Your Creative Midlife

How many of you out there have dreams of forming a rock group with your pals playing the music you love? In this episode, members of the Nantucket-based Beatles cover band, Cranberry Alarm Clock, discuss their recent experience traveling to Liverpool to perform at the International Beatle Week Festival.

Band members Phil Proch, Tom Proch, Frankie Hunter, Skip Curtin share their origin story, how they came together as musicians in midlife on Nantucket. They reflect on the importance of community, the joy of playing music, and the strong, ego-free dynamic that defines their group.

They also describe the thrill and pressure of playing at the legendary Cavern Club, and the overwhelming support they received from their local community and from friends and family who traveled to see them.

Covered in the podcast:

• The trend of individuals in midlife picking up artistic pursuits they had set aside for careers and family, using their passion to build new social connections and experiences.
• An emerging path for hyper-local artists to achieve international recognition.
• Success and longevity comes from strong personal dynamics, a lack of egos and a shared focus on having fun.

Resources:

Follow Cranberry Alarm Clock on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/cranberryalarmclock/

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

“What an interesting life you’ve led.  You should write a book.”  Has anyone ever told you that?  Or maybe you’ve thought this about your own life?   There are many reasons to write a memoir.  You may find it cathartic to “get it all out there” or maybe you have a life story that you think readers will find entertaining.  Either way, says memoirist and writing workshop leader Sarah Saffian, there is a difference between therapeutic writing for its own sake and writing for publication.  Working through these distinctions in a workshop setting with an experienced teacher can help you get your memoir writing to the place you want it to be.

Covered in the podcast:

• How Sarah Saffian helps students craft a compelling story that will engage an audience.
• Approching your life story with necessary emotional distance and perspective
• Receiving and giving feedback in a workshop setting is a valuable learning experience that helps writers improve their own craft.
• Why it's important In a workshop to "critique the work and not the life” to keep the focus on the craft of writing
• Why Sarah encourages students to read extensively in the memoir genre to deepen their understanding of the craft.
• Sarah's strategies for managing concerns about family members, should your memoir be published.

Interviewee Background: Sarah is a licensed clinical social worker, therapist, and author. Her memoir, "Ithaka: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Found," about her experience as an adoptee reconnecting with her birth family, has been called a classic of the adoption genre. She teaches memoir and profile writing at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and has developed a "Therapeutic Writing" approach that combines her expertise in psychology and creative writing.

saffian.com

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

Stella Fosse retired from her biotech career ten years ago and started writing.  Her work encompasses a surprising range, from blogs to novels to non-fiction guides for midlife women who want to write their own stories filled with love and romance.  Her new book is “Rock On: Power, Sex & Money After 60”.  As she says, “Nobody told me how great life after 60 could be.”  

This episode covers:

• How Stella began her writing journey by joining a writing group that challenged her to write sexy stories for a live audience.
• How she was motivated to write stories featuring older women to show others what is possible in later life.
• Stella’s background in biotech inspired her romance novel "Vampires of a Certain Age," featuring a 500-year old woman.
• When Stella identified a gap in the market for romance novels with older women, she wrote a guide to encourage more writers to fill this niche.
• She advocates for the use of community resources like the North Carolina Writers Network, the Willamette Writers, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) as great starting points for aspiring writers.

About Stella Fosse

In her sixties, Stella Fosse graduated from a biotech career to write sexy stories as a creative antidote to gendered ageism. Stella’s story collection, The Erotic Pandemic Ball, explores romance in quarantine. Her novel Brilliant Charming Bastard is a romantic escapade through the San Francisco tech scene. Her second novel, Vampires of a Certain Age, celebrates the love life of a 500-year-old woman. She launched two books on writing to inspire the creativity of older women. Aphrodite's Pen: The Power of Writing Erotica after Midlife was followed by Write & Sell a Well-Seasoned Romance. For the last ten years, Stella has published essays on creativity, romance, and older women's health. Her upcoming book, Rock On: Power, Sex & Money after Sixty, distills the wisdom of that decade. Website:  www.stellafosse.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StellaFosseAuthor/

LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/stellafosse

Instagram:  @stella.fosse

Substack: stellafosse.substack.com

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

Discovering your creative outlet can be beneficial on many levels.  Just ask John Kneapler, who found that painting helped him through the death of both parents.  Then the impact of COVID on his graphic design business led him to move into painting full-time. John describes the profound importance of finding a creative passion and a supportive community, which he discovered at the Art Students League in New York City. We talk about overcoming perfectionism, the value of combining business skills with an art practice, and the challenge of finding purpose in retirement.

John encourages others: “Nobody's the best. Nothing's perfect. If you get a result that's 80%, sometimes it's plenty. You are doing fine.”

Topics covered in this episode:

• How arts practices, such as painting, can help combat isolation that may come with aging 
• The health benefits to pursuing creative passions with others, as found in the maxim, "if you find your passion and do it with a like-minded community, you'll add seven years to your life.” 
• How "the new longevity" may mean your retirement might be almost as long as your career, making it crucial to find meaningful pursuits.
• How John uses his marketing skills to mentor fellow art students on the business side of their art, helping them set up an Instagram page, find a gallery, or otherwise promote their work.

John Kneapler is an artist who grew up in Miami, Florida, with an early talent for art. Discouraged by his parents from pursuing fine art as a career, he studied at Pratt Institute and founded John Kneaper Design, a prominent graphic design and branding company in New York. His firm worked with high-profile clients such as MoMA and Citerella. Following significant life events, including the loss of his parents and the closure of his business during the pandemic, he retired from graphic design to pursue his lifelong passion for painting.   He serves on the board of the Art Students League in New York City.

Resources:

John Kneapler’s Website: https://johnkneaplerpaintings.com/

John Kneapler’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnkneaplerpaintings/ 

John Kneapler Design firm (closed): https://www.johnkneaplerdesign.com/

The Art Students League: https://www.artstudentsleague.org/ 

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

Summer can offer us time to contemplate the future and imagine life changes. If you are on Nantucket, you might consider consulting Suzanne Keating. She's an astrologer with a longstanding practice on the island.  With interest in astrology and tarot growing, it's a great time to learn more about this ancient practice.  Our talk also covered the historical roots of astrology and its connection to modern psychology through figures like Carl Jung.  For Suzanne, astrology and tarot is not about fortune-telling, but a tool for validation, helping people find purpose and to understand if they are on the right path. Nothing is inevitable, she stresses.  It is up to her clients to use their free will to make decisions.  

This episode covers:

• The importance of creating natal charts for a truly personal astrology reading
• How to make the most of an astrology reading, using the information given and your own free will to decide your next steps
•  What really happens in a tarot card reading 
• What the feared tarot cards "Death" and “Devil” REALLY symbolize
• Suzanne’s hypothesis as to why so many houses on Nantucket are believed to be haunted

Suzanne Keating is a professional astrologer with a longstanding practice on Nantucket. She began studying astrology in her early thirties, initially as a self-taught practitioner, before pursuing formal development through workshops with the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR) and conferences. She earned her certification from the International Society for Astrological Research after passing a rigorous six-hour exam. 

Suzanne’s contact info:  https://www.pathwaysofthesoulack.com

[email protected]

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

Sometimes the first step in your midlife creative journey is to look back at the things you loved as a kid. For Lela Goldstein, it was building on her love of paper, images, colors and patterns that led her to explore the world of collage. As she approached retirement, she discovered collage as an ideal creative outlet: with “just scissors and paper and glue and something to put your images on,” collage offers endless creative possibilities with minimal investment. Starting just before the pandemic, Lela’s work has continued to grow and explore as she has joined on line groups that encourage, share and critique others’ collage work. Most recently, she took part in the Kolaj Institute’s 2023 seminar in New Orleans and her collage was chosen for the cover of the book, Magic in the Modern World, by Ric Kasini Kadour. She has recently moved to a new community and has joined an arts group, showing that arts practice can help connect you to a new
community.

Collage has a lot to offer the beginner
 Doesn't require extensive technical skills and or expensive tools
 Offers endless creative possibilities with no strict rules
 Source materials can come from old magazines, greeting cards, receipts,
stamps, children's books, and game pieces found at book fairs, antique malls,
flea markets, thrift stores
 Collage books and videos are available for beginners. Search collage techniques
on YouTube or follow collage artists on Instagram
 Check out Collage Lab, an online community run by artist Kelly Schaub, makes it
easy to interact with other collage artists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLvVfMkQBnY

-http://kolajmagazine.com/content/

-https://www.instagram.com/lelaco/?hl=en
-https://kolajmagazine.com/content/content/collage-books/magic-in-the-modern-world/

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

The popular Shanty Cruise offers a unique experience for visitors and locals alike—evoking the spirit of long-ago ship crews who sang these working songs as they hoisted sails and weighed anchor. For anyone exploring creative pursuits in midlife or retirement, it’s a reminder that it’s never too late to join in something joyful, musical, and community-driven.

Betsy’s conversation with the singers—both in studio and aboard the Minke—dives into the history and origins of sea shanties, as well as their personal experiences performing for passengers. Many of the songs are familiar, and passengers often find themselves singing along—making for an unforgettable summer evening on Nantucket Harbor.

The singers themselves—mostly year-round Nantucket residents, with a few summer regulars—combine their day jobs on the island with the joy of singing on the water. Many are also active in local theater and creative arts, reflecting the vibrant artistic community on Nantucket.

Special thanks to Shanty Singers Tom Loughlin, Jack Bulger, Pam Murphy, Jenny Gifford, and Pete Sendelbach. And a big thanks to Minke owner Rachel Perkins of Nantucket by Water.

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

Lynn Savarese, a Harvard-trained lawyer, discovered her love of photography when she took a beginner's photography class at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y. Soon after, she volunteered to photograph taxidermied birds at the American Natural History Museum, bringing her own materials and artistic viewpoint to the project. Lynn’s astonishing presentation of the birds led to her first solo exhibition, launching her photography career.

Points covered in this episode:

 Learning to use all the features of your camera to utilize its full potential, even if
your camera is an iPhone.
 The importance of experimenting, playing, and finding joy in the process of
photography, rather than focusing solely on the end result.
 How Lynn has used her photography to raise awareness of issues important to
her, such as promote legal protections for survivors of human trafficking.
 The transformative power of photography and its ability to capture and honor the
lives of others.
 Her current focus on nature photography that captures water and trees in a
painterly, abstract style.
 Her use of different photographic materials and presentation techniques to
enhance the artistic quality of her work.

NOTE: This episode discusses specific photographs, which can be seen on the
YouTube episode and on our website.

Lynn’s Website: https://www.lynnsavarese.com/

Lynn’s aviary exhibition: https://www.lynnsavarese.com/my-still-life-aviary

Lynn’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynnsavaresephotography/

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

Your Creative Midlife – Nantucket Edition

Your Creative Midlife is visiting Nantucket for special episodes this summer. Nantucket is a beautiful wedge of sand 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Just 14 miles long and 7 miles wide, it has a storied human history—from early Indigenous people to English settlers to becoming one of the wealthiest towns in the mid-1800s at the height of the whaling industry. Today, it’s a place full of inspiring people in midlife who are finding creative opportunities to reinvent themselves and pursue new passions after retirement.

This episode features Kathi Loughlin, Executive Director of On the Isle, a long-standing community theater group that builds on the legacy of the early 20th-century Actors Colony. It’s a powerful example of how late-blooming artists and post-retirement creatives are keeping the arts alive on Nantucket.

On the Isle, with players drawn from both year-round and summer residents, presents musicals and plays to sold-out houses for one weekend each July. They perform in the historic Sconset Casino, a beautiful gathering space built through the fundraising efforts of the original actors. Community-based productions like these are a vibrant part of Nantucket’s creative aging landscape and offer midlife adults meaningful ways to express themselves through the arts.

Kathi shares her experience leading the group, drawing on her previous career as head of her own advertising firm. She reflects on her deep connection to Sconset, the spirit and lore of the Actors Colony, the creativity used when working with Artistic Director Carl Schmehl in choosing works to perform each summer, and the joy of artistic collaboration in later life. Her story is a perfect example of creative reinvention in midlife.

This year’s production is Working, based on the book by Studs Terkel, adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso, with additional music by other Broadway composers. It’s a celebration of work, purpose, and passion—timeless themes that resonate deeply with people exploring second acts and creative purpose after 50.

https://www.ontheisle.org/

https://www.sconsetcasino.com/

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!

Dan Moretti is a lawyer in New York City who is finding success as a playwright.  During COVID, Dan started writing one-act plays, which have since been produced by New York theater workshop groups with professional actors.  His plays draw inspiration from his own life experiences, including his background as a lawyer. Dan tells about the inspirations for his work, how his attorney training helps him structure his plays and how he broke into the NYC world of theater workshops, where new works are discovered.
Topics we cover:
 Where he gets his ideas and inspiration. His plays "The Groomer" and "Ascension Day" tackle timely social and political issues.
 How he structures his plays, drawing on his experience as a trial lawyer to keep the narrative arc on track.
 How he connected to the New York theater community, getting his plays selected for production and attracting the involvement of experienced Broadway actors and
directors. 
 How he sees playwriting as a fulfilling creative outlet and a potential retirement activity, so different from his work as a lawyer.

Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts.  And see more about Betsy Bush and her guests at www.yourcreativemidlife.com.  Are you on your own artistic or creative journey?  We want to know about you!  Please contact us through the website.  Dare to follow your muse!