A Chat with Heart - with Christina Martin
Canadian singer-songwriter Christina Martin started a podcast to hold sacred conversations with friends, family, and colleagues, gathering resources to help people navigate their own life, with expert tips and tricks on how to support a path with heart and personal growth. Authentic, playful and free from regulations, A Chat with Heart gives listeners an opportunity to call the Heartbeat Hotline, help shape future episodes and be featured on the podcast.
A Chat with Heart - with Christina Martin
Nicole Aline Legault - Canadian Visual Artist
Christina chats with a longtime artistic collaborator and friend Nicole Aline Legault. Art was ‘the only path forward’ for Nicole Aline Legault.
Nicole Aline Legault is a Canadian artist based in Montreal, Quebec. She has worked as a freelance illustrator and artist in print, film, and music. Raised on the east coast of Canada, her work often examines our need to reconnect with the natural world and has been deeply inspired by the ocean, nature, and dreams of whales.
Nicole's Website: nicolealinelegault.com
Got a question for Christina? Call her Heartbeat Hotline in Canada: 1-902-669-4769
Explore Christina's music, videos and tour dates at christinamartin.net
Nicole Aline Legault
Christina: [00:00:02] Welcome to A Chat with Heart podcast. I'm your host, Christina Martin. I'm here to help guide heartfelt conversations with new and old friends I've met from just being alive or touring my music around North America and other parts of the world. I chat with people I feel a kinship with and that I genuinely believe we can learn from. Our personal stories have great power to heal, influence and inspire. All we have to do is show up for the conversation.
Podcast Theme Song 'Talk About It': [00:00:30] If we just talk about it, we could show the light, we can break a dark day. If we just talk about it, we can cut away, we can make a brighter day.
Christina: [00:00:55] Oh, I feel so good right now. I just got back from my very first time using a reformer in a Pilates setting. Stacey Fisher, Pilates for Power,here in Port Howe, Nova Scotia, down at Heather Beach. Oh, what an incredible Pilates instructor. And yeah, so she's got all these reformer machines now at her studio and it is awesome if you've never tried a reformer or a Pilates class. Um, I highly recommend. I mean, I know that my little heartbeat listeners that you're not all in Nova Scotia, you're spread out around the world. But if you're if you're in the area, check out Pilates for power and book a session. Many sessions with Stacey and maybe you'll see me there. I just booked up seven more sessions after this beginner intro to The Reformer. That's probably not what it's called, but, um, class. Anyway, it was incredible. It's like. It's really like killer workout. Like it. Things are burning, but it's not. It's not hard. Do you know what I mean? It's not like a mess on your head. Like it's easy to follow along. And part of the reason for that, the main reason actually is because Stacey is an incredible instructor. Like when that when that hour starts, like you, you don't stop. It's entertaining when you start to feel like you can't, you know, give any more. Stacey gives you that energy. She's magical. And I've been a lover of, you know, exercising in different forms of exercise ever since I was a kid.
Christina: [00:02:59] And I've done so many different workouts over the years. And I can absolutely give my 100% gold stamp of approval. This is not a sponsored episode. I just love her and so grateful and you know, like I do a lot of work working out like I'm on a home and on my own and I really miss like, I miss the the class atmosphere, just going and being in a room with other people and, and letting somebody else kind of take the reins and push you and. Anyway, love it. Okay, you know what else? I love my guest today. Art was the only path forward for Nicole. Go. And bless her stellar parents, John and Betsy, for seeing her natural abilities early on and supporting them. Oh, I love Nicole's parents. I love Nicole. I started working with her back in 2017. We met in 2016 at our friend Jerry's birthday party. And it was all thanks to Nicole's grandmother, Betty. I just I'm so grateful for meeting Nicole. And we get to know her a little bit more in this episode. I get to know her more. So Nicole is a Canadian artist. She's based in Montreal, Quebec. She's worked as a freelance illustrator and artist in print, film and music. She was raised here on the east coast of Canada, and I'm reading her bio now because she worked very hard on it. Her work often examines our need to reconnect with the natural world and has been deeply inspired by the ocean nature and dreams of whales.
Christina: [00:04:42] Visit her website: nicolealinelegault.com. Uh, please do. And check out her work. It's absolutely stunning. Things we didn't talk about because we wanted to get to know Nicole more. So Nicole was one of my big supporters when it came to this idea of creating audio described versions of my music videos. So I say thank you, Nicole, for that. Those are available on my YouTube channel, on the playlist called Audio Described. And for my newest album, Storm, that's coming out this fall, 2023. Nicole has been working with me on for quite a few years now, since really the beginning of the pandemic. We got started on dreaming up all the artwork and my new merch, so that includes five custom puzzles and my storm temporary tattoo packs and just a ton of gorgeous artwork. So check that out on my Bandcamp when you have a chance. Um, and Nicole also you'll find this on her website, but she has an Etsy site where you can grab prints and other pieces of her art and learn more about her and visit all of her social media sites. And now it's time for my chat with one of my dearest friends and artistic colleagues, Nicole Aline Legault.
Christina: [00:06:26] I want to start by publicly apologizing for mispronouncing your name for the last seven years. It's Nicole. Shush. Don't tell me. No, it's Alain. No, it's Aline. It's Aline.
Nicole: [00:06:44] Did you just say Alain? Like, Alan?
Christina: [00:06:45] because. I've been saying that's what I've been saying for seven years. It's Nicole Aline Legault.
Nicole: [00:06:53] Yes.
Christina: [00:06:53] I'm sorry. Because I've been saying Nicole, Alain Legault. I've been saying that to everybody around the world for seven years, like Alan Nicole. And is.
Nicole: [00:07:06] It's okay.
Christina: [00:07:08] Okay, That's good. Then you're forgiven.
Nicole: [00:07:10] I forgive you? Yeah.
Christina: [00:07:12] And is Alain your middle name or the first of two last names?
Nicole: [00:07:17] It's my middle name. Yeah.
Christina: [00:07:20] And who is Aline?
Nicole: [00:07:21] My grandmother.
Christina: [00:07:23] On your dad's, Mom?
Nicole: [00:07:24] My dad's mom? Yeah. She died. Uh, August of 1982, so about six months before I was born.
Christina: [00:07:34] Or so the timing was. Right.
Nicole: [00:07:36] Well, and it was supposed to be my first name, but my grandfather didn't want that, so it ended up being my middle name.
Christina: [00:07:43] Nicole. Aline. Legault. It's still got hard after seven years. I've been I really need to relearn it.
Nicole: [00:07:53] It's super French, but I speak English more so.
Christina: [00:07:56] And every time I think of Alan, I think of Alan Legere. The murderer, the mass murderer.
Nicole: [00:08:01] Yep.
Christina: [00:08:02] Um, who we talk about periodically throughout this podcast. He always comes up the Monster of the Miramichi. Look him up.
Nicole: [00:08:11] The East Coast legend.
Christina: [00:08:12] Yeah. And don't want to. I don't want you to think that when I think of you, I always think of the. The monster, of the. The, what's his name, the <onster of the Miramichi. I don't want you to think that. Okay, so apart from Dale Murray, you're the only guest to record an episode in our home. Are you enjoying yourself up until now?
Nicole: [00:08:34] Oh, yeah. Yeah, up until now.
Christina: [00:08:37] Up until now. This is your first time. You said on a microphone. With a microphone in front of you. Ever?
Nicole: [00:08:41] Definitely. Uh, I think I held a mic when I sang 'Oh, Canada' in front of my high school once. I held a mic in my hand. But I've never been recorded like this.
Christina: [00:08:53] Hold on now, because you do have a podcast with a friend.
Nicole: [00:08:58] Uh, that was sort of a pandemic project that we started and stopped. It was it never really panned out into anything.
Christina: [00:09:08] Was it. Anywhere? Can we still listen to it?
Nicole: [00:09:10] Yeah, it's. I can't remember where it's hosted. It was an interesting project to do with someone during the like we were both sort of experiencing the pandemic differently. Um, I struggled with it at the time. I found it difficult because she was experiencing it very differently to the point where some of the things she would say would get me upset and I couldn't really control it. And it was a very it was hard to not want to say these things recorded because we were kind of wanting our experiences to be documented. But it just ended up being difficult for me in the end. But it was still it's still interesting to have that archive somewhere, like I haven't listened to it.
Christina: [00:09:53] The experience of podcasting with your friend was difficult or I know the,
Nicole: [00:09:59] Just the subject matter.
Christina: [00:10:01] The pandemic was is still challenging for people.
Nicole: [00:10:04] Yeah it was I was not well at the beginning of the pandemic for the first year or so just mental health wise I wasn't good so it was. Yeah, it was hard to enjoy it. It was hard to talk about it. And our experiences ended up slowly becoming much more different than each other. So there was a disconnect in my opinion. But it was really nice though to like again, it's nice to have the archive, but.
Christina: [00:10:32] I would love to hear about the type of home and atmosphere you grew up in and how it supported your artistic curiosities. So I think that all. It has a big impact on the person you ended up becoming, which is a self-employed artist.
Nicole: [00:10:50] I was born in Winnipeg and then we moved to Riverview for a couple of years before we settled in Moncton. And at the time when I turned five, my mom. So my mom has an education degree like background with special ed and early childhood development, and then decided when I turned five because there was no kindergarten in the school system. So she opened a kindergarten in the bottom of our house. So I, as an only child, was exposed to a lot of kids at a young age and then sort of learned like I helped her when I come home from school when I was in grade one. And she eventually so that was like three years in our house. And then she eventually entered the school system when kindergarten came in. So it was always a little helper at a young age. My dad was a marine biologist and I grew up around, um, I don't know, just like I grew up in a household that had two very supportive parents in terms of like when they saw me do a drawing in Florida once of a sunset when I was four or something. They like. They still have it and still keep it. And just like we're surprised that I could do that. And then they started really encouraging art. And I really I drew all the time. I would go to a go to a restaurant, I'd have to have a placemat and a pen that I could like placemat I could turn over and draw on like it was immediately had to have that. Or we go shopping at the mall and they'd leave me at the counter with the cashier and I would always ask the cashier for a piece of paper and a pen, and I'd draw them a picture and my parents could just leave me there because they knew I was at the front counter drawing.
Christina: [00:12:39] Well, when when you look at that sunset picture that you drew when you were four, are you impressed by it or do you just do you just see like a picture that a four year old did?
Nicole: [00:12:49] It's kind of cool. It's like, it's on a little notepad you get at the hotel, it's only like four by five inches. And I must have had markers with me because I used a pen to draw lines to create separations of colors for the sunset and then had the sun at the bottom and some color in the water, too. So, yeah, maybe it was kind of impressive at that age.
Christina: [00:13:14] So your folks are pretty supportive.
Nicole: [00:13:17] I was into a lot of sports, so sports was a big part of my childhood and then I was, but they would still put me into like little art classes that might happen during the summer, little art clubs and stuff like that, just to meet other kids who like to draw and do art. And then it was always like the kid in the class who was. We went to art class. You know, there's always a kid who's better than everybody. And I was always one of those kids.
Christina: [00:13:44] Did you, like at what age did you think, okay, I could do this for a profession or like, this is what I want to do forever? Or like, did that ever? Are you still wondering?
Nicole: [00:13:55] Yeah, I was going to say never. Um, I feel like it was just the only path that was the only path forward at some point. Like, I did music a lot too. I played piano and I was in a choir. And so. Um, my parents really, like, let me explore the arts as a young person. And then it came to sort of deciding what I was going to do or like where I would go after high school and, I didn't really think there was any other place other than art school. And luckily I had parents that supported that. I had a lot of friends who wanted to go to art school whose parents wouldn't let them apply.
Christina: [00:14:37] That's amazing because, I mean, no one ever spoke of an art school where I came from. You know, we were aware of the arts and like people that were artists, but never not even in, you know, in high school when they have like, people come and talk to the students about going to university. And no one, no one even says you could go and get an arts degree or.
Nicole: [00:15:00] Totally.
Christina: [00:15:00] It's like, yeah.
Nicole: [00:15:02] We had a good we had a good art teacher. Um, Will Keeley, he was my art teacher for, I guess, all of high school. The kids who were sort of thinking of going in into the arts, he used to tell us, even in grade 11, he was like any kid from this school who applies to Nscad gets in. Like he knows how to help you get into the school. So he took slides of all my work. Um, and we prepared a little portfolio together and. Um, I somehow got in. When I think back on it, I'm just like, it's all so surreal. I felt so lost at that time. Like when you're I had no direction in terms of what I wanted to do. And I think. Luckily, art was like, I went to art school and I was like, Holy shit, these there. Here are the people that I've been wondering where they are. Like, yeah, I had close friends in high school and I definitely am still very close to some of the friends even that went to NSCAD at the same time I did.
Christina: [00:16:08] NSCAD is, for little heartbeat listeners that don't know, is an art school in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Nicole: [00:16:15] Yeah.
Christina: [00:16:16] Um, you were there for four years.
Nicole: [00:16:20] Four and a half years? Yeah.
Christina: [00:16:21] Four and a half years. And I think it's, uh, another interesting thing is that, because you said you didn't know what you wanted to do, like, not many of us do, or we go in to that part of our life after high school with an idea because we've been maybe told this is what you should do, but the thing we're not really taught is that it might take you 20 more years to really figure out what it is you really are passionate about. There might be many things you're going to have to try. You're going to fail. You're going to have successes. You just have to keep trying. Like no one ever. I never heard that. That wasn't the it was like, you're going to go to university, you're going to do that. You're going to come out of there and you're going to get a good paying job and you'll be set for the rest of your life.
Nicole: [00:17:14] That's what our parents thought. Yeah, I think that's what they were told. So, and that's what they were also able to accomplish as well. So they thought it could happen for everyone. Now, too, I guess, but. Um.
Christina: [00:17:31] Yeah. Do you think there's more? Education, knowledge, accessibility to a life and career in the Arts now, for people that are interested in that, for young people or people of any age really like.
Nicole: [00:17:48] Well, I think that it's, it's shifted. Like when I went to art school, I remember sort of being kind of force fed the idea that to be an artist you had to have your work up in galleries and you had to follow this, kind of this set of rules to be an artist, a professional artist, whatever. And I never really felt, like I always didn't like rules. I still don't like rules. I understand their purpose, but, it felt very.
Christina: [00:18:26] Why do we have to follow all the rules?
Nicole: [00:18:30] You don't. That's the thing. Like.
Christina: [00:18:32] I certainly haven't.
Nicole: [00:18:34] I remember being in my final year of university. I was doing this portrait project of just artists and poets that I liked, and I was doing giant charcoal drawings of them. And I developed a wrist injury and I had to stop, like in the middle of my last semester. Which was really disappointing and scary because I just I bought the wrong paper and I used to draw with an eraser. I cover the paper with charcoal and draw with an eraser. So I destroyed my wrist doing that.
Christina: [00:19:08] And all because of the paper you bought?
Nicole: [00:19:11] Yeah,
Christina: [00:19:11] The paper caused the wrist injury?
Nicole: [00:19:13] I believe so. And I was working on a 90 degree on a wall, so I was pushing my wrist into the wall, and I had to put a lot more pressure on the eraser. Mhm. So I remember, like I remember a couple friends, like when people would talk to me like, Oh, what are you doing for your final? I was like, I'm just, I'm just drawing people. I like people who've inspired me and you know, I feel like I remember having a conversation about this where I was, like, criticized for not knowing the history of portrait artwork and that there was a rich history I should know before pursuing this idea or something like that. And I just remember being so appalled by the idea that like. You know, my. My work was less because I was uneducated in this, and it just felt really wrong to think that way. And I remembered, I feel like those types of criticisms have sort of fueled some of my kind of pursuit of the work that I do. But, um. It was pretty interesting because when I got that wrist injury, I also. Um, I was forced to change how I drew these portraits. And then I was like, So what? What the heck am I going to do? And I took out a fountain pen, which was, you know, you didn't have to grasp it very much. It was like a throwaway fountain pen. I think I also used an ink and nib at some point, too, and I just started drawing portraits and practicing with the ink. And then I started just randomly drawing portraits of people's portrait pictures on Myspace.
Christina: [00:20:59] Is this how 'look I drew you' evolved?.
Nicole: [00:21:02] Yeah, this is where it came from.
Christina: [00:21:03] Explain, explain look I drew you for my listeners. Because listeners, I'll tell you, you can you can hire Nicole to do a 'look I drew you' of you or someone you love. I've hired her to do 'look I drew you's of of me.
Nicole: [00:21:18] Multiple times.
Christina: [00:21:18] For my work, for my music stuff. So tell us. Yeah, tell us what that is. And of course, where people can find that specifically. Like your examples of that. I guess it's all on your website.
Nicole: [00:21:33] It is all on my. You can just look like if you even put 'lookidrewyou.com' it'll go to my NicoleAlineLegault website.
Christina: [00:21:41] NicoleAline, not Alan Legault. Yeah.
Nicole: [00:21:47] Um, well, I started doing that, that year because of the wrist injury. And I just decided once I started doing it on Myspace, I would take the image that I drew. I didn't have a scanner at the time either. I would just like take a photo of it and then bring it into preview and bring up the contrast and like post it. And I posted it. I would friend people that I drew, even though and I was anonymous at the time too, nobody knew that it was me except the people in my class and I would just post it on there. Whatever it was called, not a wall, but on their Myspace. Myspace was, it had a similar vibe as that. I don't know if it was called a wall, but anyway.
Christina: [00:22:35] Let's call it that.
Nicole: [00:22:36] Sure.
Christina: [00:22:37] Some some listeners, if you're really young, won't even know what Myspace is. But for us, it was..
Nicole: [00:22:42] That was the first social media. Pretty much.
Christina: [00:22:45] It was like you had a music page, wasn't it?
Nicole: [00:22:50] I mean, I had an art page.
Christina: [00:22:51] Oh, okay. Well, I thought it was just for musicians, but I guess not. No. And then that's how we met a lot of people in the music business. That's how I met a lot of people in the music business early on. Um, so now I know it was the first, one of the first social media...
Nicole: [00:23:05] I think so. I started that in 2006.
Christina: [00:23:09] It's dead now. It's dead now.
Nicole: [00:23:11] Myspace is so dead now.
Christina: [00:23:12] And maybe one day we'll be speaking of Facebook and TikTok and Twitter in the same.
Nicole: [00:23:18] Maybe.
Christina: [00:23:19] Way. Um, so 'look, I drew you'
Nicole: [00:23:24] So. So I started doing that. And then, um, then I just said in class, I was like, I think I'll just draw whoever asks me to draw them because people started being like, Can you draw me? Because I just post on the thing and I'd be like, Haha, look, I drew you and.
Christina: [00:23:41] I get it now, it's only taken me a few years.
Nicole: [00:23:45] Um, yeah. So I, I started doing that and it, it basically blew up from there. And like, I remember at the end of my class, for my final crit, I just like covered the wall with all these look I drew you's that I had done because they're all by hand, like ink drawings. So.
Christina: [00:24:03] That's really cool.
Nicole: [00:24:04] It was neat. It was a really, um, I remember seeing my professor. Professor that. That was my last Professor Matt. Matthew Reicheart, I think I'm saying that correctly, but.
Christina: [00:24:17] Um, it's Reichart.
Nicole: [00:24:21] Okay. I'm not saying it correctly.
Christina: [00:24:23] I don't even think I did.
Nicole: [00:24:24] But I think we, we, we use first names in our school anyway, um, but I saw him at Sappyfest years later and he, you know, he asked me what I was doing and, and he said that he talks about, look, I drew you in class. He talks about like, how I did that and went on the internet and drew people's faces and like.
Christina: [00:24:46] That's so cool.
Nicole: [00:24:46] Because I was still doing it. I mean, 'look I drew you' is still alive today. And. What year is it?
Christina: [00:24:52] It's 2069,
Nicole: [00:24:53] You know?
Christina: [00:24:55] Uh, yeah, it's 2069. Um, when I think of doing.
Nicole: [00:25:00] This podcast in the future. Yeah.
Christina: [00:25:02] That's right. That's. No, that's when this episode's airing. Um, I, when I think of that and hearing your story about it, I just think, you know, as artists, like if, if you are at all interested in, in connection, um, what a great success story for, you know, you found a way without probably overthinking it to connect with people and I mean it sort of people kind of excited about, um, you know, you're seeing them in a, you're seeing them and then they're seeing your version of them and then that's, you know, you're sharing that it's reaching other people. Like it's just, it's just really cool, organic, um, guerrilla marketing is.
Nicole: [00:25:46] That, I mean nowadays it's like everybody, every artist does that, like every do you see that stuff all over the Internet of just yeah, just like on Instagram and stuff with, with people drawing portraits of, you know, people in the news or social activists that you that's what I did anyway.
Christina: [00:26:08] I love in a bubble so I only know yours so look, I drew you in during the only one out there.
Nicole: [00:26:13] Like during the pandemic I was drawing. Users of victims of police brutality and trying to. I guess, for lack of a better word, raise awareness. But like, I just feel like I don't really have the words most of the time to express. What I want through my art. So I just draw it. And that was kind of my way of humanizing. I guess, in those weird moments.
Christina: [00:26:41] It's pretty powerful.
Nicole: [00:26:43] It works. And I did the same thing with, like, um. Like I started doing 'look, I drew your small business' and I'd draw people who own businesses that are being affected by the pandemic, and trying to be like, here's what they're doing. Like during the pandemic, you can buy, they've put their stuff online or things like that. So. Yeah, it's really evolved into this strange thing that. Um. It has a life of its own. I take big breaks from it, but, um. Then I'll just get a rush of wanting to do a bunch of them.
Christina: [00:27:19] Love that. I love also that you found a way to. Use your gifts to serve. You know, like and it's I'm, I'm assuming it's something that you enjoy when you're doing that, too, which is, I think the best way to serve when you yourself are also getting something out of it. It's not 100% for somebody else that, as I've learned from working with an Berube's book, the burnout antidote, uh, that, that when you're doing something solely for somebody else that can be so it can really lead to burnout and, you know, just suck the enjoyment out of. But, but you've found a way to use your gift to benefit others and fill yourself up and or serve something for yourself, you know.
Nicole: [00:28:09] For sure it helped me feel connected when I was super isolated during the pandemic. Yeah. And I remember drawing even like I drew the front of Drawn and Quarterly this little bookstore in Montreal. And they, uh, they loved it so much they were like, Please let us send you a package with books, you know, like, oh, stuff like that. And that happened a few times. I'm going to send.
Christina: [00:28:32] I'm going to send them a drawing.
Nicole: [00:28:34] Okay.
Christina: [00:28:35] And see if they send me books or if they send me like a bill. Hey, okay. I want to know what is the most fun you've ever had creating something? And then what is the worst time you've ever had Creating something?
Nicole: [00:28:47] Oh, my God. Uh.
Christina: [00:28:51] Is that, that's a hard one?
Nicole: [00:28:53] I've had a lot of fun.
Christina: [00:28:55] Let's let's talk about fun. Let's just focus on fun.
Nicole: [00:28:58] When I first moved to Montreal, I was like, I was I met this director through an exhibit that a friend of mine curated, and we both we co-curated it. And so he brought in this artist from Toronto. And I ended up messaging this person because they didn't come to the show. And we ended up working together for a few years after initially meeting. And then, um, but the first thing that we did was, well, it was the second thing we did. Was these sets for Buck 65.
Christina: [00:29:35] Rich Terfry.
Nicole: [00:29:36] Yeah.
Christina: [00:29:38] Rich Terfry. The host of CBC Drive here in Canada. Very popular show. Very popular guy, Wonderful artist, wonderful human, really.
Nicole: [00:29:48] So this director, Chris, was going on tour with him doing projections. So I'd done a bunch of drawings and ink drawings for the backdrop of. And he was he animated them and projected them behind for the whole tour. But aside from the projections, there was a whole set that was built of this cityscape on these big white. I don't know what they were. They were just cardboard or something. And I remember him telling me like we hadn't met in person yet, but I had done all this work. And so of course I was going to go to the show to see this production and see all my work on stage. And I remember getting there early and all of these the cityscape, they were just white. They didn't have anything on them. And he was like, Do you want to draw the the windows and stuff on all these buildings? And I, I was like, I guess so. Like, I he, I did not. It was a shit ton of work. I allowed to swear. Yeah. Fuck, yes. It was so much work. But I remember I got on my hands and knees and I did it until it was done. And it. I finished it. I think I went out and got some sharpies and black paint, and I finished it right before the show started.
Christina: [00:31:09] And oh, my God, you're a trooper.
Nicole: [00:31:10] It was insane. I've never like, I'd never been on a stage before. He asked if I wanted to sit at the projector and draw on the projector during the show. So I sat on the stage and drew on the projector and on the other side, this other incredible artist, Winston Hacking, was doing like liquid animation or liquid projections onto the other side of the buildings. And that was like, that was the coolest. Yeah, that was like the funnest thing I've ever done and like, had been such a big part of visually. It was a really cool.
Christina: [00:31:43] That is cool.
Nicole: [00:31:44] It was a really, that was really fun. That's what I that was the first thing I thought of when you asked.
Christina: [00:31:49] But tell us about a real shit experience that you're like, Oh my God, I hate this. Um, you know, if you're comfortable, could be. Let's use me as an example. Is there something we worked on that you were like, I hate this.
Nicole: [00:32:00] No.
Christina: [00:32:01] Oh,
Nicole: [00:32:01] Nope, nope. Not once. If anything, I mean, that was really.
Christina: [00:32:07] I really enjoy working with you.
Nicole: [00:32:08] Yeah, we had a we had a really good time on the first. See, now I can just think of fun things.
Christina: [00:32:13] We had a good run. And this is our. We're going to wrap up our working together now. Right now I'm announcing this right here and now. We've been working together since 2017. Don't you think it's time that we we quit while we're ahead?
Nicole: [00:32:26] No, we lost, like three years to the pandemic.
Christina: [00:32:28] No, you're right. No, we were working our butts off in the pandemic. No, we were. This new album, we've been working on it for a while, but we're not going to focus on that right now because I'm sure I'll have lots of opportunities to...
Nicole: [00:32:41] But the first album that we did was really fun because I forced you to lie down in the water and we did use that one of those images. So.
Christina: [00:32:48] You did? Yes.
Nicole: [00:32:49] It was worth every agonizing moment.
Christina: [00:32:53] That was fun. Even though it was torture for me. Nicole, I went to visit you at your parents in New Brunswick, and it was very simple, we went out to the beach, but there were a lot of critters and creepy crawlers in the water. And you had me lie down in the water. I'm afraid of some waters and I don't like the cold water.
Nicole: [00:33:14] I also did not know you well enough to know that you wouldn't have wanted to do that.
Christina: [00:33:17] And that's okay. It worked out. We got some beautiful shots and I adore the album artwork for Impossible to Hold. Like it's.
Nicole: [00:33:27] And you wore my mom's wedding dress and we photographed you in that, too.
Christina: [00:33:30] Oh, my God. I forgot about that. That detail. Okay. Yes, that's true. But it was really. It was really fun. Yeah. Um, I think it was the first time that I. I really went full out for, like, album artwork. Like lyric booklet that was really wrapped, like, artwork for a lot of singles. Very well thought out, like you were a game for all of this. And we worked together for a while and it was a big investment and well worth it. Um, so it really changed uh, my process. Like, it was sort of like the dream process for me and working with someone where I realized, Oh, like we can do this, this, and this person, we work well together, you and I. Um.
Nicole: [00:34:22] We do.
Christina: [00:34:22] We do. Uh, yeah. I really found a soulmate in that process with you, like. And. And, of course, a friendship developed from that, which was just another big fucking gift that.
Nicole: [00:34:35] Well, it was it was my my grandmother that brought us together.
Christina: [00:34:38] Oh, you're fucking, Betty. Not. I'm sorry, Betty. I shouldn't swear in front of saying your name and rest in peace.
Nicole: [00:34:46] You know, it's funny. I don't know if this is at all in line with these questions. I think that over, like, over the course of my career, I've never really set goals. I've never I don't have a sketchbook with ideas in it. I don't have like. I don't plan things out. The only thing that sort of started me planning things out was like my Kickstarters. That was maybe the first time that I.
Christina: [00:35:17] My next question is.
Nicole: [00:35:19] No.
Christina: [00:35:19] This is perfect. You're really segueing really brilliantly into um, because I was going to say, you do have these Kickstarter campaigns every year and that is where I'll let you finish your thought. But no, if you finish your thoughts. Right. So you don't have goals.
Nicole: [00:35:36] Well, and I don't it's funny because my mom is constantly like she just recently, like two days ago was like, where do you see yourself in ten years? And I'm like, I have never thought that far ahead. I've never thought more than it's.
Christina: [00:35:51] Sort of hard to now.
Nicole: [00:35:52] In front of me...
Christina: [00:35:52] To be honest. Like, it's kind of hard to.
Nicole: [00:35:54] It is.
Christina: [00:35:55] I mean, but.
Nicole: [00:35:56] I've always been like that. I've always I've never been able to keep a sketchbook. It's always been a very. Like I have a sketchbook and I don't like the image in it. I can't stand the fact that there's an image in this book that I don't like, so I rip it out. And so in the end, I would I would go out and buy new sketchbooks, and then I'd end up with all these half ripped apart sketchbooks and half empty pages. So I just I learned that I just work on single pages now. And instead of having sketchbooks, I have stacks and stacks of drawings. Um, but like, I've always, there's just been things I can't do. I just I've never been able to keep an agenda. I've never used a calendar. And still until I started making them. Um, so yeah, that, that the Kickstarters have been a really interesting way for me to kind of dedicate three months out of the year into, I mean, I think about it all year long, but to prep, um, artwork for a project that needs to be produced and then distributed. It's always last minute.
Christina: [00:37:05] But it is a deadline.
Nicole: [00:37:07] I hit deadlines.
Christina: [00:37:09] You hate them?
Nicole: [00:37:09] No, I hit them.
Christina: [00:37:11] Oh you hit them.
Nicole: [00:37:11] If I'm given a deadline, especially by a client, I hit it.
Christina: [00:37:16] I hate it and hit it.
Nicole: [00:37:17] For the most part.
Christina: [00:37:18] Hate it and hit it.
Nicole: [00:37:19] I don't hate it. It helps me.
Christina: [00:37:21] Okay.
Nicole: [00:37:22] But if I set deadlines, it doesn't feel like do or die. It feels like I can push it, I guess. But the Kickstarter, I can't.
Christina: [00:37:31] Well, especially with the calendar where it's like people kind of want to start their calendar in like January the 1st month of the year, so you better get it to them.
Nicole: [00:37:39] I know. But I should be shipping these out in November, not December. You really.
Christina: [00:37:44] Should know. I think it's fine. I think people are still using their December calendar from last year. So you're good. No one ever really starts planning for the new year until the last week of December, 1st week of January anyway, unless you're really fucking bored and have no life.
Nicole: [00:38:01] I think also people use these calendars more as art items than,
Christina: [00:38:06] Or coasters even. Just kidding. I Don't.
Nicole: [00:38:10] You could.
Christina: [00:38:11] You could.
Nicole: [00:38:11] You can do whatever you want after you pay for it.
Christina: [00:38:14] You could you could use it as.
Nicole: [00:38:17] They are meant to be hung though.
Christina: [00:38:18] These are works of art. Yeah. They're really beautiful.
Nicole: [00:38:22] Yeah. It's the only time of year I really have, like this time where I actually dedicate myself to my work for me. Like it's, these are my creations instead of for other people.
Christina: [00:38:36] It's so smart. It's so smart. And then what you do, correct me if I'm wrong, is you have these beautiful you make them into prints. You make the individual months into prints or postcards like you, I think you're a really smart businesswoman, like you, you really think about how you can, you know, your return on investment and maybe you don't, but it seems like you do. Um,
Nicole: [00:39:01] It does seem to work, but I don't know how. I don't. I mean, I do know how, I do, but, mathematically I don't always. I know what works and I have a hard time diving like going outside of that because it's worked for a long time now.
Christina: [00:39:21] I think that's wise.
Nicole: [00:39:23] And I just keep doing the same thing.
Christina: [00:39:25] But the artwork changes.
Nicole: [00:39:27] If you looked at my Etsy though, you'd think I was not successful. I've made maybe 200 or 300 sales in like 12 years on Etsy.
Christina: [00:39:35] Well, that's okay. I mean, not everyone is shopping. A lot of people are shopping online. But like.
Nicole: [00:39:40] But that's what I'm saying is like, I feel like I have figured out where it works for me and the Kickstarter works. And now that I'm not doing events, I might go back to events someday. I don't. Probably not though.
Christina: [00:39:52] In-person, like craft fairs.
Nicole: [00:39:55] Yeah, I used to really love that. And then that changed drastically over the last maybe five years. Not because of Covid, but because of people capitalizing on the idea of having fairs. And so there's way more fairs, which means people are way more spread out and buying at multiple places. And my sales have declined as a result. So yeah, um.
Christina: [00:40:21] I mean, it's kind of similar for, I think, a lot of industries. Yeah. Where people can only, they only have so much money to spend and yeah, they're going.
Nicole: [00:40:31] And they're going to go to the one that's close to their home. Yeah, they're not going to get on the metro and go to the one that's further that weekend if there's one around the corner.
Christina: [00:40:40] Yeah.
Nicole: [00:40:41] So it's been interesting to observe, but. I also believe fully in these these timelines where like, you know, there's only you only do this for a certain amount of time and then you move on. So, um, now I'm diving into animation, I'm trying to shift my career a little bit in order to offer different things. So maybe instead of offering prints of my work, I'm going to end up being able to do animation and storytelling in a way that I haven't been able to do yet, that I want to do.
Christina: [00:41:14] And you've already done some really cool animations for my upcoming new album and the singles so people can, you know, you can see that, some of what Nicole's talking about on, uh, on not only my Instagram page, but her Instagram pages and her website. It's really cool. It's really cool to see doing all that. And I think you and I are very similar in that we have, we are, I don't talk a whole lot about this, but um, we do both have other incomes to help us. I have over the years had to take other jobs when things were slow. Um, and I've come around to realize that's totally okay. I just saw an exhibit in Austin at a museum that featured emerging and emerged artists, visual artists that their work and how their side gigs fueled their art financially, but also artistically. And that was really cool and important for me to see too, and to sort of it sort of helped me come full circle to this. Yeah, it just fucking, it is what it is. You got to do what you got to do. Try not to give up what you're passionate about, but they're going to probably be times unless you're super, super lucky, fortunate that you need to have another source of income and so I think it's impressive that you've been able to. Um, do that and stick to your calendar every year. Which. Which is where you're creating all this new work that can then be featured for the rest of your life in different..
Nicole: [00:43:04] For sure. I can use I mean, I can make postcards and cards and stuff like that to sell if I need to, but. Yeah. I've had daydreams about putting them all up in a room together. Like framed. All the works.
Christina: [00:43:19] Like an exhibit. Do you mean like an exhibit of the different? Like. Here's calendar from 2016. The baseball calendar.
Nicole: [00:43:26] Not even. I think I'd even not put the baseball stuff in. I think I'd just.
Christina: [00:43:30] It's so good. But you were an athlete and you love baseball, and you play and softball.
Nicole: [00:43:37] Yeah. And baseball.
Christina: [00:43:38] And baseball. And so really, you would leave that out?
Nicole: [00:43:42] It's just, it is it's a big part of me. But just in terms of like how the calendar has evolved over the years, when I look at the worlds that I've created, they all sort of the baseball ones were sort of the first year was baseball, because that was the whole reason I was like, Baseball is over, what do I do with my time? And then I watch like Ken Burns baseball documentary and like Drew all these baseball people. And then I was like, What am I going to do with all these drawings? And then I put them into I just like put it on Kickstarter thinking like, Oh, I can make a calendar because every one of my baseball friends liked it. And I so I put it. I was so weird. It was so random because it's really I went to my print shop and I was like, How much would it cost for me to do this? And they were like, They're like, It's going to be so expensive, like $3,000 And three at the time it was, they actually misquoted me. They gave me it was it ended up being 3 or $4000 back then. But they misquoted me and said it was going to be like $1,400. And so my Kickstarter goal was only like 1400 at that time. And but it luckily it was my first Kickstarter. And that was it. They said it was going to be $1,400. And I was like, That's I don't have that at the time, like ten years ago to invest in myself and. So I was like, What's Kickstarter? I guess I'll try this. And then Kickstarter featured it in an email like two days after I launched it. And so I hit the goal. That's amazing, within three days. So it luckily exceeded the goal because, yeah, I think that Kickstarter ended up getting about four 4000. So I was able to cover. That's great expenses, but that was the first. So that's why that baseball one happened. And then I was like, Obviously I love whales. And then the whale watercolor one was the first time I ever did watercolor as well.
Christina: [00:45:39] Oh wow.
Nicole: [00:45:40] 2016.
Christina: [00:45:42] I was going to ask you.
Nicole: [00:45:43] 2015.
Christina: [00:45:44] Illustration drawing watercolor photo retouching. This is all listed on your website as things that you do well. Very well. Very, very well.
Nicole: [00:45:54] Photo retouching is sort of a secret.
Christina: [00:45:56] It's not anymore. And it's on your website, so.
Nicole: [00:45:59] It's not.
Nicole: [00:45:59] Yeah, it says illustration, drawing, watercolor and photo retouching on your website.
Nicole: [00:46:03] Does it?
Christina: [00:46:04] And I like it.
Nicole: [00:46:05] There's no examples.
Christina: [00:46:06] I think it's, I mean I use you for photo retouching.
Nicole: [00:46:08] Yes, I love it.
Christina: [00:46:11] If you just someone had a gun to your head and said you have to give all but one of these up, what one would you pick to keep. But remember, there's a gun at your head like someone's going to. If you don't pick one, you're going to die and your family's going to die, too.
Nicole: [00:46:27] I would pick watercolor.
Christina: [00:46:28] And all their...
Nicole: [00:46:29] I would pick watercolor.
Christina: [00:46:30] All of their extended family.
Nicole: [00:46:32] Stop!
Christina: [00:46:32] I'm going to be killed. Dale, the engineer.
Nicole: [00:46:34] No.
Christina: [00:46:36] You have to watch all these people be shot. Okay. Watercolor.
Nicole: [00:46:41] Watercolor is definitely my final answer.
Christina: [00:46:43] Why?
Nicole: [00:46:44] I mean, I can draw with watercolor. So that's sort of also why.
Christina: [00:46:49] Can you photo retouch with watercolor?
Nicole: [00:46:52] No,
Christina: [00:46:53] You could watercolor over a photo.
Nicole: [00:46:56] No, not unless it was on watercolor paper.
Christina: [00:46:59] Okay. Yeah, okay.
Nicole: [00:47:02] But the combination of that's the thing that's kind of evolved over time is like the watercolor went from I had watercolor 2016, 2017, 2018, and then 2019 I think was the new baseball calendar. And that one was all on the iPad. I finally, like I discovered, what it was like to dabble in digital art. And then the look of that, I could never really get the look of it right. I'm happy with that calendar, but it's probably my least favorite out of all of them. Um, visually. And the next year I drew everything on the iPad, but then overlaid watercolor textures to try to emulate. Like the past artwork in watercolor. And then I did the opposite. The following year.
Christina: [00:47:55] Are you watercoloring digitally? Is that what you're saying?
Nicole: [00:47:58] There's that too. I also now have, the first calendar I didn't even know you could buy brushes, but now I know you can buy watercolor brushes that people create for the iPad.
Christina: [00:48:07] Oh, my God.Okay.
Nicole: [00:48:09] So now I have proper brushes that I can sort of emulate some of the textures, but instead of doing digital work first I swapped it for. Doing watercolor first and not finishing the watercolor, but getting like the base watercolor image down and then scanning that, bringing it into the iPad and then finishing the artwork on the iPad. So drawing on top of the watercolor with these digital watercolor brushes, but also other, you know, like tools that make things glow or just like instead of. Drawing a million dots with a white gel pen or white gouache. There are stipple brushes. I can use that sort of look. They blend in well. So that changed my whole process for the last three years. Doing these calendars, they would start on watercolor. And the other interesting part of that is like having. I have a stack, so usually used to I used to offer original watercolors as part of Kickstarter rewards, but I couldn't do that anymore because I wasn't finishing any of these watercolor paintings. So now I have the opportunity to like, I think I have at least 30 or 40 unfinished watercolors that can now be completed. And like as just an actual original, that's fully original with no prints. You know, so it makes it more valuable if you follow the rules of art.
Christina: [00:49:44] As we do.
Nicole: [00:49:45] Well, I don't.
Christina: [00:49:47] Is there something you'd like to learn more about? That you haven't touched yet.
Nicole: [00:49:53] For me, the combination of being evicted and having so being like basically uprooted after living in one place for ten years,
Christina: [00:50:01] You should say you were evicted. The everyone was evicted. That it wasn't just you because of a funky smell in your apartment.
Nicole: [00:50:08] No, it was a renoviction.
Christina: [00:50:10] A renoviction? Yeah. Okay.
Nicole: [00:50:12] And we tried to fight it, and we couldn't. So, um. So that. I mean, I lived. I think I'd been stuck for a long time just in terms of, like, never changing, never traveling, never going outside of my comfort zone. Nothing like that until I was really kind of forced out of my comfort zone by being forced out of the place I lived for a decade. And so that ended up being I found a place right away. I got very lucky with getting an apartment right away. And um, when I moved in a couple of weeks later, we went into full shutdown, um, where we weren't allowed to see anyone. We weren't allowed to go anywhere and everyone was staying home. So that kind of being uprooted like that against my will, I guess, um, evictions are really jarring. Um, and traumatic so that with the combination really, really fucked me up. Um, and when I look back on it, I, I see how much pain I went through and how confused I was. And like, I look back on it and I don't even know myself during that time because I, it was scary. Like if I look back on, I don't know if I would have lasted that winter. Like, I just don't know what would have happened if I hadn't left. Um, so I left for seven months, moved in with my parents and had a very different experience in terms of just understanding how to heal.
Christina: [00:51:42] You came back here to Atlantic Canada for that time.
Nicole: [00:51:45] And lived with my parents in Grand Bourgeois in New Brunswick. And that changed that. That changed my relationship with them for the better. Not that it was ever bad, but it just like we just improved our relationship and it really opened my eyes to like the process of healing after. An event like that and just not that it's over, but just. The pandemic changed me. The eviction changed me. And I don't think prior to that I'd ever been uncomfortable. I had other reasons to be uncomfortable in my own body or in my own head, but I'd never been in that kind of position where I was scared and. Um. Obviously that speaks a lot to my privilege in this world, but, um, it was really eye opening and now I feel like I've gone from. My approach to to my work and my approach to everything is a lot more peaceful. And. I don't think I don't I don't take things personally. I don't like like, I just there's a lot more calmness in my life. Love it. And it's really it's taken a while. Like, obviously, I also had therapy during all this time.
Christina: [00:53:10] Yeah.
Nicole: [00:53:10] Highly recommend therapy.
Christina: [00:53:12] You started that, when was it 2019,
Nicole: [00:53:15] Right before yeah. It was like when I came back from Ireland.
Christina: [00:53:18] It's good that you had that kind of in the, in the wing, you know.
Nicole: [00:53:23] It was, it was I, it was a student therapist that was assigned to me.
Christina: [00:53:28] Same one. You have the same.
Nicole: [00:53:29] And I still have him. Yeah. It's just phone therapy.
Christina: [00:53:32] That's awesome.
Nicole: [00:53:33] It is. And I was really skeptical by having a man and a young person. And I think.
Christina: [00:53:40] Over the phone?
Nicole: [00:53:41] Well, we did meet in person at the beginning, but then the pandemic happened. So and I didn't feel I didn't want to do video. I don't feel comfortable on video.
Christina: [00:53:53] I'm grateful for the therapists out there that can do the just the fucking phone call, for God's sakes. For fuck's sake.
Nicole: [00:54:02] I think the phone call has been.
Christina: [00:54:05] I don't need to see you, don't need to touch you.
Nicole: [00:54:07] There are times when we're talking and he's like, I'm just going to tell you that I'm smiling at what you just said.
Christina: [00:54:12] That's cool.
Nicole: [00:54:12] He'll at least say that. And then there are other times where he's like, I'm having a hard time understanding because I can't see your body language. Like, are you? You know, he'll clarify, but that's all you have to do. Like, it's really simple. But I think because he's a lot younger than me too. I feel like we've both benefited from this work. Like it's just been like I'm he's giving me a good rate because I went through the Argyle Center, so I got a really low rate based on my income. And sadly, the Argyle is closed now after the pandemic, which is really sad, but it was like a very accessible space. People could apply to get a therapist and you'd get a student therapist at a discounted rate.
Christina: [00:54:56] We have this thing in Nova Scotia and I don't know if this happens in other provinces where you can apply for I think it's up to 10 or 12 sessions for free of remote therapy for mental health. And this is somewhat of a new thing. And you don't have to be in a crisis mode, you know, which is the other great thing.
Nicole: [00:55:20] You shouldn't have to be. Everyone should be able to access it. It's quite an inaccessible thing financially. Yeah.
Christina: [00:55:30] So you're what you're saying is you are in a much better place right now. You're good.
Nicole: [00:55:37] Well, I think yeah.
Christina: [00:55:38] Oh, I've. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think I know what I'd like to see you do. Apart from animation, more animation, and I know you're working towards this, but there are a number of artist residencies around the world. Dale and I have done one in Dachau in Germany, and there's more. I have friends that have done these writing workshops. I want to see you do more of those. And I know.
Nicole: [00:56:06] I did apply to one in Ireland and I didn't get it.
Christina: [00:56:09] Yet. You didn't get it yet.
Nicole: [00:56:10] Yet.
Christina: [00:56:11] Um, so.
Nicole: [00:56:13] I also did get accepted to one in Iceland.
Christina: [00:56:16] What the fuck?
Nicole: [00:56:17] About ten years ago. Oh, yes. I didn't go because I, I didn't feel like I could afford to go.
Christina: [00:56:23] I want to see you do more of these. I just think what a gift they would get to have you there, to have that time to do whatever it is you do.
Nicole: [00:56:32] I would love that. I, I have a really hard time writing, so it's really hard for me to apply for things.
Christina: [00:56:40] Just copy and paste the same application and send it to 20 different places.
Nicole: [00:56:44] Yeah, I know. That's the trick.
Christina: [00:56:47] It's not. It's not a trick. It's just like, put as many as you can out. And see what comes back.
Nicole: [00:56:53] I know.
Christina: [00:56:54] Like tonight.
Nicole: [00:56:57] Okay.
Christina: [00:56:58] And do the Iceland, apply to the Iceland, I'm so bossy. Apply to the Iceland one again.
Nicole: [00:57:02] I know, I really do want to do that. That is like a kind of the the next step. I'm really interested in, I mean, I have never traveled anywhere aside from Ireland. That was my first time off the continent. And so it was like a, it was a life changing trip.
Christina: [00:57:18] Keep going for that one for sure. That's going to happen.
Nicole: [00:57:21] I want to do it in Ireland or Iceland.
Christina: [00:57:23] Like the thing I tell myself that I always like to like, talk about with other people too, is that, you know, with the world being so connected through technology now, you have an artist residency or a grant opportunity. We have so many more people applying to these things, but that shouldn't dissuade you from, I never take it as rejection. I just take it as there's a lot of people that are applying for this. Some are super talented. Most of them are, you know, maybe more than me. It doesn't matter. It's not, it's not rejection. It's just like, it's just keep, keep trying, keep trying.
Nicole: [00:58:00] I don't see anything as rejection. I see if I'm not, if you don't want me right now, it's just not what you want right now.
Christina: [00:58:10] What's that saying? If God shuts the barn door, one door and he opens the garage door or something, God does something.
Nicole: [00:58:20] I mean, if you think it's God. Yeah, yeah, sure.
Christina: [00:58:22] Whatever God is to you.
Nicole: [00:58:23] Could be the ghost from your Ouija board.
Christina: [00:58:27] I do have a Ouija board. And Nicole, some people are concerned about it. Other people are not. I am not. Our house is not haunted. Even though some people have told us that it is. I just wanted, that's a disclaimer. And this podcast is not haunted because I own a Ouija board.
Nicole: [00:58:45] It didn't feel haunted.
Christina: [00:58:46] No, it doesn't, does it?
Nicole: [00:58:48] Your house doesn't feel haunted.
Christina: [00:58:49] If it is, they are good spirits.
Nicole: [00:58:51] I've been to the basement yet, though.
Christina: [00:58:53] The basement is a little fucked up. A little creepy. Might have been a snake in there one time, but that's not a haunted snake. That's just a natural snake that probably came in when we brought in the wood. Yeah. In any case, I digress. Um, I think you have advice to give to young artists that want to do this for a living. Some top tips. Just some top tips. What do you think? Like, because people are listening, young kids that don't mind swearing, curse words, explicit material might be listening. How about this? How about this? I'll start. Hey, kids. Um. Well, I'm a list maker. I'm. I'm a disciplined person. So start a routine for your artwork. Make a sacred time so that you're in a better position than Nicole and I. Where we don't. We we don't make that much time to make art. Believe it or not, we want to. Yeah. So you don't hate your life and yourself and have regrets. Like pick two hours of the day every day, 5 or 5 days a week, whatever. Make it a routine and just do make sure you do that. You show up and do the thing you love the most.
Nicole: [01:00:05] That's good advice. I have a lot in my head about this.
Christina: [01:00:09] Okay, Well, let's hear it. Let's hear it. I mean.
Nicole: [01:00:12] I think that I think that's something that really held me back a bit was the idea that, it was the idea that I had to, like, fall in line or do this or do this this certain way or do that this way. And I feel like I luckily fell into a job, when I moved I moved to Montreal, I fell into that job working with this director that sort of showed me this different route at a younger age that I was like, Yeah, this doesn't have to be the way that we have been told. An d so if anything, like I'd say the biggest thing that you can do for yourself as an artist is to not compare yourself to your peers.
Christina: [01:00:56] Hallelujah.
Nicole: [01:00:57] And to only be inspired and inspiring to and from your peers. Because some of the most beautiful connections that I've made that have fueled me as an artist have been connections like what you and I have and how even how we met, and just the really interesting ways that people see the world through their work. And when you start talking about that, instead of looking at your work and being like, I'm not as good as them and I'm not as successful, there is no measure of success, especially right now, like we are so fooled by all of this social media. You have to find compassion for yourself. When you're feeling down. You have to have the courage to just pursue these these ideas that you're like, Well, what if they think it's dumb or no one's going to like this you like? And the more genuine you are in your approach, the more successful it's going to be and the more people are going to take it in and relate to it. And I think I learned that. I learned that at a young age. But I also learned that a lot with doing in-person events where I put all my prints on the wall.
Nicole: [01:02:10] Some people would walk by and then some people would be like stopped in their in their shoes and like looking at the work and just being fully touched by it. And then seeing me behind the counter and engaging in a conversation about it. And they just immediately, just like that image, like, this is what happened to me. And like why I like, I see that picture and like it just that opened my eyes to like the power that we have as creators. And, and it just really that is what that is what keeps me going. Like, I can do a really unsuccessful event. I haven't done them in a few years, but I can have a really unsuccessful one financially but have one conversation with somebody where I'm like, Holy shit. Like that person was on the same wavelength. We had the same dream and like we love whales for the same reason. And there's a there is something there. There is something so sacred in that connection. And that is that is where I, like.
Christina: [01:03:15] Nicole is smiling right now and laughing.
Nicole: [01:03:20] That is where that is where I get my fuel. You fix, I think. Yeah. Don't be so hard on yourself. That's like a big.
Christina: [01:03:29] That I have to work on. But I do tell myself, like cut yourself some slack, you know, like.
Nicole: [01:03:34] Take the time to take care of yourself and your mental health. Get outside like I'm in front of a screen so much that I'm like, I'm so accustomed to the darkness I'm so accustomed to, I've created my little hobbit hole and. And I'm comfortable in it.
Christina: [01:03:50] But you're also good, though, at you're on a softball and baseball team. I know that you do make time for your friends all of that you know you're you're good at that. So again you have to cut yourself some slack. But I think during the pandemic that was hard on on people. Um, but that's all part of also you know refueling like go out and live your life make plans watch, go to museums.
Nicole: [01:04:18] Be a person.
Christina: [01:04:19] Go have artist dates.
Nicole: [01:04:19] Be a person.
Christina: [01:04:20] Yeah. Go and live like have a life that isn't lived vicariously through watching what everyone else is doing online. Like have your own, build your own adventures. Choose your own adventures. Deep thoughts by Christina and Nicole Aline Legault. That was really good advice. Not mine, but yours.
Nicole: [01:04:45] I feel really strongly about it. Oh, is that. Do we do. Should I say goodbye?
Christina: [01:04:50] You don't have to. We actually often, they often my guests and I don't say goodbye. We just pick a place.
Nicole: [01:04:55] See you later.
Christina: [01:04:56] What about the Titanic song? Can we sing the Titanic song? You and Dale went.
Dale: [01:05:05] The sad,
Christina: [01:05:06] The sad Titanic. I don't know how it goes.
Nicole: [01:05:09] It was sad so sad when the great ship went down. To the bottom of the oceans and wives and the children lost their lives.
Christina: [01:05:20] Let's do it again.
Nicole: [01:05:22] That's not the right lyrics.
Christina: [01:05:23] That's okay.
Song 'I Don't Want to Say Goodbye To You': [01:05:31] It's love. I don't want to say goodbye to you. I don't want to say goodbye to you.
Christina: [01:05:45] Hey my little heartbeat listeners. Listen, this this part was recorded months after the episode with Nicole was recorded in my home. And I have a very exciting update for you. Nicole has been accepted into an artist residency in Iceland. So I'm just thrilled for her. I don't know if it was my bossiness that paid off here. No, it wasn't. It was Nicole's willingness and persistence to, you know, to try for this again. And congrats to Nicole and I love you. And I'm just so proud of you.
Heartbeat Hotline: [01:06:34] Welcome to the Heartbeat Hotline. 1-902-669-4769. I'm the host of A Chat with Heart Podcast, Christina Martin, and I'm so excited you called. Leave me your question, suggestion for the podcast, or a comment about this episode. Please be aware your message may be used on the podcast and social media. Tell me your name, where you're calling from, and it's also fine if you want to remain anonymous. Thanks for listening. Have a great fucking day.
Christina: [01:07:07] Thanks for listening to A Chat with Heart Podcast, produced and written by me, Christina Martin and co-produced and engineered by Dale Murray. Check out Dale's website dalemurray.ca. The podcast theme song 'Talk About It' and 'I Don't Want to Say Goodbye to You' were written by me and recorded by Dale Murray. You can find my music on Bandcamp and all the places you stream music. Visit my Patreon page to become a monthly or yearly supporter of this podcast and my music endeavors. If you're new to Patreon, it's a membership platform that helps creators get paid. Sign up at patreon.com/ChristinaMartin. I would love it if you had time to share rate, leave a review and subscribe to A Chat with Heart on all the places you listen to podcasts. Wishing you, my little heartbeats, a great day.
