I was recently featured on Fain House Radio. The host, Annie Fain Barralon, interviewed me last week and the podcast published on Tuesday.
Here’s the Fain House Radio description:
“How can you do all that needs done in life and still pursue your desire to learn French, or the guitar, or grow a plant or make art? Sometimes we wonder if small moments of making, learning and practice folded into our daily lives are, in fact, enough. Join Annie Fain Barralon as she interviews creative livers who have some how, in the middle of it all, continued on their creative paths no matter what. Their stories remind us that the secret sauce, making our lives sweeter, is not only the consistent doing of tiny bits, but also in enjoying all those tiny bits along the way.”
During the interview Annie Fain and I talked about the creative life I live in the mountains of Appalachia.
Show notes and podcast:
“When Tipper Pressley opens a jar of tomatoes she’s canned herself and she sees that beautiful red color she says, “It’s almost like I can feel the sunshine and remember myself starting the seed, planting it in the garden, then nurturing it and harvesting it with the sun on my arms, processing it…and then there you are eating it on a cold winter day.” Maybe the way to a creative life is as simple as loving that certain color of tomato red, being close enough to the land to notice small signs of the changing of the seasons, working with your hands or passing creative ways of seeing things on to our children. As a long time blogger and now creator of content for her Celebrating Appalachia YouTube channel, Tipper is always looking for small things that need to be celebrated and reminds us that just as so many of the old ways fit into our modern lives we should also always be looking for a tiny bit of creativity to brighten our day.”
I hope you enjoyed the podcast! There were a few places where my voice sounded really fast—technical glitches such as that is part and parcel of living in an isolated area with poor internet service while trying to record live offerings.
Be sure to jump over to Fain House Radio and listen to other podcasts about living the creative life.
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Where did Ms. Barralon come from? She sounds like she ain’t from around here
Ed-she is from just down the road from me—born and raised 🙂
Well I’ll be! You wouldn’t think it from the way she talks.
Appalachian people are a creative bunch. They were always just trying to find ways of being artistic in their everyday life, even if they would never have called it art. My mommy would line up her hundreds of jars of home canned food so no two jars of the same color foods…like pickles and green beans….were next to each other, but had tomatoes or peaches in between. When I looked at it all lined up, I saw bands of color, pretty as a painting …but she called it …just making my work look pretty.
Men too tried to bring creativity…my daddy’s eye wanted symmetry and interest in the rough boards that he turned into the board and battens siding of his shack. When he whittled, his little finished sticks were pretty enough to wear in my hair, and I have.
When I went to China as an Appalachian storytelling ambassador with the group People to People in 1997, I noticed small rocks placed in a star pattern in the dirt floor of a house we were visiting because 90 year old Mr. Gin was known as the keeper of the stories for that province. I had our interpreter ask his wife if the pebbles in that pattern had a religious or folklore significance….Mrs. Gin bowed to me , thanked me for noticing the rocks and said…no reason , except she wanted to make that corner look pretty.
It’s universal…this need to use what we have to bring a bit of joy …a little beauty ..to our lives. I am so glad I was raised doing this and in my life I have tried to honor that. ..and when I am tempted to hang a yellow towel on the clothesline next to another yellow towel, I stop myself…reach for the green one to put between…cause mommy taught me years ago….honey , the washing needs to look pretty when you look at it out the window.
I just don’t know how you do it all. You are a very busy woman. God Bless you Tipper in all you do.
Posing a question that sparks more than a a short and simple response requires a certain measure of talent and preparation. The Fain House hostess is obviously talented and one who prepares well for such an interview. The interviewee is also no slouch! We’re proud of you.
I knew there were podcasts out there but hadn’t really listened to one so this gave me the time to just listen. I enjoyed the interview and hearing about the early years of your blog. I must say that your blog jogs my memory of sweet precious memories of words and ways of doing things from my childhood.
I will have to catch the podcast later so I do not awaken grandson. But I sure will listen. It is all about staying close to the earth and nature, and learning from all the simple but wonderful things we are blessed with each day. I even enjoy hanging clothes on the clothesline, because it takes me way back to my Mom’s wringer washer with white sheets blowing in the wind. Even that gets us out into the sunshine with the song of the birds. So many simple pleasures, and we are so blessed to have your blog to remind and inspire us. Many times you remind me of so many wonderful parts of Appalachia I was once too busy to notice. Thanks for sharing.
How nice! Thanks for adding this interview to the site. I always enjoy reading it.
That was a delightful interview. Seemed to me you and the host really connected. I think she did good prep work behind the scenes, for example watching some of your videos. She asked you the kind of questions who really wanted to answer and were open-ended enough your answers were your own.
I think you are serving larger purposes than you know. You can’t know just how your ‘down home’ messages connect with people and just how they help them. Closest I can come to what I mean is to say there often is a leaven of grace that works to good wherever it lands. I’m confident you will know just what I mean.
Sorry folks. That should be “you” not “who”.
That was a wonderful interview, Tip! In a short span you beautifully showed that beautiful heart you have and what a busy girl you are. It has always been interesting to get glimpses of your brain and how efficently it works! You are amazing with that beautiful ability to focus!
You go girl!
I look forward daily to reading your blog and watching your videos, aswell as the girls. Y’all remind me of home and there is not too many people who can truly do that. I was born in Swain and raised in Fontana. Have a blessed morning beautiful family.