We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Kagan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?
When I was a college student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, I was taking a Migration Literature class, and our assignment was to create a personal story or project based on one of our own family migration or immigration stories. I decided to write and illustrate the immigration story of my paternal grandfather, Henry Kagan, as I knew he had come to the United States as boy, but I knew little else. My grandfather had passed away many years before, but my uncle had recorded stories of my grandfather talking about his journey, so my uncle gave me the tape of this recording to listen to for my project.
I sat on the floor of my college apartment, with my grandfather’s voice filling the room, and it was like a type of time travel. I was transported to another world, and in some ways I felt closer to him than I ever had, connecting as adults through his words. I also interviewed my dad and my uncle and did some research to provide historical and cultural context for his story.
I am also a visual artist, so I decided to create my own mixed media illustrations for the story, incorporating reproductions of old family photographs, historic photographs, and maps, combined with painting to bring the story to life visually. I ended up staying up for nights on end to finish this project. I mounted the illustrations and written story on matte board, bound it together with a string, and raced to my class to turn it in to my professor minutes before the project was due.
The Journey of Henry Kagan became my first family heirloom book, which would eventually become the genesis for the creation of my business, Family Heirloom Arts. My grandfather fled Russia due to religious persecution and journeyed to the United States as a young child. Discovering his incredible tale of survival and perseverance, I recognized the importance of learning where you come from and honoring your ancestors by preserving their stories for future generations. I could not believe that I did not learn the details of his story until I was twenty years old, and it made me wish that I had a chance to talk with my grandfather about his experiences before he passed away.
My professor loved the book and encouraged me to try and get it published. I did not feel ready to pursue that at the time, though years later this story was profiled in My Words Are Gonna Linger, The Art of Personal History, an anthology published by the Association of Personal Historians in 2009.
In the summer of 2001, I made my own migration to the west coast and settled in Portland, Oregon. From that point forward, I began helping others share their life stories through facilitating art and writing workshops that focused on personal storytelling. I began teaching and managing creative arts programs at domestic violence shelters, schools, and community non-profits throughout the Portland area. Through this work, I recognized that giving people an opportunity to tell their stories has the power to transform their lives. They are better able to understand their past, gain confidence in their ability to address their present circumstances, and begin to envision their future. Motivated by the realization that participants of all ages and from different walks of life found strength and inspiration in the process, I launched Family Heirloom Arts in 2006.
Over the years since I had created my grandfather’s book, many people who had seen the book asked me if I would be willing to help them create something like that for their family. I knew there was interested out there, but at the time I had never heard of a business offering life story services. The Association of Personal Historians annual conference happened to be held in Portland the same year that I started my business. The Association of Personal Historians was a professional association dedicated to helping people preserve their life stories. I had never heard of the organization, but within minutes of arriving at the conference, I knew I had found my people. In 2007, I helped to co-found the Portland Chapter of the Association of Personal Historians. For the first five years after its inception, I served as the co-chair of the Portland Chapter, now known as “Personal Historians Northwest,” working to educate the community around the field of personal history and the value of life story preservation.
Through that professional network, I had the opportunity to collaborate with my colleagues on their client projects. I connected with many wonderful people who eventually became part of my team of creative collaborators at Family Heirloom Arts. Many of us have now worked together for over fifteen years.
Family Heirloom Arts offer a comprehensive set of services to help individuals and families preserve their life stories. Services include; project organization and management, oral history interviews, transcription, writing, text editing, photo scanning and restoration, custom art illustrations, book layout and design, production management, and project consulting. We have produced illustrated heirloom books and custom art for clients throughout the country for the last eighteen years.
In addition to offering custom life story services for families, once I started my business, I knew I wanted to continue offering creative writing and art programs focused on life storytelling throughout the community. My goal was to make these community offerings more affordable and accessible for a wider range of people, even if they did not have the means to afford our custom services. I have facilitated workshops of this nature throughout the Portland area at a variety of locations including; Oregon College of Art and Craft, Multnomah County Libraries, Portland Women Writers, and at a host of schools, congregations, and art centers. There is a synergistic magic that happens when people come together to create and share stories in community, and I knew from the beginning that would always be part of my life’s work.
I have always loved talking with people about their lives. My family would always joke that I had a sign on my forehead that said, “Tell me your story,” as I would often get off of the bus and have learned the life story of the person sitting next to me during the fifteen-minute ride. I considered becoming an art therapist (a path I still think could have been a great fit), but since I was less inclined to work in a clinical setting, I decided to give this a try. I am glad that I did.
What problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
I am most proud of the deep relationships that we have formed with our clients, and the recognition that the process of creating a life story project has been transformative for so many of the families that we work with. The story sharing that happens during the oral history interviews we conduct with families is central to the heart of the project. My goal is always to go from “Fact, to memory, to meaning,” trying to help our clients tap into that reflective space of what matters most to them, to consider how their experiences have impacted their development, and the pearls of wisdom they have learned along the way. There have been many times over the years when the people I am interviewing will tell me, “I never told anyone this before.”
It is an honor to sit with people and hold space for them in this way, and to know that they can trust me and invite me into their inner world. One of the other especially meaningful aspects of our work is when family members are able to work through long term challenges they have been facing by participating in the process together, often opening up opportunities for healing and reconciliation. I have also seen this happen when I am interviewing couples. When they sit together to tell their stories for a family project, they have the chance to really listen to each other. They often gain new perspectives on each other and their relationship, opening up space to grow together in new ways. This deep interpersonal work, and the humility, compassion, and heart that we bring to our clients and their projects feels like the most important aspects of what we do in this field.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I have experienced many pivots throughout my time as a business owner. I quickly learned that one of my favorite aspects of working with families was to help them explore moments of transition in their lives, significant life milestones, and ways that they tapped into their own power and resilience to overcome difficult circumstances throughout their lives. I became fascinated with the growth edge that happens during significant life transitions and became interested in offering specialized workshops and programs that focus on some of these junctures. I began offering an Art of Transformation workshop, exploring life milestones through art and story. I developed curriculum for a grief workshop, and a program for resilience and healing. I was blown away at how the participants engaged with the art and writing process to tap into these themes in relation to their current life moment. I knew this was a special area of focus that I wanted to delve into deeper through my work in the years to come.
In 2014, inspired by the birth of my son, Julius, two years earlier, I decided to launch the Art of Motherhood program as a way to provide a creative and reflective space for mothers of young children to connect with themselves and other moms in a supportive and inspiring environment. I was in the midst of my own big transition into motherhood, and I recognized that many new moms were struggling with overwhelm and isolation, that they needed more community channels to make meaning around this huge change in their lives. Often participants in these groups would tell me that the monthly Art of Motherhood workshop was the only thing they had on the calendars for themselves that whole month, and how much it meant to them. A number of the women who participated in those groups have stayed close friends, and their children have become close friends too.
In 2019 I joined forces with Dawn Thompson (Director of Words for Healing) to start our Touchstone Retreats program, providing participants with the chance to immerse themselves in the creative process through art and writing retreats offered throughout the Pacific Northwest. We specialize in caring for those that care for other, with a focus on serving caregivers, health care providers, therapists, educators, chaplains, hospice workers, and social justice activists. We give participants a chance to take a break from their responsibilities and enjoy the opportunity for self-reflection and creativity. Our nurturing community supports the process of regeneration and renewal. We support participants to step more fully into their personal power and express their authentic voice and vision. We honor writing and art as a creative process that belongs to all people. Each person’s voice is unique and of value. All writing, art and creativity is welcome at our retreats. No previous experience is necessary, just an openness to exploration.
Emerging from the pandemic, we found that our community needed this type of facilitated retreat space more than ever. Due to the circumstances of the pandemic, many people had not gathered in groups in years and they were struggled with how to overcome the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and grief that they were carrying with them from the pandemic quarantine experience. Margaret Hartsook joined our team of facilitators and we expanded our offerings. We now offer a number of weekly and monthly “mini-retreat” series, day-long programs, and full weekend offerings. The Touchstone Retreats program is now central to the work I do in the community. By being able to pivot, in both my personal and professional life, I am able to grow and discover new ways to engage with the world and my work. This feels essential for both the sustainability and longevity of entrepreneurial life.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I love that imagination and innovation are central to being an artist, a writer, and an entrepreneur. I thrive on the freedom to create new projects, programs, and offerings based on the needs I see in the community and in response to our changing and often tumultuous world. I also know that I am happiest, most successful, and prolific professionally when I am also deeply engaged in my own creative practice. I realized early on that it was important for me to make that reflective and imaginative space for myself, as it would also support my ability to offer that to others.
In 2009 I released my first book of original work entitled Emergence, which is a collection of poetry and art exploring my own life stories. In the winter of 2021, my poems were featured in /pãn| dé| mïk/ 2020: An Anthology of Pandemic Poems, which was published by the Oregon Poetry Association (OPA). In the spring of 2021, I released my second book of original poetry and art entitled Coming Home to Myself. Spanning a decade of growth and change, this book honors the importance of following your inner compass through exploring nine essential elements of the human experience: courage, passion, patience, grace, faith, resilience, wonder, gratitude, and renewal. Serving as an intimate companion for navigating life’s passages, this collection is an ode to the kindness and generosity that the world desperately needs and the power of turning that caring towards ourselves.
Through working on the poems and art included in these books, I discovered not only new aspects of myself and new perspectives on my experiences, but I came up with new ideas of how to engage with my clients and retreat participants. I now offer a number of art and writing programs for the community based on themes from my book, Coming Home to Myself.
My creative work honors my intuitive process. I love the power and potential to be able to make “something out of nothing,” to create something that did not exist before, to have the courage to explore the power of a new idea and the curiosity to see where it takes me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://familyheirloomarts.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/familyheirloomarts
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/familyheirloomarts/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdG0eu4WyCY&t=5s
- Other: https://familyheirloomarts.com/touchstone-retreats/
https://familyheirloomarts.com/artwork/
Image Credits
Family Heirloom Arts client books
The writing process
Family Heirloom Arts (logo)
Bloom, Mixed Media by Lisa Kagan
Radiance, Mixed Media by Lisa Kagan
Befriending Time, Mixed Media by Lisa Kagan
Touchstone Retreats Group
The Journey (Illustration from The Journey of Henry Kagan), Mixed Media by Lisa Kagan
Lisa Kagan