred because of the the poor experience that they've had in school many of us had great great experience but not everybody we can remember those champions that we have had in the school context or in the playground or in school but we can also remember those that have been maybe not so kind or not so compassionate so I think we have to we have to look differently at our educators they're not confined within school settings they're they're lifelong learners and I think we have to embrace that and I know for one that I continue to learn I continue to embrace opportunities to be creative and I know for a fact that I if I hadn't access to you know creatively or to those that are creative around me if I would find it very very difficult very very difficult so if I may just follow on what I've gotten now from that answer is that that there's three at least three stages to this process one is to just reach out and create something and then you talked about the magic of sharing it that it takes on a new life and that and I I'm not very artistic so I trust that what you're saying is that you said we you can't imagine how it feels to share your music or share your painting so there's a sharing of it and then you talked about this community so that it's a social thing so you talked about when you're going through grief you might be isolating but if you can get into the community that shares your joy of that particular art you're actually putting yourself into a non-isolating setting in the creating of it and the sharing of it so you've got the creating of it and sharing your art and then doing it with others so you know darling you may have other takeaways from what she's saying but I mean there are several stages there I think we can all learn from. I think that I think Noelle's reference to isolation is an important one for all of us and Noelle as you take us back to the months that we have spent I'm I doubt that there's anyone that hasn't experienced at least for some period of time that feeling of isolation isolation away from our families that we couldn't visit isolation from the colleagues that we have we compensate many ways by we're talking on Zoom but we compensated during COVID by actually getting our socialization and our support networks in different ways but I've been very impressed by your efforts Noelle as you say to be there for others in your community in the sense not just giving back because someone was there for you but having it truly in your heart to want to do good and with that in mind is as we're coming up almost on the conclusion of our conversation can may I just take you back to your award from Sir Ken Robinson because you you mentioned that that award was given to you because of your efforts in education so I think it would be interesting to hear what I mean we think we know what he saw on you but be nice to hear it from you as well and I mentioned to the viewers that Sir Ken has passed not too long ago so he's no longer with us so in a sense it would be somewhat of a tribute to bring our session to conclusion with you talking about that award what it meant to you absolutely darling it's easily the most important award I've ever won there is a connection there is a connection to this painting as well because I hear just around that time we lost our sister Roshan and my marriage it ended I was at a conference and I'd heard Ken Robinson speak I was totally blown away by him they had a document called All Our Futures that was really reevaluating the importance of creativity and education and for all our futures the economy for cultural tourism for our well-being for our mental health all of those areas and I then we had a very proactive permanent secretary for culture arts and letter who entered and he's a good friend of Susan McCammon's who is who's our mutual friends as well and the irony of the whole thing is that she then on the basis of the conversation that I have with her and the document that I that I gave her invited Sir Ken Robinson over Northern Ireland to help us with unlocking creativity agenda which was to unlock the potential of people in place across Northern Ireland the economic regeneration to support the political I suppose balance as well and bring you know the idea of supporting peacemaking here the reality was that there were many of the initiatives that came out of that strategy that Sir Ken Robinson supported including them subsequently then the opportunity for the Dairy London Dairy UK city of culture which I was part of but at the time that I met Sir Ken Robinson and that he came to Northern Ireland just a few minutes left Noel so yeah he was writing his book out of our minds and I had dedicated to them that I would do my exhibition out of the blue so the year that he did his his launched his book and I had my exhibition was the beginning I suppose of a decade if not more of developing the connections with Sir Ken Robinson and also that my investment in my own creativity and supporting the creativity of others and that has been a huge huge for me a huge opportunity that I'm indebted to the Robinson family for Noel thank you thank you for sharing that share thank you for being opening up your heart and soul to talk to us about how how we can be more compassionate to others and hopefully if we're ever in any close situation that we know that folks that we can turn to and I have to say Noel from our conversations offline I know that Phyllis and I if we know we can turn to you at times and we've just we've just met you so it's it's our pleasure we're very grateful to have had you with us today and with that I'll just let our viewers know you have been watching The Creative Life on Big Tech Hawaii with award-winning artist and compassionate advocate Noel McAllendon so please plan to join Phyllis please and myself in two weeks as we continue the journey of living the creative life and thank you both Phyllis and Noel and Aloha