Rob Lee: Welcome to the Truth and Authority. Your source of the conversations connecting art, culture, and community. These are stories that matter, and I am your host, Rob Lee. Except no substitutes. Today I am honored to share my conversation that was recorded in person with my next guest, an accomplished actress, artist, writer, director, and New York Times bestselling author. Many listeners may know my guest from her eight seasons opposite Dick Van Dyke on Diagnosis Murder or her long-running role on The Young and the Restless. My guest is here today to discuss her solo photography exhibition, A Woman Becomes, opening at the Merlin Institute College of Art here in Baltimore on September 25th. Joining me today is Victoria Raoul. Welcome to The Truth in a Sartre.
Victoria Rowell: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Rob Lee: It's a pleasure to have you um here today. I like to go into it like it's a conversation. All the formalities of post production. It's all the fun stuff. But um, you know, today I want to talk to you a bit about your background about this exhibition that's coming soon, but before we get into the bigger parts of this uh conversation, I want to give you the space and opportunity for the listeners who for whatever reason aren't aware of who you are. Could you introduce yourself?
Victoria Rowell: Uh my name is Victoria Rowell. I was born in Maine. I grew up on a working farm. Uh I had a innate love of um dance, and we're all born into movement. And um my foster mother, Agatha Armstead, was a jazz pianist and she sang and she painted and she gardened and she was a renaissance woman, she made clothes and she was also photographer.
Um self-taught photographer. Um she encouraged me to do my creative movement. She would just say Vicky dance and she'd play the piano, and so that was my introduction. I I would say um an encouragement, and then that led to um the auditioning for a scholarship, a summer scholarship in '68 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a very prestigious ballet school, the Cambridge School of Ballet that opened its doors to include black and brown children that particular summer when the country was in turmoil. Um with the assassinations of Megda Evers and King and uh Canada and Vietnam War, and so the executive uh director and artistic director, Esther Brooks, who recently passed at 99 years old in Florence, Italy, opened her doors to black and brown children, marginalized um children living in poverty essentially, and um it was an incredible um uh how shall I put it? It
was a prayer that was offered to someone like myself and so many others. So many of us didn't have Leotard type ballet slippers. Um I auditioned in red kids. Um and initially, and um that scholarship, that full scholarship lasted for all of my rudimentary training till eight years old, and then I auditioned for American Valley Theater School with that curriculum, and then I won a full scholarship with a stipend. Um
still not emancipated out of foster care, still under the the care of Tal Welfare. Um and uh uh uh and then uh yeah, then you know, I went on from there to um be invited to participate in some print work, um, conde nast, um, that was exciting, um and then invited to consider acting, which was very foreign to me because I was used to the expression and telling a story, essentially ballet is acting, but with the body and with the facial expressions, and then to use my voice, uh, because you are voiceless, um, when you're um performing um typically a ballet, and so that was new. And I started in commercials. I did a lot of commercials Rob and um that was a great um learning curve for me and uh and then you know that branched out to speaking roles and ultimately um auditioning for um an ABC prime time pilot in Los Angeles and also young and the restless and I got that part that lasted for a collective 14 years um and then um simultaneously for six of those years I started off as a Dick Van Dyke on Diagnosis Murder and that show continues to air on Hallmark um and both shows have foreign distribution as well so
Rob Lee: there's thank you actually one of one of the cool things about um having the guests like hey what's your stories essentially you're able to let them cook and it makes me look like a better interviewer because it knocked out two questions already so shout out to you thank you and it's like um being on sort of a being on young and a restless and being on the dick and uh being on diagnosis murder it's sort of we're with you all day in a sense of be in the morning it's like oh we're we're late morning after early afternoon and in the evening.
Victoria Rowell: Yeah and they broke our uh a rule uh it's it's it's kind i it's I don't have we'd have to review but it was either a spoken or unspoken rule that you didn't have a star of a television show also in a commercial within those hours because it took the audience out of this fictitious role that you were portraying. But because soap opera is rooted in Procter Gamble which started the business in pig fat which was the original um start um uh and then into detergent um hence how soap operas began we began in radio 1934 and that was to sell soap to housewives and of course domestic workers also might have caught a little bit of the soap and so an audience was born first on radio and then the advent of television later and but it was to sell oxidol soap to housewives so the idea was not to um again going back to me being on in daytime and prime time on a s on a same day for weeks on end I was then you know presented um soap commercial opportunities because I was pulling an audience which leads us to advertising dollars. Right
and network television, linear television depends on ad buys on the advertising dollars which are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. So I ended up doing Oil of Ole um which would run in between for um for example um so yeah
Rob Lee: kind of kind of a big deal so what want to move into this this sort of next question because you know early on you you you touched on sort of b dance ballet and then sort of commercial acting then speaking parts television and film. And film. And and film and then you know as we get further down as directing and writing and and we'll be going deeper into some some of these other areas but early on what felt the most natural and what was perhaps the most challenging like starting off like all right I got this immediately this is amazing like fish to water and then this was like maybe not a fish to water.
Victoria Rowell: Well classical ballet felt it was just my singular passion. Sure. Um and um I am asked where were your examples and so there were two shows that would come on television in Maine it was the Ed Sullivan show and the June Taylor Dancers and there was the Ted Mac hour which was a variety show. And I remember I saw a toe tapper and it was amazing. She was in point shoes and with taps at the time I was just astounded um but ballet was my singular passion and I had a natural um you know well I want to say everyone has a natural ability to dance because we're all born with movement that society we're all turned out we all have perfect turnout and we go what is perfect turnout it's just a rotation of the hips. We all are born your baby's legs just flop and their arms flop open but it is in life and in society that our bodies turn inward to each other. And our muscles tighten and they and we have less flexibility in our joints. But we're all born with full flexibility. Um's um persons born with um physical talent is and um so and so ballet felt felt natural, but then there is the actual very stringent curriculum. And um, but I was up for the challenge, and then even going to New York for an intensive summer program before I won the scholarship that was afforded to me by my last foster family, Mr. and Mrs. Silverman,
who sent me with their one of their daughters who was one of my best friends, who I studied who I studied with. Um that was eye-opening because I saw the competition and that sent me back and to really work hard. So it becomes less of a aspirational and um dream and more of oh, this is a tremendous amount of work and sacrifice, and then building the calluses that you must build on your feet, on your toes, your heels, that and like a gymnast builds, like a boxer, like a rower. I
mean, it's it's we are athletes, ballet dancers. What felt most natural for me was playing the role of Drusilla. It was so much fun playing the the range of the character from uh an adult illiterate person to a learning curve of uh literacy program on air, which I requested, then to once again I brought in the ballet storyline to the writer, too brought in the foster care adoption storyline, foster care adoption storyline, and it and I liked really the interaction that I got to have with particular actors. Um and then beyond that was the outgrowth of a role that was embraced by the audience, not only domestically across the board, but globally, um, because the show was licensed by Sony to a hundred countries. So that role felt really natural. Of course, there are other roles that I really um really loved playing, but that was I would say the most natural in terms of my long-term character portrayals.
Rob Lee: That's great. Thank you. Um there's I've been looking at this. Uh I was having a conversation before coming in here, just talking about the hustle, like I'm always on this loop. On that uh Amtrak, going to Philly. I got two interviews, coming back to Baltimore. I
can't interview. Yeah. And there's a period that we're we're hustling where it's like early on, weather it's like hustling for funding, hustling between opportunities, um, piecing together gigs at times. And then there's that breakthrough. What was it like sort of like early on, perhaps um uh maybe uh in in acting or maybe in sort of like directing where like this is the this is the hustle right now, this is the grind, but then that breakthrough comes. Can you share an experience like that?
Victoria Rowell: Many oh my god, there is so many hustles, the hustle of I can't live in New York, I can't afford it, to going back to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where I eventually uh lived with my foster mother because she had property in Roxbury, Massachusetts, which at the time was not gentrified, which was a complete culture shock when we moved to Roxbury from Maine, in part because of my ballet scholarship after that summer, and I was offered full. But also Agatha is her first name, had already had ten children, nine surviving. She had grandchildren when she took myself and my two sisters in, um, and she and her husband, Robert. Um so they were Bostonians, but she purchased that farm just for clarity with welding money that she saved during World War II at the um shipyard. So
um I wanted to make that clear. So we were ushered to Roxbury, which was a very complicated you're a kid and you're listening to oh, we're crossing state lines and the main social worker and i it's in it's really quite something when you're in the holistic monolithic governmental establishment of health and human services because it covers more than just child welfare and you're hearing these big words and you're hearing the complexities of law as a child and you're trying and you're understanding that you're living in secrecy I know I'm going a little bit off the grid of what you originally said but it does address um living in secret like you're an open secret but you're living in secrecy like we're not gonna tell the social worker yet we're not going to say I'm putting you on the trailways bus by yourself at eight to go audition and my son will meet you at the bus stop. We're not you get it and so um just to keep me on track um there was that but I but in terms of the challenges going back to that um living in New York having had success and then it gets difficult you do the work but the f if you don't have the wrap around services you could be the most gifted violinist you could be a Paganini you could be a Barishnikov you could be a Misty Copeland but if you don't have the wraparound services I'm not saying I was any of that I just wanted to be in the Court of Ballet and travel um and feel a part of a family which ballet became for me if you don't have the wraparound services a couple of things are gonna happen. You're
either going to give up this is across the board anyway you're gonna give up you're going to give up or worse become depressed and defeated and that's a dark that can go very dark. Or you leave said city as we see an exodus happening right now in Los Angeles because of the state of the industry and this consolidation pause bubble where people have lost their jobs and cannot afford to work in Los Angeles in the industry in the entertainment industry or you stay in a reality and keep your light lit even though you know you must face reality perhaps move back to Roxbury where you once lived perhaps move back in with said foster mother um and teach ballet classes in inner city to boys in sneakers which I gratefully did. I worked for the Alma Lewis School of Fine Arts and another school in Roxbury and other schools and when I got enough ballast back in the ship and my foster mother passed away um in this time I moved back to New York and uh carried on
Rob Lee: that's thank you I mean it's I'm visiting New York tomorrow so now it's just in my head it's like all right you know is that an illusion you're gonna make it up here. It's I have friends who are who are in the inner entertainment industry in Los Angeles and they're like I don't know if you need to visit Rob or friends who are in New York and cobbling together being on that hustle for um a number of weeks right like I'm visiting you know tomorrow and through the through the weekend for like three art shows and I was like hotel let's see what that looks like. Yeah. 541 before holiday in like I'm my guess.
Victoria Rowell: Well if I might interject so um a couple of things with um the bounty that comes out of growing up in foster care is that we're extremely resilient and practical people. So plus my foster mother was fabulous I mean she dressed fabulously she was such an elegant woman not of financial means rich in property rich in ability she taught me how to pick clothes at goodwill which I still go to St. Vincent de Paul and um Salvation Army um and you know garage sales and so of course we got donations of used clothing but she taught me how to put those things together and to still be competitive that said back to the living situation in hotel. There
are a number of ways that you can stay in New York for two under $300. Lean in. So totally in. So the Catholic Church owns an inordinate amount of property globally. And they have a list of dwellings that you can stay at. I want to say it's St. Leo's on the same street as the Chelsea Hotel that I stayed at. Breakfast, I think it includes breakfast, So you want to look for that. And
then as I say, Google in Homesteads, the YMCA on the Upper East Side between Madison and Park, I stayed there. It's a single, Who needs more than a single? A single, your security, they've got a gym. And yeah, if you need inspiration, just look up and pretend you live in the penthouse. But
there's so many ways that you can make it work. Also, Chinatown offers really inexpensive boarding. Besides that, in terms of struggle, yeah, I've had to run a electrical court or two into the basement of my landlord's building to so I had electricity. Obviously, roommates galore. And then you know, you find yourself living in circumstances that are just plain dangerous. Right.
Rob Lee: So it's um it's sort of that that point in that error, like um, you know, I'm looking at this, I pretty much have things kind of self-contained. It's like, oh, go a little bit in this direction in that direction, but I find when there's an opportunity to perhaps extend and it's like see where this growth can go, that's when it becomes a bit a bit more tenuous. But
I think on it, there's two things that come out of it. Um sort of maybe stretching almost like resistance training. It's like, oh, you can look more. Yes, I'm stronger now. It's building capacity of I can do more interviews, or I don't mind taking this long trip, and I'm able to still do the stuff that I I need to do. But I think the other thing, and this is tied to an interview I I saw with you in the in the research, in the research that I did. Um I was able to connect with folks. The reason why my trip is gonna be a little easier is because I've gotten a few friends up there um in New York, and it's like, hey, can I stay with you? Yeah.
Sure, you're a good guy, come on up. And these are people I barely know, but they feel that there's a connection from whether doing this podcast or seeing me come up there. And there's an interview that I saw going times of challenge. You've you've yeah, heard you use this term bouquet of friends.
Victoria Rowell: I'm sorry, a bouquet of friends. Oh, absolutely, I still do. I still use it.
Rob Lee: Could you share more on this and how it served you in this creative life of yours?
Victoria Rowell: Uh yes. Um not to backtrack, but couch surfing is an absolute yeah, it's an absolute. Um so a bouquet of friends. Because life is not singular or one-dimensional, you can't expect one friend to be the turn the person you turn to um all the time. Um, and so life gets heavy and and life is also joyous. And
I think I believe anyway, that one must be sensitive and self-edited. If things are going fabulously for you, you don't necessarily want to call your friend who's dealing with hardship and you know, layer on how all things are great in one's life. Um, and on the other hand, uh you do need a friend or friends that you can lean into when things aren't great, and I think in respecting the friendship and um being tonally aware, um, those friends are there to receive you. Uh I believe in reciprocity and friendship. Um retaining friendship is work. It's
an investment at times that are inconvenient, not only convenient for you. And so the of friendships I learned again out of my childhood, and I still retain my friendships. In fact, I'm doing an artist in residence uh after Micah at the University of Southern Maine. Um
and one of the offerings will be a conversation with Victoria Rowell and Linda Webb, and Linda Webb uh was my childhood social worker in Maine, and she's a graduate of the University of Southern Maine, it's a college of social work. And we um the premise of the conversation is reciprocity communication, not in the devices per se, but communication and letting people know how they impacted your life, including friends especially. So the bouquet of friends is multidimensional. What is friendship? Well,
I had to learn early. There are friends. There are those true blue friends that you're always going to have that you share, well, that you have to share a history with. And then you have collegiate perhaps or whatever your university is or was, in my case, it was classical arts, my university, and then you have professional friends, and you mustn't get confused about the friend and the professional friend. Yes. And think that you can call your professional friend with your very intimate problems. There lie a problem. So bouquet of friendships.
Rob Lee: That's that's wonderful when you know I and seeing the the the interview that that was mentioned, and I started rethinking my relationship with the idea friends. Um I um jokingly I'll say like I have 1.3 friends. And uh my partner, we were at a um an event last two weeks ago, and she's like, Oh, another one of your friends. So the numbers get a little higher. Right.
And she's like, that person's really happy to see you. They don't live here, and they are connected to you, and they're excited to connect with you even further and build a deeper thing. And she's that mentioning this reminder of be open for that and and doing this research and and hearing what you have to say about the bouquet of of friendships and friends. It
really just solidifies that for me. Yes. Thank you. Shift
gears. We're here at MICA. We're here in the building. So I want to shift gears into your solo photography exhibition, a woman becomes opening at the Merlin Institute College of Art. I said that as if I wrote it. Um can you say something about the title and the story of the exhibition?
Victoria Rowell: Um a woman becomes is the timeline between girlhood and womanhood, and what happens between that span of time. And it focuses on the inordinate power and invisible strengths of the female anatomy. Uh
I dive into the little talk about testosterone that women possess to have children, to move the refrigerator across the kitchen, to move a couch, to lift their own weight and more, and the weight is also metaphorically also held in the head, is heavy. It's joyous. Um, the weight on head, shoulders, backs, hips, um, the scars, the wounds, the healing, the forgiveness, the love, the beauty, the grace. Um, and the silence that oftentimes comes with all of that. Um, and so I just societally women just globally are hardwired to care, to be caregivers and fixers and healers, but also are broadly speaking, uh globally are expected to do all in silence and to be pleasant. Um and that hasn't changed much over time. Um the exhibition a woman becomes is to be thought provoking and to ask the viewer to finish the sentence for themselves, whether it's an your aunt or your mother or your sister or the other part of it is the girls that don't make it and the reasons why, perhaps. So
um and it's anecdotal. I I will have mixed media pieces, architectural pieces that will be an evidence of travel, of the journey, it's about the path and the pathway, um, between that spectrum of time from girlhood to womanhood.
Rob Lee: So in thinking through it, and thank you for that now. I'm just like I want more questions. I want different questions now. Um but how did from like that initial sort of idea of hmm exhibition, this could be good. I
want to I want to have this piece in there, I want to have this image in there. What was that process like from the original sort of ideation that germination to where we're at now?
Victoria Rowell: Well, I've had I've I'm creative.
Rob Lee: Well, obviously. I mean, I was looking at the laundry list of things.
Victoria Rowell: Um and once again I go back to the quintessential mentor that I had who was Agatha Armstead. And I she allowed me to redecorate as a child. She and she had a lot to do. And if um her family were visiting, she, what is Vicky doing down there? And she's I was in the woodshed, rearranging tools. The
ha the farm was the farmhouse was over 200 years old, it was very old, and there was all kinds of inherited things from the previous farmers, and so I wanted to to fix the woodshed, which is quite large, and she would just let me design down there. Um so that said, I always like to to put the seed into the conversation because it was that that she gave me permission to do that. So the items um that I wanted to put in the show and in the mixed media pieces, are one in particular is reflective of Agatha. I
wanted to put her squarely in the show. Um things I inherited from her, such as her brownie camera, her rosary beads, and other things. Um I'm fascinated with suitcases and luggage because I've had so I've had so many moves in my life. I've been a very transient um person because of my beginnings and um because of my selection of work that requires me to be a journey woman in theater first with classical ballet and then of course with film and theater. Um
and obviously in directing. Um so the fascination of luggage and all that goes into the packing um is fascinating to me. Um That's so that's part of it. And
also um, you know, I I took a germ of of a quote and um applied it to myself. Um but I am the woman that is given dead woman's clothing. And so it never mattered to me that I decorated a first apartment well stu or UDO, because my spaces were s were smaller than a studio, so they're called the I called it an Uudio. I like that but um I decorated my first apartments with street furniture, with street found dishes, everything was street, pretty much, unless someone gave me something. Um and fine and repurposing things. Um so m the mixed media pieces are found objects and an inheritance. One of the pieces is called the inheritance, which is which features Agatha and what is an inheritance. Right. Yeah.
Rob Lee: So would inheritance, since that's it had this question around sort of one piece that would be like representative if it was that the one, like, hey, you have to check this out, you have to see this when you check out this exhibition, would it be inheritance or would would it be one that
Victoria Rowell: well I'll just say that there all the pieces of powerful um all the pieces are powerful. I I will say from the photography, um there is a piece um titled uh danger and um these and lunch, these are two pieces where you see the physical labor and the physicality that is throughout the exhibition because it is about movement and the mechanics, the the anatomy of of the female body, at which I am the subject, but also the autonomy, you know, over body. Um the conversation I hope provokes conversation about movement not only going to pleasure but also running from danger and the mobility of of the body and all that it is impacted by and all that it has to heal from. Um
so to your question, um danger, um the lunge is really powerful and it depicts um carrying weight. Um in terms of my mixed media pieces it the inheritance is certainly a powerful piece, but another piece um uh is um titled Electric Current and um I don't want to really go into the detail of electric current right now, except that it has to do with the importance of being touched and touching and um how we get to that or how that is prohibited. So the pieces are to be thought provoking in some cases some people may say, well, this is provocative a piece, um, but um it is to really inspire thought and evaluate one's own experiences to perhaps consider it a safe space to peel the onion and to look back and to know that it's okay.
Rob Lee: The art and the work that I see that I'm very interested in has that that that that facet to it of is this inspiring conversation discourse, is this broadening my thinking? I I lean towards the provocative, so that's just top of paper. So I have one more, and I I say this somewhat species. I have one more real question, and then there's the rapid fire. Okay. Um
then the face is a couple more left. Uh so uh another interview, because again, uh that's been some time. You ever watch those like uh detective movies with the red strain? I
feel like I was doing that with you like I'm doing it. mostly interviews. Um watch an interview where um you were suggested that you were in a different chapter of your story and that retirement wasn't something that was on your mind. And
uh like the expression right there, like I'm not I'm not done. Um and staying busy is is more about um if it's staying busy, you know, picking up and and doing all types of things, it's almost like side missions and stuff, is that more about finding new challenges? Is it uh pursuing curiosity, independence or or something more?
Victoria Rowell: It's a culmination of all that I have been gifted with and recognized and it's something that I've always done. So for example, with photography, I documented because Agatha taught me how important documentation was, not only for the beauty of Vicky, we're gonna take a picture, and she would stage photography, stage it of her bio family, but also of nature of her garden, of an appreciation of nature, Mother Nature is a through line throughout a woman becomes exhibition. Um but to document so I had proof that I was there. Yeah.
And that would be very important for me. And so in this exhibition, um I've always been at the table of photography. I had the pleasure of being of of being a subject and watching because people don't realize they're teaching you. They're not stating, I'm your teacher. You
have to be ready and available to be the student. And so I would watch Patrick Dimashier when I was working with this great photographer and Bruce Weber that I got to work with. And this is all when I'm a ballet dancer, but being being invited to do these photo shoots for Seventeen magazine, Condé Nast, and I would watch and I would study as much as I could. Um I worked uh uh also with um a former our partner, Peter Sova, Peter Milan Sova, Czechoslovakian cinematographer and so photographer. Um
lots of stories, but I was a student always. So that's photography. And then in terms of design, I just have the ability. It
is just a matter of allowing yourself to be creative, and I automatically can see that this chair is a shelf. I know exactly how to turn something and make it into something else, first out of necessity from childhood. Um and also the subject of a show that Robert um Johnson um when he had uh when he ran all black, which was just um acquired by Macro, um Charles King and Stacey King, which is a big announcement in the trades, um, but gave me the green light to produce and direct episodes of a show I did called Trash versus Treasure, and it's about working with low-income mothers and their children and repurposing what they have, what they thought was no good, found objects and some new things, but not ripping out pipes and walls. The
show is very, very popular and it's available uh you you can see it on YouTube, the b the trailer that is. But I say all that to say is that I've been designing, it comes natural, um photography we've talked about. I documented everything when I was working. Um
and people would say there she is with the camera again. Um I documented my travels um uh going on um philanthropic goodwill trips to South A uh well to um Abidjan um and to South Africa uh to India um for a leprosy um pilgrimage um and uh Russia, I mean la Russia, Turkey, I mean people buy fancy cars, I buy youth cars and and travel because travel is essential in my opinion. So I've been doing these things for a long time, and of course, filmmaking is photography in motion, and um I believe art is the pathway to the heart. That's Great.
Rob Lee: That's great. I've I'm sitting here in awe right now. Um that's spelling. Let's I want to move into the the rapid fire portion of our conversation, and with all the good stuff, the insightful, these slow burn stuff. Now it's just gonna get weird with rapid fire stuff. Okay. So um really for you. Um
let's see. I'm seeing like a lot of images of you all live, super stylish elegance. And also, I see an article clothing that I see as as well in all of these images. Always a hat. So do you have a favorite hat? That's a statement piece right there.
Victoria Rowell: Quick question, I do not have a favorite hat. You said rapid fire.
Rob Lee: I wear Um I I wear a hat every single day. I love that. Yeah. I love that. So And? Please. I found I never stopped searching since I was ten, off and on, looking for my paternal family. I I found my maternal family. I knew that early on um up in Maine, but I did not know my paternal family and I uh with the advent of genealogy um I hired a genealogist and um uh yeah and I found my paternal family hailing from South Carolina and I but my father was deceased he was a marine he wore a hat every day just baked in
Rob Lee: one of the things I also see in here um I'm I'm gonna use the phrase of Renaissance woman um so I think in it confidence is a big piece of it so where does that that confidence come from just to I'm gonna I'm gonna give this a shot I'm gonna learn this I'm gonna do this. I think it ties into that last part a little bit the design and sort of doing a lot of things, documenting things? It's innate.
Victoria Rowell: Yeah I believe when something is in you for you to do you do it without judgment or looking for approval it's just something you do like dance. And again societally we get into likes and clicks and um you know and um look let's face it artists are are different we think different we move different we have a different approach to circumstances and um we're used to being called weird and people looking at us strangely and are you gonna take off your hat and why do you have on those shoes? And um and so you know for someone who is that person who has worked in corporate for so long meaning network television which is corporate um and not only in those spaces but also you know being a a spokesperson for the Annie E. Casey Foundation which is United Parcel Service I mean really conservative spaces um you find a way to acknowledge how and this is over time I've learned to acknowledge and take it take into consideration how different this way is and I'll give you an example and this is not rapid fire now but I'm gonna just share it with you. My
neighbor is a doctor he and it and his wife a scientist and they're great and he he was driving up the hill and he saw me out by my garage and he said Vicky how do you do this and it was just sort of I just do it because as you know there's no safety in it as an artist. So I've kind of expounded a bit on it on the question but I think I kind of landed.
Rob Lee: It did absolutely landed yeah so this is probably gonna be the shortest one preferred style communication phone text email how do you get in touch with the phone I how do you get
Victoria Rowell: you well I miss the landline you know they all want you all the companies want you to cut the cord I miss the landline God help us if a satellite goes out of whack um God help us which leads me back to photography because I've had the conversation I have two adult children Maya and Jasper and my son is uh a painter sculptor and musician and I've asked my son Jasper I said but Jasper what's gonna happen to the fo to to the photo archive and he said but that's part of history mom this is part of the history this is part of the archive that the it's now on this apparatus so that still does not satisfy my question and I too have come to enjoy the rapidity the quickness that you can capture beautifully capture and you know put it on filter and change the exposure and in seconds and have the image um so I um I don't know uh where were we in the question
Rob Lee: it's like m you miss the landline uh prefer uh
Victoria Rowell: meaning preferred right I was I think I'm hedging right I so so I'm I'm gonna say texting. Okay. I'm a big texter as well. I prefer texting. Yeah.
Rob Lee: All right so here's But I prefer email because even though texts are a legal document, I really like the email trail. Say I have my I'm the person that still has my American Ballet Theater pay stuff from the 70s. Wow. Yeah. I finally threw away a lot of stuff in the last three years, but there are certain things I will not part with.
Rob Lee: I then that way with clothes and some old recording equipment, like I have I think my first mixer from 2009. It's probably valuable. Uh yeah, I think so. There's audio could be terrible compared to now, but I think that I like it. Fundamental values. And it's part of my personal archive. So this is the last last question of page advice. I like to like close everything out with something in that vein. And you know, it's a little preface here, but I'm very involved in my interviews. I, you know, connect with the the guest. Usually it's like a blind maid up front. It's
like, here's some information, here's some questions, what do you think? But I don't delegate the that work, you know. I got pet assistance and so on in the past, but I don't really delegate that. I like to be involved in that full structure, not just the creative part. And I've watched interviews and folks um sharing stories of, you know, um such as yourself, like working on Young and a Rustless and uh Diagnosis Murder at you know simultaneously. So could you share some insights and being like just super involved in your creative like life? Because it's not just work, it's like a creative life, like just being in it and and doing it because you're wearing figuratively and literally so many hats. Right.
Victoria Rowell: So I am immersed in what I'm doing, and it is planned and want to remind listeners that this is show business, and so I'm about the business of copyright um across the board. Um, whether it's photography, whether it's a script, um, whether it's lyrics, um uh, and that's very important, and that you know, whether you're patent patent your inventions, um, and so I'm very immersed in the business side of it as well as uh structuring, for example, I've just completed crewing up for my next movie that I'm producing with Carlette S. Hurt,
my producing partner. Um it's a Christmas uh it's a Christmas uh suspense movie, it's titled Merry Murder, and we're shooting it in my home state of Maine. I'm working with the main tax office, the main film office, um, hiring a lot of co-mainers, um, locate uh partnering with University of Southern Maine Foundation. Um and so I'm involved in not only the artistic elements that have to be in place, but also the very, very necessary press and advertising, the PA that gets the word out and the business protocols that are needed um to do it right. And so we are screen actors guild production, which means a tremendous amount of legal screen actors guild paperwork, make sure my SAG actors are getting pension and health, which I pay into obviously as the producer, these are low budget, these are ultra low budget productions. Um so I'm immersed. So
we start shooting uh Mary Murder in Maine uh on November 16th, and we rap at a tight shoot and rap November 24th. So there is that with this particular exhibition, I trained um to prepare my body. Um I'm an athlete, I'm a professional dancer, an accredited teacher, but I wanted to be in I wanted to be in a particular shape, and so I try started training in 2001. Um and um executed the catalog and uh 2012 and began to search thereafter with how I wanted to lay this out. Um
and sometimes it doesn't go exact I wanted the hardcover book simultaneously with the exhibition, but as it turns out, when I was I was in a touring and I was in a national tour and a play last year, Jason's lyric. And I'm still a junker. I love junking, antiquing, and so I was in an Uber going to a destination on my downtime. And
the Uber loomed past the Maryland Institute College of Art. And I was like, whoa! Whoa! What is that? And
the driver uh might have said, Micah. I did my junking. I found some wonderful things that I shipped back to LA, and then I started my research. And uh President Cecilia McCormick was so very engaging from the beginning and took my call and listened to my pitch. And it starts there with the political will at the very top. And
it escalated from there in terms of, or I should not use the word escalated, it evolved from there. And um we've been engaged ever since. Um that uh that Micah has given me a home for this exhibition that I've worked so hard at and want to share with the world. And there's other interests now. The uh there well, I'll just say there's other interests that possibly it will go to as well.
Rob Lee: That's amazing. Thank you. You you see pending together, close it out with the Micah touch point at the end. I like that. I like that. Um I thought you'd done it before. Well,
It's organic. But just thank you so much for coming on today. Um I don't know if you have any final thoughts or last things to say as we close out here, but um, you know, with that in mind, the floor is yours. If you have anything final to say as far as soft so hot so or a big along those laws as far as exhibitions.
Victoria Rowell: I just think an artist is an artist is an artist, so don't limit yourself. Don't pigeonhole yourself, and you don't have to be, you know, Miles Davis to you know pick up a horn. You don't you can you can just be and and and be collaborative because m where you're not strong in in one suit, you're strong in another. And so I always look for collaborative opportunities where it's possible, um, certainly in my filmmaking. Um so yeah.
Rob Lee: And there you have it, folks. I'm gonna again thank Victoria Rowell for coming on to The Truth in its Art and sharing a bit of her story with us and her exhibition at Micah, um, A Woman Becomes, which will be running from September 25th through October 11th, again here at Micah. For more information, check out the show notes and make sure to visit the Maryland Institute College of Arts website for more details on this exhibition. And
for Victoria Rowell, I'm Rob Lee, saying that there's art, culture, and community. In and around your neck of the woods, you just have to look for it.
