Sometimes, losing what we thought we wanted reveals what we were always meant to do. In this episode of Soul CPR, I sit down with a former journalist who was swept up in a wave of industry cuts in 2012. With no farewell or gratitude, he was left feeling adrift. Yet, this unexpected ending cracked open a door he had long been afraid to walk through. After sharing a random drawing on Facebook and receiving unexpected praise, he finally took a chance on his true passion—art. Now, he’s published his first book of goddesses, blending his lifelong fascination with mythology and the mystical into breathtaking works. His story is a powerful reminder that sometimes, the path we’re meant for reveals itself when we least expect it.
Hashtags: #SoulCPR #artisticjourney #passionrediscovered #fromjournalisttoartist #mythologyinart #creativereinvention #goddessart #followyourpassion #newbeginnings #turninglossintopurpose #soulfultransformation #followyourbliss #artbybryancrowson
Guest Contact
Website: https://www.artbybryancrowson.com/
Social Media: @artbybryancrowson on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and Bluesky
Book on Amazon: Goddesses Among Us: The Art of Bryan Crowson – Volume One: https://a.co/d/3Hl62pk
BookBaby Bookshop listing: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/goddesses-among-us
Hashtags: #SoulCPR #artisticjourney #passionrediscovered #fromjournalisttoartist #mythologyinart #creativereinvention #goddessart #followyourpassion #newbeginnings #turninglossintopurpose #soulfultransformation #followyourbliss #artbybryancrowson
Guest Contact
Website: https://www.artbybryancrowson.com/
Social Media: @artbybryancrowson on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and Bluesky
Book on Amazon: Goddesses Among Us: The Art of Bryan Crowson – Volume One: https://a.co/d/3Hl62pk
BookBaby Bookshop listing: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/goddesses-among-us
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Are you ready to untangle from your past, recover from heartbreak,
and revive your life. This is Sole CPR with your
host and Papa Yode. We've all had soul crushing experiences
and lost ourselves in our pain, but there is a
way out. On this podcast, Amazon best selling author, award
winning life coach and advice columnist and Papa Yode helps
(00:28):
us navigate the path from heartbreak to healing. So now
please welcome the host of Soul CPR and Papa Yode.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Have you ever lost your job? Well? Statistics tell us
that forty percent of Americans have or will at least
once in their career span, and that forty eight percent
have layoff anxiety, So at least forty eight percent worry
about it.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Today on Soul CPR Healing Out Loud, we are going
to talk about how losing a job might actually push
you into your purpose. So today I am going to
welcome my guest, Brian Krausen, who worked as a journalist
at a major daily newspaper for about twenty seven years,
(01:22):
a decade as a reporter and seventeen years as a
copy desk chief, and then in twenty twelve he was
laid off, and after some months of uncertainty and reflection,
he decided to change directions at the age of fifty
and reinvent himself as an artist. After spending a decade
(01:43):
developing his art skill and building a body of work,
he published a book of his art work, Goddesses among Us.
The Art of Brian Krausen, Volume one was launched on
March twelfth, twenty twenty four, and we are going to
talk about that beautiful book book of art today. He
and his wife Susanne have been married thirty four years
(02:04):
this month, and they live in suburban Birmingham, near their
son Matthew and his partner Christa. Brian, my friend, an
eighth grade classmate. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Happy to be here, all right, Brian sate the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Absolutely well, you know, just say, an eighth grade classmate
just kind of brought a jolt back. You and I
just went to this RLC. It was called Resource Learning
Center School just one year each, right, and it was
a bit of a It was sort of an experimental school,
if omber correctly, where they brought kids out of different
(02:43):
schools from Jefferson County system and fed into this one
school and anyway, we had the pleasure getting to know
each other and then reconnected via Facebook as so many
of us have, and I'm happy that we've reconnected talking
about losing a job, and I think so many people
(03:06):
can relate. As we said forty percent of Americans. I
know we have listeners around the world, but I'm sure
the statistics you know are true for others as well.
Take us back to twenty twelve, if you will. What
was it like losing your journalism job, your career so suddenly,
and as you've shared with me in private, without any recognition, right.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, I've been there my entire career since i'd graduated
from college, and like you said, ten years as a reporter,
then briefly as a copy editor, and then the copy
desk chief left and I put in for the job
and got it pretty soon after joining the copy desk,
and was there for seventeen years doing that job, you know,
(03:57):
presiding over the copy desk with all the stories coming through,
even and present election nights and all that kind of
thing is. And then a wave of layoffs hit the industry,
specifically the chain that I worked for, and a bunch
of people got laid off at the New Orleans Times,
(04:18):
pickying right before us, and then and the same day
they laid off people at my newspaper in Birmingham and
the one in Huntsville and the one in Mobile. So
they pretty much flooded the job market locally with people
with my skill set, people who did the same kind
(04:41):
of things that I did. And so in order to
keep going in journalism, I would have had to probably
move to another city, you know, somewhere else, because it's
pretty specialized kind of work, right and my mother, my wife,
needed to stay near her mother, so that wasn't really
good prospect. So I was kind of aimless for a
(05:02):
while and didn't really know what I wanted to do.
I'd already been kind of feeling kind of misplaced in
journalism in the last few years. It was high stress
during those years because we knew something was coming, because
we quit having like annual cost of living raises and
(05:22):
things were getting tighter and tighter. They were doing early
by out retirement packages for some of the senior people,
and then of course it got all of us and
they told us in the spring, okay, you you and
you are being laid off. It was like seventy five
percent of the newsroom, and we had to stay, like
we call ourselves, a walking dead until the fall when
(05:45):
it actually hit. And then one day when we all
just had to throw our badges in a basket at
the door, at the door and we were gone. So
that's the way that went. That was in September, and
I was kind of just aimless and not sure what
(06:05):
to do with myself until it was around January or February.
And I've always drawn, sketched and drawn, you know, margins
of my school notebooks and since I was a kid,
but I never really thought about being an artist for
a living or for a career. I told as we
(06:28):
talked about I thought I was going to be a
uh air. I wanted to be a pilot. I applied
for ROTC. My eyesight wasn't good enough, so I saw, shoot,
what am I going to do? So I decided to
go into engineering like my father. My dad was a
mechanical engineer, and I tried tried that at college and
(06:51):
the math and science kind of wiped me out. I
didn't do well in that, and I thought, well, what
am I going to do? I'm not doing well in this.
But I had a mechanical drawing class as in pre
engineering that I asked. I did really well in that
because I can turn objects in my mind, which is
most of what that class was is being able to
(07:12):
see something and see what would look like from another side. Right,
And so I changed. But that salvaged my self esteem.
But that should have pointed me toward art, but I
failed to latch hold of that. And I took an
interest inventory test and scored high in journalism. So I thought, well, okay,
(07:36):
I'll try that. And so I'm kind of bumped into journalism.
But I never had planned a career step before. I
just reacted to opportunities that I had. Because the plan
that I have was derailed just immediately. So then I
was like, well, what am I going to do? Right?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And so then throughout a lot of people that I recall,
so yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, and so then and then I did this when
I was talking about drawing a drawn all along, and
then I did this a face. A friend of mine
named Brandy Uh posted a profile picture of herself on
Facebook that was I thought was really pretty. So I
thought I'll try to draw that, and so I sketched
(08:25):
a little portrait of her and posted it, and I
was shocked. I was really pleasantly surprised. It got such
a nice reaction from so many different people on Facebook,
and it kind of, you know, light bulb moment. Well,
maybe I'll try being an artist. I thought about it
when I was a freshman at Auburn, but I just
(08:46):
didn't have the self confidence to try it. I never
really considered that as a real possibility for a job,
you know, that something you could make a living in.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Sure, I want. I want to go acts something you
said about self esteem before we get into your taking
off into art as a career, because I imagine when you
left your career after twenty seven some odd years, like
we said, without fanfare, without recognition, throw your badge in
a garbage can at the door, imagining listeners relating to
(09:21):
that if forty percent of Americans have experienced or will
no fanfare. And I know in my career we would
celebrate retirements as people chose to leave. There was always,
you know, a ceremony of people leaving.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Its exactly right. It was almost a ritual when before
the time of the big layoff, when someone would retire
or go away, and especially after being along, there a
long time, and a lot of people were there were
a very long time. It was the largest paper in
the state, and we were the best paid at that time,
(10:00):
and so people just stayed for years and years and years,
and when somebody would leave, they'd have a little party
and have like almost like a little pot luck dinner
and people have food, and they'd have a little speech,
and it made a big kerfuffle about it. And but
then when our time came, it was just, you know, right,
(10:21):
get out. And so that was a big difference. And
I left kind of feeling just like, you know, very unappreciated.
At least it did me, And I think you did
a lot of my.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Colleagues and what And that's what I was. How did
you navigate those feelings of unappreciated and that significant loss,
because I know what psychologists tell us about job loss
when it's that significant time invested in a career. How
(10:54):
how deep did you go in your feelings of loss?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Oh it was I didn't rebound as well as some
of my friends did that bounced traight back and found
another place to another niche. And because I was, I
had already been feeling kind of misplaced. And when that happened.
I was like, Okay, I've ridden this horse until it
(11:18):
died under me. I've gone as far as I'm going
to be able to go in this. But then I
was at that place where I just didn't know where
I was going to step next. I didn't I didn't
know what to do. And so when I said I'd
always reacted to opportunities, that was the first time that
(11:41):
I proactively chose a path that I wanted to do,
rather than just stepping on something that presented itself in
front of me. And so that's I decided to do
that then, and I felt good about it. And anyway,
so what part of it shall we discuss next?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, well, I imagine were there was there a deep
sense of loss even though you started forging a new path.
Would you even say you experienced depression on some level?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, because it's a lot of your identity,
especially being a newspaper person, that's kind of a thing.
You know, there's a lot of camaraderie amongst the people
you work with. I don't know if you know of
John Archibald. He was he won Pulitzer Prize. He's one
of the people I started off with. We were colleagues
(12:39):
from the outset. I covered Walker County for a while
right out of college before I got moved into the newsroom.
And then when I got moved into the newsroom in
March of nineteen eighty six, that's when John stepped into
the beat that I was in. Of course, he did
a lot better in journalists I did, surprise, but that was. Uh,
(13:07):
it's a lot of your identity and when that's taken
away from you, and that's all I've that's all I've
done for almost thirty years, my entire career, and really
it was longer than that because I worked at the
Plainsman at Auburn for two or three years before I graduated,
so I've been doing journalism before that. So really it
really was thirty years if you count the time at
(13:28):
the Plainsman.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Sure so. So identity, stability, all of that, I think,
camaraderie at the workplaces where we spend the majority of
our waking hours, so all of those relationships. So, yes,
depression is one of those. But this wasn't your first
experience with a great loss. Resulting in your question, you
(13:51):
and I here things in common. Besides having gone to ROLC.
We both went to Auburn. We both majored in journalism.
We both also sadly lost a child. So take it
back to that, because if I understand it right, that
might have been your first experience with great loss and depression. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I probably had some mild depression all my life. But
our first son, Matthew, was born in nineteen ninety four.
He's thirty, he's thirty now and he'll be So he
was a little kid, and we were expecting our first child,
(14:34):
our second child, another little boy, and we got up
to full he was due at the end of July first,
nineteen ninety nine, at the end of June.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
He was still born at full term and looked just
like our first son had. So it was that and
I might get upset talk about but that messed me
up for a lot of years. In my wife too,
(15:09):
and I wasn't a good father for a long time.
And finally I got a counselor that helped me cope
with it a little bit better. But it's it's always
it's always right there kind of with you, and it
revisits less frequently, but it's always present. And so I'd
(15:32):
always struggled with some depression because of that, and so
then when you kind of the rug gets pulled out
from you with the career loss, it's kind of a
double whammy, I guess. I mean, it wasn't immediate at
that time because we lost the baby in nineteen ninety
nine or his name was Silas, I think I said,
and then and the layoff was in twenty twelve, and
(15:55):
it was a few months until early twenty thirteen that
I'd decided to embark on this path, right is I
was going to turn fifty that year.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So yeah, so well, thank you for sharing about Silas.
My son's name was Janson, and all of these things
happened close to the same year, so thank you for
sharing about that. But I and that's one thing I
was going to ask you was did you cope on
your own? Did you go and have some kind of
(16:26):
help with that? And I appreciate your sharing that with
our audience, because I do recommend that someone seek help
with their grief, because grief is real and sadness is deep.
When we have a significant loss, and it's not something
we have to bear on our own. There is some
guidance that can help us through that so that we
can navigate.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I went to a support group for a while in
the immediate, you know, months after we lost Silas. And
one thing that I discovered that's maybe is unique about
losing a baby. I don't know if you experienced this,
but it's very isolating because if you mention that you've
(17:10):
lost the baby, you get this feeling like people think
you're looking for sympathy, but if you talk about it,
they immediately try to change the subject. Because I came
to think that people it's so awful for people to
imagine and try to empathize with it, they just don't
want to to They don't want to go there in
(17:33):
their own minds, and so they just don't want to
talk about it. So you kind of feel shut out
because of that. And I think that's the reason a
lot of people, there are a lot more people around
us who have suffered miscarriages and stillbirth than you ever realize,
because people don't talk about it. And I think that's
a big reason why. It's because people don't want to
hear it, and they'll, you know, they'll they'll deflect by saying, oh,
(17:55):
he's a better and a better place now and stuff
like that, and you don't want to hear that, it
just makes you mad. And I don't know. There's just
a lot of things about that that I that's a
whole other podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It is, I think because people don't know what to
say and they have to do what's comfortable for them,
and sometimes it's saying nothing, which can be just as hurtful. Well,
it is time for our first break. When we come back,
we're going to pick up right where you left off
with starting that career towards art after that loss and
(18:29):
again using your path rather than having it sort of
just being what's in front of you or or available
to you. So we're going to talk about that and
share your book when we come back, So don't go far.
We'll be back for SULCPR.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Mike Zurich a three time California state champion in Greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
six birth, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time now National placer, including two seconds, two thirds,
and two fourths. He also won the Veteran's Folk Style
Wrestling twice at one hundred and fifty two pounds. In
(19:10):
all these tournaments, he was the only blind competitor Nancy Zorich,
a creative spirit whose talents have taken her to the
stage and into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father,
a commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter
and helped her fine tune her natural abilities influence her
decision to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed
(19:34):
a fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings
at twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for
heartwarming stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
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(20:09):
I'm Pamela d Wilson. Join me for the Carrying Generation
Radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings, six Pacific,
seven Mountain, eighth Central and nine Eastern, where I answer
these questions and share tips for managing stress, family relationships,
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(20:32):
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Speaker 2 (20:51):
Welcome back everyone. You are listening to Soul CPR and
ther gold Grade TV Network. I'm in Popaoti today with
my guest, Brian Krause, and we are talking about guest
to the drawing Board, how losing a job led to
an artistic calling. Literally you were talking about always doodle
in your notebooks and all of those types of things.
(21:15):
Did anyone ever notice your gift of drawing when you
were young? In comment on.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
It, yeah, I in fact I had a few little
drawings at one contest at one time or another, and
it was always just part of who I was. That
kind of ran in my family. My dad's mother painted portraits,
(21:41):
and my dad could draw, and he could paint, but
he channeled all his artistic skill into engineering drawings. And
that sort of thing that was his niche. And did
I mention about what Daddy told me when I dropped
out of engineering. What before when I decided that I
(22:03):
wasn't going to go any farther with engineering, He said, well,
I always knew you just wanted to draw airplanes, you
didn't want to design them. And I didn't pick up
on that as being a hint or a nudge towards
art at the time, but in retrospect, maybe it was,
and I just failed to perceive it as that. But
(22:26):
I did grow up drawing a lot and was complimented
for it, just it was like a hobby rather than
something that was you know, I should have allied. Some
people make their career in art. There are people that
do that, and I just didn't think of that as
a possibility for me because I didn't think I was
good enough. Looking back, I think I probably was if
(22:48):
I had gotten training at the right time. But since
I started when I did, I've kind of had to
train myself and pay attention to mentors and try to
figure out what what media I was good at and
how to use it and practice on my own.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
That way I get it. Well, I ask you that
because a lot of times when I'm working with clients
and we're talking about, you know, how do I know
my purpose? I take them back to childhood and we
look at what they were good at, what did they enjoy,
and it's usually connected, just like you've connected the dots
at the age of fifty. Moving forward, So let's go
(23:28):
back to that Facebook drawing that sort of started this
all in motion for you. Do you remember how you
felt when you shared that first Facebook drawing and got
that positive feedback that.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
You were telling it was that it was so surprising
and gratifying Tommy, to be able to that I had
done this thing. You know, when you do a drawing,
you start from nothing, you know, a blank page, and
something comes out of your head and your hand and
there it is, and then and then for people to
appreciate it. It's just a really gratifying feeling to have
(24:07):
experience that. And so you know, you say, lo, well
let's try it again. And so I started drawing. Then
after I decided I was going to do this and
tried to focus on getting better, and I'll I had
discovered Joseph Campbell in the mid to late eighties and
(24:30):
had started learning about mythology. When I started studying. Joseph Kimberle,
he was a philosopher and a scholar, had a series
on PBS called The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers,
and that's what that was my entry point into that area.
So I'd been studying on mythology for a lot of
years and I started drawing. I started having art ideas
associated with that, and I started drawing these goddess portraits
(24:55):
and I did I did one, and then did another,
and pretty soon I had several of them, and the
idea kind of germinated in my head. Well, if I
could do enough of these, maybe one of these days,
I could make a book of them, like a coffee
table book. And so that was kind of what That
(25:16):
was the focus that I took to keep. Because I
sold my art at a lot of sci fi conventions.
I did like what they call fan art and things
like that, which a lot of artists do, but I
wanted to do something that was mine that rather than
that I created from the outset. So that's reason I
(25:38):
decided to focus on the goddess art instead of just
continuing to do that. So I would be doing something
that was wholly my own, you know. And it also
kind of pulled in my other skill of the journalism
and research and writing, because when I had one of
these ideas, one of the things that Campbell said is
(25:58):
that myth has kept a lot by continuous recreation through
the arts, and so I took that as sort of
a green flag for me to say, Okay, I can
take this this image, this archetype of this goddess and
kind of put my own spin on it, my own interpretation,
my own take on it, and put that into my
(26:18):
art work. And I would do a little essay to
go with it as like a caption when I would
post it. And that's essentially what the book is is
the the art plus the essay that I wrote to
go with that art to sort of complement it. So
the art is really both of those things pulled together,
and that's what the book is.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yes, show us the book cover.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I won't open it, but here's the cover of it,
and it's all Alabama models in it.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And that's what I was going to ask you tell
us about your muses, the muses for your goddesses.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Okay, but my wife she modeled for two or three
of the ideas in the book and they're all the
people are friends and people that I know, and several
of the model for several pieces in the book and
including some for what I hope will be the next book.
(27:21):
And yeah, I felt like that was another measure of
success for me. Because we haven't mentioned it yet, I
don't know, but it's a newd artwork in the book.
And when friends were willing believed in what I was doing,
and I mean I showed them what I was doing,
(27:42):
showed them my artwork, and I would always start with
an idea sketch and say here's the idea of what
do you think, And so they wouldn't be surprised at
what we were going to do. And when they believed
in me enough to kind of buy into that and
invest themselves in it by modeling, and it's a very
(28:03):
vulnerable thing to do, and I have the highest respect
for people who are willing to make the world be
so vulnerable, to make the world a more beautiful place
is the way I look at it. And so that's
the reason I respect these model the women who model
so much, and I'm so grateful to my friends who model,
and a lot of times also they themselves inspired the
(28:28):
idea for the work, and sometimes it would be an
idea that they kind of hopped on. Sometimes the idea
started with the model, sometimes the idea started with me,
but it was always some sort of matching up with it.
I wanted to magnify something about that person's personality, because
that's the idea of Goddesses among Us, that the goddesses
(28:49):
of mythology represent the actual strengths and powers of the
women all around us, of real people. So that's the
reason I wanted to embody these goddesses with real people,
so that that's kind of the thing.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
And that sort of explains the title Goddess is among us,
doesn't it right? Right? Yeah? I had a my freshman
year roommate at Auburn was an art major, and I
remember that she had these drawing classes where there were
nude models to learn how to draw the you know,
the human form, and it was something that was you know,
(29:25):
often talked about in that in her world and all
of that and so same thing. But how different is
that from the mechanical drawing that you learned to do?
Is it when you draw it inform versus a mechanical.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yeah, it's just so much more. I mean, it's just
so human and it goes back to when I started
studying mythology. One of the things in that is a
lot of study of this paleolithic cave art, you know,
which goes back. There's famous caves, like the most fam
(30:00):
this one now is Chove, a cave in France, which
the art in that cave is like between thirty thousand
to thirty five thousand years old. Some of the oldest
things ever found are about forty thousand years and then
there's one called LESCo in France. It's about twenty five
thousand years old, I think, and I studied a lot
(30:20):
of that. In one of the things, you know, it's
the images of people, and that's what has endured. We
don't know what they were thinking. There was no writing.
All we have is the art, but it still endures
after all that time. You can look at it and
again a sense of what they were trying to communicate,
(30:40):
that you can feel something and that I wanted to
do that. I mean mechanical drawing. It's the same abilities
of being able to see an object here. I've wondered
about that, about how we evolved that ability, and there's
people talk about past recognition making you more survivable to
(31:02):
recognize a predator in the bushes or something. And that's
why we can see images in the clouds and stuff
like that. I think that's what gives people like me
when it runs in families that maybe we have a
little bit heightened sense of that. It makes us be
able to do that. But people have been doing it
for thirty five thousand years and doing the new art
(31:23):
of women that old, you know, and so that's how
long it goes back, and so I felt like I
was joining in a very long standing tradition by doing
that sort of artwork.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, it is time for our second break. When we
come back, I want to talk about your art as
healing because you've endured more losses in life and even
your own very critical health challenge, and we want to
come back and talk about how art has played a
role in all of that. So don't go far. We'll
be helped with more with Brian and sol cpr.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Zorich, a three time California state champion in Greco Roman
wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind SI's
birth was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a six
time national placer, including two seconds, two thirds, and two fourths.
He also won the Veteran's Folk Style Wrestling twice at
(32:21):
one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all these tournaments,
he was the only blind competitor. Nancy Zorich a creative
spirit whose talents have taken her to the stage and
into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father, a
commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter and
helped her fine tune her natural abilities influence her decision
(32:43):
to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zorich has enjoyed a
fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings at
twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for heartwarming
stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent, but you're not sure
how I'm Pamela d Wilson join me for the Carrying
(33:22):
Generation radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings,
six Pacific, seven Mountain, eighth Central, and nine Eastern, where
I answer these questions and share tips for managing stress,
family relationships, health, wellbeing and more. Podcasts and transcripts of
The Carrying Generation are on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com,
(33:43):
plus my caregiving library online caregiver support programs and programs
for corporations interested in supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and
support for caregivers is here on The Carrying Generation and
Pamela d Wilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And we're back. This is Soul CPR and Papillote, And
today I'm talking to my guest, Brian Krauson, who, through
job loss, actually was sort of pushed back into a
purpose that he recognizes was there all along, starting in childhood,
a skill, a passion, and now a purpose. So, Brian,
(34:39):
we talked earlier about the loss of your son at birth,
but later and during this journey of starting your art
and your collection of goddesses, you then had your own
health crisis that almost cost you your own life then you,
in a short period of time, lost your sister, your father,
(35:00):
and your mother. How did that impact or influence or
shape in any way your creative process.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
It was a huge effect on my life I had.
As I was working for years over collecting the art
for the book, I had this kind of a notion
in my head for how I really wanted it to be.
I wanted it to be a broad range, diverse range
of cultures and races of goddesses from different places in
(35:31):
the world. But I didn't have as much variety in
it as I wanted to, and so I didn't really
have a set in, you know, a goalpost for it.
I had this vague notion in my head for how
I wanted it to be perfect. But I could have worked,
I could continue to work on it for years trying
to think, you know, I don't have enough yet. Well,
(35:54):
in about six years ago, I had a colonoscopy, which
a lot of us dark to have in our fifties,
and I had a complication from it and had a
gas rountestinal bleed and I went to the hospital with it.
It was so bad and when I was in the hospital,
I passed out and they ran a code on me.
(36:15):
My wife caught me from hitting the floor, and they
couldn't even when they all ran in there. My blood
pressure was so though, they couldn't even detect my blood pressure.
So that sent me to the intensive care unit for
several days, first and only time in my life I've
been to intensive care.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Well.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
I was still recovering from that about a month later
when my little sister, who had had a long health
issue for many years, she passed away. She had liver
failure and kidney failure, and she died, literally died in
(36:53):
my arms of me and my little brother, And that
was just we just passed the sixth anniversary of her
past in a way, and then like the next that
was twenty nineteen, and then the next year it was
when the pandemic started, and around the beginning of the pandemic,
my dad had a heart attack at the beginning of
(37:14):
the summer, and I struggled to get better all summer,
and then when we thought he was about to come home,
he took a turn for the worst and had another
heart attack and died in September of twenty twenty. So
I lost my sister and then my dad, and my
mother was already suffering from Alzheimer's, and when my dad
(37:34):
was in the hospital, we took in my mother, and
my wife, who's a nurse, became her primary caregiver. And
my mother was she was almost like an infant at
this point as far as what she was able to
do for herself. And she was with us for almost
a year and a half and she passed away too
(37:54):
in early part of twenty twenty two. So in short order,
almost like once a year, I lost my sister and
my dad and my mother. My mother died in my
arms as well, and that, you know, of course, just
the grief from that of that series, Bam Bam Bam
(38:17):
was just overwhelming to me. But as far as my art,
it was a real it's hard to describe the way
that felt. Because I wanted to be able to share
the accomplishment of what I was doing with my family,
you know, with my loved ones, and I realized, well,
I've missed that opportunity. They're gone, you know, And I
(38:40):
wanted to be able to leave a legacy from my
son and for my wife of something that I created,
and that was what I was working toward with the book.
And I mentioned to you, like an example of what
I'm talking about is one of the archaeology YouTubers I
follow named Stephan my life. Milo talked to recently about
(39:03):
the handprints that you see in Paleolithic art, going back,
you know, thirty five thousand years all over the there's
hundreds of them where people would put their hand on
the wall and then blow like oakre paint around it
to leave an outline of their hand. And that's like
saying I was here, I existed. And that's the way
(39:25):
I felt about my art. You know that I wanted
to leave, and I thought, well, if I wait too long,
I might never finish it. And here I've always Jennifer
won't get to see it, my mother won't get to
see it, Daddy won't get to see it. And I
didn't want that to happen with, you know, anybody else.
That was important to me. I wanted to be able
to share that and say, here's here's who I was,
(39:48):
Here's what I did, this is what I thought was
important and so but it wasn't perfect like I had envisioned.
So I thought, well, what if I go with what
I've got? But I call it volume one, which will
imply that there's volume two coming, which will be more
of to make it what I want it to be,
(40:10):
with the broader range of diversity and in the people
that are represented there and the goddesses that are represented
in the cultures and the races. So I hope that
that sort of suggested and applied in the title of
the book. It's a long, unwieldy title, but that's kind
of the reason. And so that kind of gave me
permission to go ahead with what I with what I
(40:33):
had at that point. And I've once I put the
book to bed and got all its contents arranged. One
of my dear old friends is a graphic designer. We
worked together in the newspaper for many, many years, and
he did the layout and design work on it and
presented my work just beautifully. His name is Kenneth Carter
and grew up near you in Centerpoint. And then I've
(41:00):
I kind of lost my thread what I was, what
I was going for, But that's you got.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
That is what.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Pushed me to go ahead and finish it. It's what
I'm saying that that's that was the impact that the
grief had. It's you know, I don't want to waste
any more time by not and not be able to
share this with people if I just fiddle around for
too long chasing some nebulous idea of perfection. I decided
(41:27):
to give myself permission for it to be imperfect and
go ahead and get something done. That's what a.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Huge, such a huge message letting go of perfectionism, embracing
what is following the purpose and the passion to be
able to leave the contribution and the legacy, as you said,
And I think that's so important and something when we
face our own mortality as you actually did, and then
(41:55):
experience the mortality of those people so close to you,
and it actually drove you to move forward and allow
it to be a work of completion rather than an
ongoing project that might still be ongoing if not poor
those experiences. So in that way, I'm there some healing
(42:17):
that happened because you actually did go to publish.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
MH in the volume one of the it came out
self published with a company called book Baby, and they
went with them because they put it on all the
other sites, like it's on Amazon and other sites. But
mainly most of the the buys have come through Amazon
(42:43):
because that's such a big pool. But yeah, that was
about a year ago. And one of the can I
talk about the rewarding part of it now, is that's
a good time for one of the most art for
me has not been as financial as lucrative as my
journalism career was, but it's been really rewarding to me
(43:08):
when I connect with somebody, when I can tell that
they really understand what I was trying to do, what
I was going for. And one of the maybe the
best example of that that I can think of, happened
a little less than a year ago, because it was
not long after my book came out, and I did
an event that was on South Side. It's just a
(43:30):
little afternoon art fair with a group of artists and
selling and I had my table set up. Suzanne was
with me, and you have my prints spread out on
the table and in the in bins. Usually put the
nudes in a bin so people, you know, won't be
alarmed by the nudes when they just walk up, so
(43:51):
they have to look through the bins. And here comes
two women and a little girl about twelve or so,
walking up toward the table, and I thought, oh, well,
they're probably going to be distressed by the nudes. They
won't be here long. But they started looking through them,
and they looked and looked, and I could tell they
were interested the things they were saying. And the woman,
(44:17):
who I think was the mother of the little girl,
picked up one of the pieces out of a bin
and she looked at it, and I saw which one
it was, and I said, would you like to hear
the story behind that one? And it was a piece
that I called She Who Is Healed, and my friend
Kate modeled for it. And the genesis of that one
was that Kate had an episode of a skin cancer
(44:41):
scare and she has a scar on her arm where
the skin cancer was removed. And she had told me
when we were brainstorming ideas for art, just wandering conversation
about how when after she had this scar, that she
was dismayed when people sometimes would talk about it like
(45:06):
that's something ugly you need to cover up, that's unsightly,
shameful in some way, and she was kind of offended
by that, and I thought, yeah, I can see why,
And it made me think about some things i'd learned
about this Japanese art of kinsugi. Kinsugi. I'm not sure
of the pronunciation exactly, but it's when they take like
(45:30):
a broken cup or a broken plate, some kind of porcelain,
and they mend it with gold, and the ideas to
make the break makes it more beautiful than it was
to begin with. And so I did Kate's portrait and
I made the scar kind of luminous gold like kinsuki.
(45:50):
And that's the piece that was called She who was Healed.
And so this lady sitting they're looking at it, and
I told her that story, and without saying a word,
she lowered the strap of her sundress down chowries scar.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Well, I'm going to show you my scar. I have
one there if you can see it on camera, from
skin cancer, and I have one here on my chest
from skin cancer right there. So thank you for sharing
that story. What a beautiful way to explain some of
the stories of your goddesses. And it is time for
our third and final break, and we will be back
(46:26):
with warm with Brian and Soul. CPR.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Mike Zorich a three time California state champion in greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
six birth was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time national placer including two seconds, two thirds, and
two fourths. He also won the Veterans Folk Style Wrestling
(46:50):
twice at one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all
these tournaments, he was the only blind competitor. Nancy Zorich
a creative whose talents have taken her to the stage
and into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father,
a commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter
and helped her fine tune her natural abilities, influenced her
(47:13):
decision to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed
a fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings
at twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for
heartwarming stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent but you're not sure how.
(47:53):
I'm Pamela D. Wilson. Join me for the Caring Generation
radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evening six Pacific,
seven Mountain, eighth Central, and nine Eastern, where I answer
these questions and share tips for managing stress, family relationships, health, wellbeing,
and more. Podcasts and transcripts of The Carrying Generation are
(48:13):
on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com, plus my caregiving library.
Online caregiver support programs and programs for corporations interested in
supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and support for caregivers is
here on The Carrying Generation and Pamela Dwilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Thank you for tuning in today. We have had a
lovely conversation with artists Brian Krautsen, and we're going to
have just some closing comments now. Brian, what advice would
you have to listeners who have dealt with job loss,
or depression or any of the types of things we've
talked about today.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
The thing I've thought about this and the thing that
I would suggest not that I'm a superb, superb example
of anything, but having gone through depression, and I think
a lot of artists, especially to struggle with depression is
at least the ones among the ones I know my friends.
There are times when you just can't do anything, when
(49:33):
you can't produce, you can't you can't draw, and you
kind of are inert. But I just I had. I
ended up finding more persistence than I knew that I had.
And I think one of my biggest suggestions or takeaways
is to give yourself some grace, to be patient with yourself,
(49:54):
to be patient to get through those times and then
just come back to it. Just keep coming back to it.
And that's what I did, and it took me a
long time, but I finally did finish it. And it's
just persistence in patience with yourself, patient with the individual
piece of art, and then patient with the long goal
to patients with that to be able to say, well,
(50:15):
I've waited too late. I can't do it now, but
now I just keep coming back and keep hitting at it.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
It's never too late. It's the same with writing. And
if you had a well this was volume one, what's
next in your path?
Speaker 3 (50:30):
I've already gotten ten piece, about ten pieces done toward
volume two. Another thing that the book was designed where
it's going to be complimented by what they call oracle cards.
People have told me for years, you should do tarot
cards with your art. It reminds me of tarot cards.
But then I researched that tarot cards are very specifically organized,
(50:50):
and another friend of mine said, you should do oracle cards,
and I didn't know what that was, and she explained
to him it's basically the minudstank sort of free style
tarot cards. They're used the same way for like reflection
or just to collect as art pieces, or some people
use them for divination or just as a meditation point.
And so I have an oracle card deck that I'm
(51:14):
planning and I'm finishing up on the last piece for it,
and those will be like bonus cards in the deck
in addition to the art that was also in the book,
and I'll have that, and then I'll continue to work
on volume two of the book as I get more
portraits done.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Fantastic And if people want to find your book and
your future books are connect with you. You mentioned Amazon.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yes, my website is called art by art by Brian
krauson dot com and on my social media have I've
tried to keep the labeling consistent, my brand consistent with
art by Brian Kraus and so you can find me
under that on Facebook and Instagram and Blue Sky and
Threads and that's what my art sites are called. And
(52:03):
if you can go to my website and you can
buy individual prints and see a lot of the art
that's in the book. But in the book you have
the context of all the essays and everything and you
can kind of see the overall picture of what it's about.
And you can also order it her in an Amazon
and they've had it on sale recently.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Yeah, and I have the book and it's very tastefully done.
So when we say news, it's tasteful, it's beautiful. Brian,
I love it. I love that Suzanne modeled for you,
your wife. What a gift that is. And happy anniversary,
by the way, to the two, thank you you have
to give this. What's the secret to your long standing marriage? Ran?
Speaker 3 (52:44):
The patience thing, I guess comes into that too, just
continuing to drop each other up through those difficult times
and you know, taking turns doing that. She kept me
from hitting the floor when I had that episode in
the hospital, and I've done the same recently for her
when she had a little a health problem. So We
(53:06):
literally have kept each picked each other off the floor,
both literally and figuratively over the years, so we'll keep
doing it as long as we.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Can, I'm sure. So looking back, do you see the
job loss as a blessing in disguise?
Speaker 3 (53:24):
Yes, in a way, I felt like I needed to
do something different, and it gave me the opportunity to
do what I think I was best suited for. I
think this is this is the confluence of the things
that I'm best at, of my skills and my talents.
So and I'm trying, you know, expressing myself with that.
(53:45):
My voice is now in my art instead of just
in my writings, and it's a combination of the two.
So I feel real good about that.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
So for listeners who've lost their jobs or are afraid
to sue their passions, or maybe somebody's clinging to something
that's familiar and holding on really tight even if it
doesn't fulfill them, what might you say to them?
Speaker 3 (54:11):
It's very freeing in a way to be able to
just go after the thing that you really feel driven about,
that you're most passionate about. Now, my wife supported me
through all this, and I couldn't have done it without that.
So there are considerations to do it, but you can
still go after the thing that really moves you the
most and makes you feel the most passionate to do.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Absolutely, it's been good, all right, wonderful. Well, Brian, it
has been just a pleasure to have you on the
show and to reconnect in this way that we have,
and we need an RLC reunion, wouldn't you agree. I
think we're going to have to do that. Maybe this
will be the spark for that. Well. I do thank
(54:57):
you for being here, and I think are listeners and
our viewers for tuning in today. As this episode of
sol CPR comes to a close, remember that healing is
not a linear journey. It is a process of profound transformation.
And if today resonated with you, and please share it
with someone else who might need a lifeline of the
(55:19):
subscribe rate and leave a review to help us reach
more hearts. And you can find all of Brian's contact
information in the show notes for today, as well as
my contact information. You can connect with me on Facebook,
It's guide You Coaching, and on all the other social
media platforms at end Popyoti. It's hard to spell, but
you can find it. Let me know your thoughts, your stories,
(55:41):
and your ideas and topics you'd like to explore in
future episodes, and we'll make them happen. The show is
for you, so thank you for listening. Until next time,
May you find strengthen your vulnerability and courage in your journey.
Always breathe deeply, love openly, and live soulfully.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
Good day everyone, This has been sole CPR with host
and Papa Yode Breede life back into your spirit with
each episode where.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
She and special guests explore the relationships that hurt us
and discover that healing can only begin with you. Tuesdays
at three pm Eastern on the Bold Brave TV network
Are you ready to untangle from your past, recover from heartbreak,
and revive your life. This is Sole CPR with your
host and Papa Yode. We've all had soul crushing experiences
and lost ourselves in our pain, but there is a
way out. On this podcast, Amazon best selling author, award
winning life coach and advice columnist and Papa Yode helps
(00:28):
us navigate the path from heartbreak to healing. So now
please welcome the host of Soul CPR and Papa Yode.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Have you ever lost your job? Well? Statistics tell us
that forty percent of Americans have or will at least
once in their career span, and that forty eight percent
have layoff anxiety, So at least forty eight percent worry
about it.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Today on Soul CPR Healing Out Loud, we are going
to talk about how losing a job might actually push
you into your purpose. So today I am going to
welcome my guest, Brian Krausen, who worked as a journalist
at a major daily newspaper for about twenty seven years,
(01:22):
a decade as a reporter and seventeen years as a
copy desk chief, and then in twenty twelve he was
laid off, and after some months of uncertainty and reflection,
he decided to change directions at the age of fifty
and reinvent himself as an artist. After spending a decade
(01:43):
developing his art skill and building a body of work,
he published a book of his art work, Goddesses among Us.
The Art of Brian Krausen, Volume one was launched on
March twelfth, twenty twenty four, and we are going to
talk about that beautiful book book of art today. He
and his wife Susanne have been married thirty four years
(02:04):
this month, and they live in suburban Birmingham, near their
son Matthew and his partner Christa. Brian, my friend, an
eighth grade classmate. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Happy to be here, all right, Brian sate the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Absolutely well, you know, just say, an eighth grade classmate
just kind of brought a jolt back. You and I
just went to this RLC. It was called Resource Learning
Center School just one year each, right, and it was
a bit of a It was sort of an experimental school,
if omber correctly, where they brought kids out of different
(02:43):
schools from Jefferson County system and fed into this one
school and anyway, we had the pleasure getting to know
each other and then reconnected via Facebook as so many
of us have, and I'm happy that we've reconnected talking
about losing a job, and I think so many people
(03:06):
can relate. As we said forty percent of Americans. I
know we have listeners around the world, but I'm sure
the statistics you know are true for others as well.
Take us back to twenty twelve, if you will. What
was it like losing your journalism job, your career so suddenly,
and as you've shared with me in private, without any recognition, right.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, I've been there my entire career since i'd graduated
from college, and like you said, ten years as a reporter,
then briefly as a copy editor, and then the copy
desk chief left and I put in for the job
and got it pretty soon after joining the copy desk,
and was there for seventeen years doing that job, you know,
(03:57):
presiding over the copy desk with all the stories coming through,
even and present election nights and all that kind of
thing is. And then a wave of layoffs hit the industry,
specifically the chain that I worked for, and a bunch
of people got laid off at the New Orleans Times,
(04:18):
pickying right before us, and then and the same day
they laid off people at my newspaper in Birmingham and
the one in Huntsville and the one in Mobile. So
they pretty much flooded the job market locally with people
with my skill set, people who did the same kind
(04:41):
of things that I did. And so in order to
keep going in journalism, I would have had to probably
move to another city, you know, somewhere else, because it's
pretty specialized kind of work, right and my mother, my wife,
needed to stay near her mother, so that wasn't really
good prospect. So I was kind of aimless for a
(05:02):
while and didn't really know what I wanted to do.
I'd already been kind of feeling kind of misplaced in
journalism in the last few years. It was high stress
during those years because we knew something was coming, because
we quit having like annual cost of living raises and
(05:22):
things were getting tighter and tighter. They were doing early
by out retirement packages for some of the senior people,
and then of course it got all of us and
they told us in the spring, okay, you you and
you are being laid off. It was like seventy five
percent of the newsroom, and we had to stay, like
we call ourselves, a walking dead until the fall when
(05:45):
it actually hit. And then one day when we all
just had to throw our badges in a basket at
the door, at the door and we were gone. So
that's the way that went. That was in September, and
I was kind of just aimless and not sure what
(06:05):
to do with myself until it was around January or February.
And I've always drawn, sketched and drawn, you know, margins
of my school notebooks and since I was a kid,
but I never really thought about being an artist for
a living or for a career. I told as we
(06:28):
talked about I thought I was going to be a
uh air. I wanted to be a pilot. I applied
for ROTC. My eyesight wasn't good enough, so I saw, shoot,
what am I going to do? So I decided to
go into engineering like my father. My dad was a
mechanical engineer, and I tried tried that at college and
(06:51):
the math and science kind of wiped me out. I
didn't do well in that, and I thought, well, what
am I going to do? I'm not doing well in this.
But I had a mechanical drawing class as in pre
engineering that I asked. I did really well in that
because I can turn objects in my mind, which is
most of what that class was is being able to
(07:12):
see something and see what would look like from another side. Right,
And so I changed. But that salvaged my self esteem.
But that should have pointed me toward art, but I
failed to latch hold of that. And I took an
interest inventory test and scored high in journalism. So I thought, well, okay,
(07:36):
I'll try that. And so I'm kind of bumped into journalism.
But I never had planned a career step before. I
just reacted to opportunities that I had. Because the plan
that I have was derailed just immediately. So then I
was like, well, what am I going to do? Right?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
And so then throughout a lot of people that I recall,
so yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, and so then and then I did this when
I was talking about drawing a drawn all along, and
then I did this a face. A friend of mine
named Brandy Uh posted a profile picture of herself on
Facebook that was I thought was really pretty. So I
thought I'll try to draw that, and so I sketched
(08:25):
a little portrait of her and posted it, and I
was shocked. I was really pleasantly surprised. It got such
a nice reaction from so many different people on Facebook,
and it kind of, you know, light bulb moment. Well,
maybe I'll try being an artist. I thought about it
when I was a freshman at Auburn, but I just
(08:46):
didn't have the self confidence to try it. I never
really considered that as a real possibility for a job,
you know, that something you could make a living in.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Sure, I want. I want to go acts something you
said about self esteem before we get into your taking
off into art as a career, because I imagine when you
left your career after twenty seven some odd years, like
we said, without fanfare, without recognition, throw your badge in
a garbage can at the door, imagining listeners relating to
(09:21):
that if forty percent of Americans have experienced or will
no fanfare. And I know in my career we would
celebrate retirements as people chose to leave. There was always,
you know, a ceremony of people leaving.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Its exactly right. It was almost a ritual when before
the time of the big layoff, when someone would retire
or go away, and especially after being along, there a
long time, and a lot of people were there were
a very long time. It was the largest paper in
the state, and we were the best paid at that time,
(10:00):
and so people just stayed for years and years and years,
and when somebody would leave, they'd have a little party
and have like almost like a little pot luck dinner
and people have food, and they'd have a little speech,
and it made a big kerfuffle about it. And but
then when our time came, it was just, you know, right,
(10:21):
get out. And so that was a big difference. And
I left kind of feeling just like, you know, very unappreciated.
At least it did me, And I think you did
a lot of my.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Colleagues and what And that's what I was. How did
you navigate those feelings of unappreciated and that significant loss,
because I know what psychologists tell us about job loss
when it's that significant time invested in a career. How
(10:54):
how deep did you go in your feelings of loss?
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Oh it was I didn't rebound as well as some
of my friends did that bounced traight back and found
another place to another niche. And because I was, I
had already been feeling kind of misplaced. And when that happened.
I was like, Okay, I've ridden this horse until it
(11:18):
died under me. I've gone as far as I'm going
to be able to go in this. But then I
was at that place where I just didn't know where
I was going to step next. I didn't I didn't
know what to do. And so when I said I'd
always reacted to opportunities, that was the first time that
(11:41):
I proactively chose a path that I wanted to do,
rather than just stepping on something that presented itself in
front of me. And so that's I decided to do
that then, and I felt good about it. And anyway,
so what part of it shall we discuss next?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, well, I imagine were there was there a deep
sense of loss even though you started forging a new path.
Would you even say you experienced depression on some level?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, because it's a lot of your identity,
especially being a newspaper person, that's kind of a thing.
You know, there's a lot of camaraderie amongst the people
you work with. I don't know if you know of
John Archibald. He was he won Pulitzer Prize. He's one
of the people I started off with. We were colleagues
(12:39):
from the outset. I covered Walker County for a while
right out of college before I got moved into the newsroom.
And then when I got moved into the newsroom in
March of nineteen eighty six, that's when John stepped into
the beat that I was in. Of course, he did
a lot better in journalists I did, surprise, but that was. Uh,
(13:07):
it's a lot of your identity and when that's taken
away from you, and that's all I've that's all I've
done for almost thirty years, my entire career, and really
it was longer than that because I worked at the
Plainsman at Auburn for two or three years before I graduated,
so I've been doing journalism before that. So really it
really was thirty years if you count the time at
(13:28):
the Plainsman.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Sure so. So identity, stability, all of that, I think,
camaraderie at the workplaces where we spend the majority of
our waking hours, so all of those relationships. So, yes,
depression is one of those. But this wasn't your first
experience with a great loss. Resulting in your question, you
(13:51):
and I here things in common. Besides having gone to ROLC.
We both went to Auburn. We both majored in journalism.
We both also sadly lost a child. So take it
back to that, because if I understand it right, that
might have been your first experience with great loss and depression. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I probably had some mild depression all my life. But
our first son, Matthew, was born in nineteen ninety four.
He's thirty, he's thirty now and he'll be So he
was a little kid, and we were expecting our first child,
(14:34):
our second child, another little boy, and we got up
to full he was due at the end of July first,
nineteen ninety nine, at the end of June.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
He was still born at full term and looked just
like our first son had. So it was that and
I might get upset talk about but that messed me
up for a lot of years. In my wife too,
(15:09):
and I wasn't a good father for a long time.
And finally I got a counselor that helped me cope
with it a little bit better. But it's it's always
it's always right there kind of with you, and it
revisits less frequently, but it's always present. And so I'd
(15:32):
always struggled with some depression because of that, and so
then when you kind of the rug gets pulled out
from you with the career loss, it's kind of a
double whammy, I guess. I mean, it wasn't immediate at
that time because we lost the baby in nineteen ninety
nine or his name was Silas, I think I said,
and then and the layoff was in twenty twelve, and
(15:55):
it was a few months until early twenty thirteen that
I'd decided to embark on this path, right is I
was going to turn fifty that year.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So yeah, so well, thank you for sharing about Silas.
My son's name was Janson, and all of these things
happened close to the same year, so thank you for
sharing about that. But I and that's one thing I
was going to ask you was did you cope on
your own? Did you go and have some kind of
(16:26):
help with that? And I appreciate your sharing that with
our audience, because I do recommend that someone seek help
with their grief, because grief is real and sadness is deep.
When we have a significant loss, and it's not something
we have to bear on our own. There is some
guidance that can help us through that so that we
can navigate.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I went to a support group for a while in
the immediate, you know, months after we lost Silas. And
one thing that I discovered that's maybe is unique about
losing a baby. I don't know if you experienced this,
but it's very isolating because if you mention that you've
(17:10):
lost the baby, you get this feeling like people think
you're looking for sympathy, but if you talk about it,
they immediately try to change the subject. Because I came
to think that people it's so awful for people to
imagine and try to empathize with it, they just don't
want to to They don't want to go there in
(17:33):
their own minds, and so they just don't want to
talk about it. So you kind of feel shut out
because of that. And I think that's the reason a
lot of people, there are a lot more people around
us who have suffered miscarriages and stillbirth than you ever realize,
because people don't talk about it. And I think that's
a big reason why. It's because people don't want to
hear it, and they'll, you know, they'll they'll deflect by saying, oh,
(17:55):
he's a better and a better place now and stuff
like that, and you don't want to hear that, it
just makes you mad. And I don't know. There's just
a lot of things about that that I that's a
whole other podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It is, I think because people don't know what to
say and they have to do what's comfortable for them,
and sometimes it's saying nothing, which can be just as hurtful. Well,
it is time for our first break. When we come back,
we're going to pick up right where you left off
with starting that career towards art after that loss and
(18:29):
again using your path rather than having it sort of
just being what's in front of you or or available
to you. So we're going to talk about that and
share your book when we come back, So don't go far.
We'll be back for SULCPR.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Mike Zurich a three time California state champion in Greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
six birth, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time now National placer, including two seconds, two thirds,
and two fourths. He also won the Veteran's Folk Style
Wrestling twice at one hundred and fifty two pounds. In
(19:10):
all these tournaments, he was the only blind competitor Nancy Zorich,
a creative spirit whose talents have taken her to the
stage and into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father,
a commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter
and helped her fine tune her natural abilities influence her
decision to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed
(19:34):
a fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings
at twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for
heartwarming stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent but you're not sure how.
(20:09):
I'm Pamela d Wilson. Join me for the Carrying Generation
Radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings, six Pacific,
seven Mountain, eighth Central and nine Eastern, where I answer
these questions and share tips for managing stress, family relationships,
health wellbeing, and more. Podcasts and transcripts of The Carrying
Generation are on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com, plus
(20:32):
my caregiving library. Online caregiver support programs and programs for
corporations interested in supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and support
for caregivers is here on The Carrying Generation and Pamela
d Wilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Welcome back everyone. You are listening to Soul CPR and
ther gold Grade TV Network. I'm in Popaoti today with
my guest, Brian Krause, and we are talking about guest
to the drawing Board, how losing a job led to
an artistic calling. Literally you were talking about always doodle
in your notebooks and all of those types of things.
(21:15):
Did anyone ever notice your gift of drawing when you
were young? In comment on.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
It, yeah, I in fact I had a few little
drawings at one contest at one time or another, and
it was always just part of who I was. That
kind of ran in my family. My dad's mother painted portraits,
(21:41):
and my dad could draw, and he could paint, but
he channeled all his artistic skill into engineering drawings. And
that sort of thing that was his niche. And did
I mention about what Daddy told me when I dropped
out of engineering. What before when I decided that I
(22:03):
wasn't going to go any farther with engineering, He said, well,
I always knew you just wanted to draw airplanes, you
didn't want to design them. And I didn't pick up
on that as being a hint or a nudge towards
art at the time, but in retrospect, maybe it was,
and I just failed to perceive it as that. But
(22:26):
I did grow up drawing a lot and was complimented
for it, just it was like a hobby rather than
something that was you know, I should have allied. Some
people make their career in art. There are people that
do that, and I just didn't think of that as
a possibility for me because I didn't think I was
good enough. Looking back, I think I probably was if
(22:48):
I had gotten training at the right time. But since
I started when I did, I've kind of had to
train myself and pay attention to mentors and try to
figure out what what media I was good at and
how to use it and practice on my own.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
That way I get it. Well, I ask you that
because a lot of times when I'm working with clients
and we're talking about, you know, how do I know
my purpose? I take them back to childhood and we
look at what they were good at, what did they enjoy,
and it's usually connected, just like you've connected the dots
at the age of fifty. Moving forward, So let's go
(23:28):
back to that Facebook drawing that sort of started this
all in motion for you. Do you remember how you
felt when you shared that first Facebook drawing and got
that positive feedback that.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
You were telling it was that it was so surprising
and gratifying Tommy, to be able to that I had
done this thing. You know, when you do a drawing,
you start from nothing, you know, a blank page, and
something comes out of your head and your hand and
there it is, and then and then for people to
appreciate it. It's just a really gratifying feeling to have
(24:07):
experience that. And so you know, you say, lo, well
let's try it again. And so I started drawing. Then
after I decided I was going to do this and
tried to focus on getting better, and I'll I had
discovered Joseph Campbell in the mid to late eighties and
(24:30):
had started learning about mythology. When I started studying. Joseph Kimberle,
he was a philosopher and a scholar, had a series
on PBS called The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers,
and that's what that was my entry point into that area.
So I'd been studying on mythology for a lot of
years and I started drawing. I started having art ideas
associated with that, and I started drawing these goddess portraits
(24:55):
and I did I did one, and then did another,
and pretty soon I had several of them, and the
idea kind of germinated in my head. Well, if I
could do enough of these, maybe one of these days,
I could make a book of them, like a coffee
table book. And so that was kind of what That
(25:16):
was the focus that I took to keep. Because I
sold my art at a lot of sci fi conventions.
I did like what they call fan art and things
like that, which a lot of artists do, but I
wanted to do something that was mine that rather than
that I created from the outset. So that's reason I
(25:38):
decided to focus on the goddess art instead of just
continuing to do that. So I would be doing something
that was wholly my own, you know. And it also
kind of pulled in my other skill of the journalism
and research and writing, because when I had one of
these ideas, one of the things that Campbell said is
(25:58):
that myth has kept a lot by continuous recreation through
the arts, and so I took that as sort of
a green flag for me to say, Okay, I can
take this this image, this archetype of this goddess and
kind of put my own spin on it, my own interpretation,
my own take on it, and put that into my
(26:18):
art work. And I would do a little essay to
go with it as like a caption when I would
post it. And that's essentially what the book is is
the the art plus the essay that I wrote to
go with that art to sort of complement it. So
the art is really both of those things pulled together,
and that's what the book is.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yes, show us the book cover.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I won't open it, but here's the cover of it,
and it's all Alabama models in it.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And that's what I was going to ask you tell
us about your muses, the muses for your goddesses.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Okay, but my wife she modeled for two or three
of the ideas in the book and they're all the
people are friends and people that I know, and several
of the model for several pieces in the book and
including some for what I hope will be the next book.
(27:21):
And yeah, I felt like that was another measure of
success for me. Because we haven't mentioned it yet, I
don't know, but it's a newd artwork in the book.
And when friends were willing believed in what I was doing,
and I mean I showed them what I was doing,
(27:42):
showed them my artwork, and I would always start with
an idea sketch and say here's the idea of what
do you think, And so they wouldn't be surprised at
what we were going to do. And when they believed
in me enough to kind of buy into that and
invest themselves in it by modeling, and it's a very
(28:03):
vulnerable thing to do, and I have the highest respect
for people who are willing to make the world be
so vulnerable, to make the world a more beautiful place
is the way I look at it. And so that's
the reason I respect these model the women who model
so much, and I'm so grateful to my friends who model,
and a lot of times also they themselves inspired the
(28:28):
idea for the work, and sometimes it would be an
idea that they kind of hopped on. Sometimes the idea
started with the model, sometimes the idea started with me,
but it was always some sort of matching up with it.
I wanted to magnify something about that person's personality, because
that's the idea of Goddesses among Us, that the goddesses
(28:49):
of mythology represent the actual strengths and powers of the
women all around us, of real people. So that's the
reason I wanted to embody these goddesses with real people,
so that that's kind of the thing.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
And that sort of explains the title Goddess is among us,
doesn't it right? Right? Yeah? I had a my freshman
year roommate at Auburn was an art major, and I
remember that she had these drawing classes where there were
nude models to learn how to draw the you know,
the human form, and it was something that was you know,
(29:25):
often talked about in that in her world and all
of that and so same thing. But how different is
that from the mechanical drawing that you learned to do?
Is it when you draw it inform versus a mechanical.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yeah, it's just so much more. I mean, it's just
so human and it goes back to when I started
studying mythology. One of the things in that is a
lot of study of this paleolithic cave art, you know,
which goes back. There's famous caves, like the most fam
(30:00):
this one now is Chove, a cave in France, which
the art in that cave is like between thirty thousand
to thirty five thousand years old. Some of the oldest
things ever found are about forty thousand years and then
there's one called LESCo in France. It's about twenty five
thousand years old, I think, and I studied a lot
(30:20):
of that. In one of the things, you know, it's
the images of people, and that's what has endured. We
don't know what they were thinking. There was no writing.
All we have is the art, but it still endures
after all that time. You can look at it and
again a sense of what they were trying to communicate,
(30:40):
that you can feel something and that I wanted to
do that. I mean mechanical drawing. It's the same abilities
of being able to see an object here. I've wondered
about that, about how we evolved that ability, and there's
people talk about past recognition making you more survivable to
(31:02):
recognize a predator in the bushes or something. And that's
why we can see images in the clouds and stuff
like that. I think that's what gives people like me
when it runs in families that maybe we have a
little bit heightened sense of that. It makes us be
able to do that. But people have been doing it
for thirty five thousand years and doing the new art
(31:23):
of women that old, you know, and so that's how
long it goes back, and so I felt like I
was joining in a very long standing tradition by doing
that sort of artwork.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Well, it is time for our second break. When we
come back, I want to talk about your art as
healing because you've endured more losses in life and even
your own very critical health challenge, and we want to
come back and talk about how art has played a
role in all of that. So don't go far. We'll
be helped with more with Brian and sol cpr.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Zorich, a three time California state champion in Greco Roman
wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind SI's
birth was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a six
time national placer, including two seconds, two thirds, and two fourths.
He also won the Veteran's Folk Style Wrestling twice at
(32:21):
one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all these tournaments,
he was the only blind competitor. Nancy Zorich a creative
spirit whose talents have taken her to the stage and
into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father, a
commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter and
helped her fine tune her natural abilities influence her decision
(32:43):
to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zorich has enjoyed a
fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings at
twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for heartwarming
stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent, but you're not sure
how I'm Pamela d Wilson join me for the Carrying
(33:22):
Generation radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings,
six Pacific, seven Mountain, eighth Central, and nine Eastern, where
I answer these questions and share tips for managing stress,
family relationships, health, wellbeing and more. Podcasts and transcripts of
The Carrying Generation are on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com,
(33:43):
plus my caregiving library online caregiver support programs and programs
for corporations interested in supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and
support for caregivers is here on The Carrying Generation and
Pamela d Wilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And we're back. This is Soul CPR and Papillote, And
today I'm talking to my guest, Brian Krauson, who, through
job loss, actually was sort of pushed back into a
purpose that he recognizes was there all along, starting in childhood,
a skill, a passion, and now a purpose. So, Brian,
(34:39):
we talked earlier about the loss of your son at birth,
but later and during this journey of starting your art
and your collection of goddesses, you then had your own
health crisis that almost cost you your own life then you,
in a short period of time, lost your sister, your father,
(35:00):
and your mother. How did that impact or influence or
shape in any way your creative process.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
It was a huge effect on my life I had.
As I was working for years over collecting the art
for the book, I had this kind of a notion
in my head for how I really wanted it to be.
I wanted it to be a broad range, diverse range
of cultures and races of goddesses from different places in
(35:31):
the world. But I didn't have as much variety in
it as I wanted to, and so I didn't really
have a set in, you know, a goalpost for it.
I had this vague notion in my head for how
I wanted it to be perfect. But I could have worked,
I could continue to work on it for years trying
to think, you know, I don't have enough yet. Well,
(35:54):
in about six years ago, I had a colonoscopy, which
a lot of us dark to have in our fifties,
and I had a complication from it and had a
gas rountestinal bleed and I went to the hospital with it.
It was so bad and when I was in the hospital,
I passed out and they ran a code on me.
(36:15):
My wife caught me from hitting the floor, and they
couldn't even when they all ran in there. My blood
pressure was so though, they couldn't even detect my blood pressure.
So that sent me to the intensive care unit for
several days, first and only time in my life I've
been to intensive care.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Well.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
I was still recovering from that about a month later
when my little sister, who had had a long health
issue for many years, she passed away. She had liver
failure and kidney failure, and she died, literally died in
(36:53):
my arms of me and my little brother, And that
was just we just passed the sixth anniversary of her
past in a way, and then like the next that
was twenty nineteen, and then the next year it was
when the pandemic started, and around the beginning of the pandemic,
my dad had a heart attack at the beginning of
(37:14):
the summer, and I struggled to get better all summer,
and then when we thought he was about to come home,
he took a turn for the worst and had another
heart attack and died in September of twenty twenty. So
I lost my sister and then my dad, and my
mother was already suffering from Alzheimer's, and when my dad
(37:34):
was in the hospital, we took in my mother, and
my wife, who's a nurse, became her primary caregiver. And
my mother was she was almost like an infant at
this point as far as what she was able to
do for herself. And she was with us for almost
a year and a half and she passed away too
(37:54):
in early part of twenty twenty two. So in short order,
almost like once a year, I lost my sister and
my dad and my mother. My mother died in my
arms as well, and that, you know, of course, just
the grief from that of that series, Bam Bam Bam
(38:17):
was just overwhelming to me. But as far as my art,
it was a real it's hard to describe the way
that felt. Because I wanted to be able to share
the accomplishment of what I was doing with my family,
you know, with my loved ones, and I realized, well,
I've missed that opportunity. They're gone, you know, And I
(38:40):
wanted to be able to leave a legacy from my
son and for my wife of something that I created,
and that was what I was working toward with the book.
And I mentioned to you, like an example of what
I'm talking about is one of the archaeology YouTubers I
follow named Stephan my life. Milo talked to recently about
(39:03):
the handprints that you see in Paleolithic art, going back,
you know, thirty five thousand years all over the there's
hundreds of them where people would put their hand on
the wall and then blow like oakre paint around it
to leave an outline of their hand. And that's like
saying I was here, I existed. And that's the way
(39:25):
I felt about my art. You know that I wanted
to leave, and I thought, well, if I wait too long,
I might never finish it. And here I've always Jennifer
won't get to see it, my mother won't get to
see it, Daddy won't get to see it. And I
didn't want that to happen with, you know, anybody else.
That was important to me. I wanted to be able
to share that and say, here's here's who I was,
(39:48):
Here's what I did, this is what I thought was
important and so but it wasn't perfect like I had envisioned.
So I thought, well, what if I go with what
I've got? But I call it volume one, which will
imply that there's volume two coming, which will be more
of to make it what I want it to be,
(40:10):
with the broader range of diversity and in the people
that are represented there and the goddesses that are represented
in the cultures and the races. So I hope that
that sort of suggested and applied in the title of
the book. It's a long, unwieldy title, but that's kind
of the reason. And so that kind of gave me
permission to go ahead with what I with what I
(40:33):
had at that point. And I've once I put the
book to bed and got all its contents arranged. One
of my dear old friends is a graphic designer. We
worked together in the newspaper for many, many years, and
he did the layout and design work on it and
presented my work just beautifully. His name is Kenneth Carter
and grew up near you in Centerpoint. And then I've
(41:00):
I kind of lost my thread what I was, what
I was going for, But that's you got.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
That is what.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Pushed me to go ahead and finish it. It's what
I'm saying that that's that was the impact that the
grief had. It's you know, I don't want to waste
any more time by not and not be able to
share this with people if I just fiddle around for
too long chasing some nebulous idea of perfection. I decided
(41:27):
to give myself permission for it to be imperfect and
go ahead and get something done. That's what a.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Huge, such a huge message letting go of perfectionism, embracing
what is following the purpose and the passion to be
able to leave the contribution and the legacy, as you said,
And I think that's so important and something when we
face our own mortality as you actually did, and then
(41:55):
experience the mortality of those people so close to you,
and it actually drove you to move forward and allow
it to be a work of completion rather than an
ongoing project that might still be ongoing if not poor
those experiences. So in that way, I'm there some healing
(42:17):
that happened because you actually did go to publish.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
MH in the volume one of the it came out
self published with a company called book Baby, and they
went with them because they put it on all the
other sites, like it's on Amazon and other sites. But
mainly most of the the buys have come through Amazon
(42:43):
because that's such a big pool. But yeah, that was
about a year ago. And one of the can I
talk about the rewarding part of it now, is that's
a good time for one of the most art for
me has not been as financial as lucrative as my
journalism career was, but it's been really rewarding to me
(43:08):
when I connect with somebody, when I can tell that
they really understand what I was trying to do, what
I was going for. And one of the maybe the
best example of that that I can think of, happened
a little less than a year ago, because it was
not long after my book came out, and I did
an event that was on South Side. It's just a
(43:30):
little afternoon art fair with a group of artists and
selling and I had my table set up. Suzanne was
with me, and you have my prints spread out on
the table and in the in bins. Usually put the
nudes in a bin so people, you know, won't be
alarmed by the nudes when they just walk up, so
(43:51):
they have to look through the bins. And here comes
two women and a little girl about twelve or so,
walking up toward the table, and I thought, oh, well,
they're probably going to be distressed by the nudes. They
won't be here long. But they started looking through them,
and they looked and looked, and I could tell they
were interested the things they were saying. And the woman,
(44:17):
who I think was the mother of the little girl,
picked up one of the pieces out of a bin
and she looked at it, and I saw which one
it was, and I said, would you like to hear
the story behind that one? And it was a piece
that I called She Who Is Healed, and my friend
Kate modeled for it. And the genesis of that one
was that Kate had an episode of a skin cancer
(44:41):
scare and she has a scar on her arm where
the skin cancer was removed. And she had told me
when we were brainstorming ideas for art, just wandering conversation
about how when after she had this scar, that she
was dismayed when people sometimes would talk about it like
(45:06):
that's something ugly you need to cover up, that's unsightly,
shameful in some way, and she was kind of offended
by that, and I thought, yeah, I can see why,
And it made me think about some things i'd learned
about this Japanese art of kinsugi. Kinsugi. I'm not sure
of the pronunciation exactly, but it's when they take like
(45:30):
a broken cup or a broken plate, some kind of porcelain,
and they mend it with gold, and the ideas to
make the break makes it more beautiful than it was
to begin with. And so I did Kate's portrait and
I made the scar kind of luminous gold like kinsuki.
(45:50):
And that's the piece that was called She who was Healed.
And so this lady sitting they're looking at it, and
I told her that story, and without saying a word,
she lowered the strap of her sundress down chowries scar.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Well, I'm going to show you my scar. I have
one there if you can see it on camera, from
skin cancer, and I have one here on my chest
from skin cancer right there. So thank you for sharing
that story. What a beautiful way to explain some of
the stories of your goddesses. And it is time for
our third and final break, and we will be back
(46:26):
with warm with Brian and Soul. CPR.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Mike Zorich a three time California state champion in greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
six birth was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time national placer including two seconds, two thirds, and
two fourths. He also won the Veterans Folk Style Wrestling
(46:50):
twice at one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all
these tournaments, he was the only blind competitor. Nancy Zorich
a creative whose talents have taken her to the stage
and into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father,
a commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter
and helped her fine tune her natural abilities, influenced her
(47:13):
decision to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed
a fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings
at twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for
heartwarming stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent but you're not sure how.
(47:53):
I'm Pamela D. Wilson. Join me for the Caring Generation
radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evening six Pacific,
seven Mountain, eighth Central, and nine Eastern, where I answer
these questions and share tips for managing stress, family relationships, health, wellbeing,
and more. Podcasts and transcripts of The Carrying Generation are
(48:13):
on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com, plus my caregiving library.
Online caregiver support programs and programs for corporations interested in
supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and support for caregivers is
here on The Carrying Generation and Pamela Dwilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Thank you for tuning in today. We have had a
lovely conversation with artists Brian Krautsen, and we're going to
have just some closing comments now. Brian, what advice would
you have to listeners who have dealt with job loss,
or depression or any of the types of things we've
talked about today.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
The thing I've thought about this and the thing that
I would suggest not that I'm a superb, superb example
of anything, but having gone through depression, and I think
a lot of artists, especially to struggle with depression is
at least the ones among the ones I know my friends.
There are times when you just can't do anything, when
(49:33):
you can't produce, you can't you can't draw, and you
kind of are inert. But I just I had. I
ended up finding more persistence than I knew that I had.
And I think one of my biggest suggestions or takeaways
is to give yourself some grace, to be patient with yourself,
(49:54):
to be patient to get through those times and then
just come back to it. Just keep coming back to it.
And that's what I did, and it took me a
long time, but I finally did finish it. And it's
just persistence in patience with yourself, patient with the individual
piece of art, and then patient with the long goal
to patients with that to be able to say, well,
(50:15):
I've waited too late. I can't do it now, but
now I just keep coming back and keep hitting at it.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
It's never too late. It's the same with writing. And
if you had a well this was volume one, what's
next in your path?
Speaker 3 (50:30):
I've already gotten ten piece, about ten pieces done toward
volume two. Another thing that the book was designed where
it's going to be complimented by what they call oracle cards.
People have told me for years, you should do tarot
cards with your art. It reminds me of tarot cards.
But then I researched that tarot cards are very specifically organized,
(50:50):
and another friend of mine said, you should do oracle cards,
and I didn't know what that was, and she explained
to him it's basically the minudstank sort of free style
tarot cards. They're used the same way for like reflection
or just to collect as art pieces, or some people
use them for divination or just as a meditation point.
And so I have an oracle card deck that I'm
(51:14):
planning and I'm finishing up on the last piece for it,
and those will be like bonus cards in the deck
in addition to the art that was also in the book,
and I'll have that, and then I'll continue to work
on volume two of the book as I get more
portraits done.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Fantastic And if people want to find your book and
your future books are connect with you. You mentioned Amazon.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yes, my website is called art by art by Brian
krauson dot com and on my social media have I've
tried to keep the labeling consistent, my brand consistent with
art by Brian Kraus and so you can find me
under that on Facebook and Instagram and Blue Sky and
Threads and that's what my art sites are called. And
(52:03):
if you can go to my website and you can
buy individual prints and see a lot of the art
that's in the book. But in the book you have
the context of all the essays and everything and you
can kind of see the overall picture of what it's about.
And you can also order it her in an Amazon
and they've had it on sale recently.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Yeah, and I have the book and it's very tastefully done.
So when we say news, it's tasteful, it's beautiful. Brian,
I love it. I love that Suzanne modeled for you,
your wife. What a gift that is. And happy anniversary,
by the way, to the two, thank you you have
to give this. What's the secret to your long standing marriage? Ran?
Speaker 3 (52:44):
The patience thing, I guess comes into that too, just
continuing to drop each other up through those difficult times
and you know, taking turns doing that. She kept me
from hitting the floor when I had that episode in
the hospital, and I've done the same recently for her
when she had a little a health problem. So We
(53:06):
literally have kept each picked each other off the floor,
both literally and figuratively over the years, so we'll keep
doing it as long as we.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
Can, I'm sure. So looking back, do you see the
job loss as a blessing in disguise?
Speaker 3 (53:24):
Yes, in a way, I felt like I needed to
do something different, and it gave me the opportunity to
do what I think I was best suited for. I
think this is this is the confluence of the things
that I'm best at, of my skills and my talents.
So and I'm trying, you know, expressing myself with that.
(53:45):
My voice is now in my art instead of just
in my writings, and it's a combination of the two.
So I feel real good about that.
Speaker 2 (53:55):
So for listeners who've lost their jobs or are afraid
to sue their passions, or maybe somebody's clinging to something
that's familiar and holding on really tight even if it
doesn't fulfill them, what might you say to them?
Speaker 3 (54:11):
It's very freeing in a way to be able to
just go after the thing that you really feel driven about,
that you're most passionate about. Now, my wife supported me
through all this, and I couldn't have done it without that.
So there are considerations to do it, but you can
still go after the thing that really moves you the
most and makes you feel the most passionate to do.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Absolutely, it's been good, all right, wonderful. Well, Brian, it
has been just a pleasure to have you on the
show and to reconnect in this way that we have,
and we need an RLC reunion, wouldn't you agree. I
think we're going to have to do that. Maybe this
will be the spark for that. Well. I do thank
(54:57):
you for being here, and I think are listeners and
our viewers for tuning in today. As this episode of
sol CPR comes to a close, remember that healing is
not a linear journey. It is a process of profound transformation.
And if today resonated with you, and please share it
with someone else who might need a lifeline of the
(55:19):
subscribe rate and leave a review to help us reach
more hearts. And you can find all of Brian's contact
information in the show notes for today, as well as
my contact information. You can connect with me on Facebook,
It's guide You Coaching, and on all the other social
media platforms at end Popyoti. It's hard to spell, but
you can find it. Let me know your thoughts, your stories,
(55:41):
and your ideas and topics you'd like to explore in
future episodes, and we'll make them happen. The show is
for you, so thank you for listening. Until next time,
May you find strengthen your vulnerability and courage in your journey.
Always breathe deeply, love openly, and live soulfully.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
Good day everyone, This has been sole CPR with host
and Papa Yode Breede life back into your spirit with
each episode where.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
She and special guests explore the relationships that hurt us
and discover that healing can only begin with you. Tuesdays
at three pm Eastern on the Bold Brave TV network
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