Sports Medicine To Paintbrush. The Art of Retirement. Dr. Bob Parks

Well, hello, this is Catherine your host of the podcast,

your positive imprint, the variety show, featuring people all over the

world whose positive actions are inspiring positive achievements.

Exceptional people rise to the challenge.

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What's your P.I.?

I sat outside in the mountains with the birds and also with

legendary podiatrist, Dr.

Bob Parks.

Bob was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington during a time that

he says was a bit simpler then.

In high school, he ran track and cross country and living a typical family

life in the Pacific Northwest, which he considers an astounding beauty with the

mountains and the greenery and forests.

Life was special every day.

But like most kids, he grew up and moved away.

Last week episode 139, Bob shared his positive imprints as a pioneer

of sports medicine and podiatry, and how he helped these practices evolve.

Decades later, Bob retired and he had this amazing transition

in his life that had little to do with the precision of science.

I went from left brain to right brain, literally put it that way.

Yes.

And I did it on purpose.

The exactness of surgery is so unbelievable.

There is very little margin for error and with art, you are so loose with

the brush because the composition will tell you what it wants, if you let it.

The composition and the piece of art will evolve.

But in, in medicine and particularly surgery, you don't have do-overs.

You have to have a plan, A a plan B a plan C, and particularly

with trauma, it doesn't always work out exactly like you'd hope.

But transitioning from medicine where I use my hands in a very exacting

manner into art where it's right brain, and you have to just be a

free thinker it was a struggle.

In fact, when I first took a lesson, my art teacher who's unbelievably good

and he says, oh God, not another surgeon, and I said, why?

And, and I've, I've found over the years why is because we are very

exact and with art being exact, isn't the best way to be oftentimes.

But.

I wanted something completely different.

I always kind of thought when I heard that somebody was an artist, I thought that

was kind of strange and kind of unique.

And I thought, well, that would be something interesting.

And someone else asked me, they said, well, why did you pick art?

And I said, you know, I have found through my sports and my, athleticism that

the journey is the most enjoyable part.

It's not the destination or the outcome of your marathon time

but it's the journey of training and becoming more proficient at a, uh, at

a hobby or vocation or profession that is really, to me, the most appealing.

And I wanted something that I could do for many years.

Now, looking back historically, I started with photography and that

has helped me tremendously, as far as

composition and the photography kind of worked in conjunction with sculpting.

So I did wood sculpting and I would make totem poles.

Large ones.

I would make, Kachina dolls.

Life-sized kachina dolls, which is rather unusual.

I hadn't seen them before, but I'm using chainsaws and large tools.

And I realized over a period of time, I wouldn't be able to do that any longer.

So, um, as the chainsaw, it's heavy, it's heavy work.

You get tired after a while.

Not, not to mention the fact you might injure yourself.

And I had a question about some, , necklace I was putting on a

Kachina, carving it and painting it.

And I called this one teacher , and his answer wasn't appropriate for what I

needed but, there was something that intrigued me about what he talked about.

And intrigued bob was, he purchased some cheap

paint and paint brushes, and began painting a few pictures.

He even took online lessons from the art Sherpa.

This is a lot of fun, but more importantly,

it was a heck of a challenge.

, Hmm, I think I like this.

Bob contacted the art teacher who intrigued him weeks earlier

and signed up for classes with him.

Classes are once a week and they're not just hands-on with the brush.

It's not uncommon that we'll never pick up a

paintbrush in three hours time.

We'll talk entirely about composition color theory, and I'll bring in

something that I've been working on.

We'll look at it, we'll discuss it.

And the time just flies.

And I might add for your listeners, Catherine, before I forget, is that

when you're seeking out a hobby or anything that really drives

you, Think of those times when you might be pursuing that endeavor.

At 12 or one in the morning and your wife says, Bob, are you coming to bed?

That that is something that drives you and you probably should tune

into that and maybe make that one of your life choices as far as hobbies.

And I enjoy the process.

The learning curve with painting is extreme, the frustrations possibly,

but only through frustration and failure can you actually achieve

the proper course of success.

And that's true with any walk of life.

I think as you probably know, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, so many

other famous people have said without failure, you have no success because

you don't know your boundaries.

So I found that the learning curve for art and particularly painting was just

something that really attracted, me.

And it's something that one painting you may work a month

on and it's layer after layer.

It's this is good.

This is bad, but this directs me in a new direction.

That I just find so rewarding.

My mouth has just dropped because you weren't

even painting prior to this,

I never took a painting course.

I never drew, I never took a class in sketching, nothing.

I said, I want to do something where I start out baseline zero and

I study and I study and I continue to study and try new things.

you have an incredible talent.

Like, you know, you look at, uh, you look at a movie star

and you say, oh, that looks easy.

Well, you don't know what went into all of that.

Or a person says, how, how much is this painting?

And a person might say, well, this is $10,000.

How could you ask so much?

It's just paint on a canvas.

It will take 30 to 50 hours oftentimes and oftentimes developing the composition

before you even put paint on canvas takes as long as the actual painting

process to come up with an idea, the color scheme that you're going to

use, that's going to be attractive

and it's going to satisfy you as an artist.

Oh, my gosh, your paintings are incredible.

And oh, your house is just covered with Bob Parks paintings, and

I might add Catherine that I feel bad.

No, no, I do feel bad.

I do feel bad that my wife and I do have a fair amount of original art in our house.

And as I find a piece that I like of my own, I take down this original

art from somebody else and put it in a closet and put my, own up.

But I guess that's good.

I do enjoy looking at my own work.

I don't know that I could pick up a paintbrush and do what you're doing.

What kind of mindset goes on?

What'd you have to have, cause you did go from left to, right?

Yes.

That's that's a real good question.

Because for example, we've been up here in the Brazos for three or four days

and I haven't picked up a paintbrush.

You do have to be in the right mindset and I don't think I'm unique in that.

And I have to be relaxed.

Fortunately, I, I find that going out for a run or a bike ride to just

loose some steam, so to speak and get into a relaxed type of, uh, feeling.

And also I like to paint with music.

So I mean the stars have to be aligned.

Although I do paint probably 20 hours a week, it's almost full-time work for me.

The thing I do, I might add, enjoy about my painting is I

don't rely on it for income.

And I think a lot of people that do they get stuck in a rut of

painting a certain composition.

And that's good.

I would have loved to have done that as, as a career potentially, but I

continue to shift between abstract and photo realism and, and other unique

types of painting just because I like to continue to pursue challenges.

, but you have to getting back to your question.

You have to be in the proper mindset before you sit down.

And my wife, Allison, she gets a kick because I'll be up in my

studio for three or four hours and I'll come down and she goes, well?

I lost the war this time.

I think it was Winston Churchill, who was a painter.

He said painting is like going to war and you never know who's gonna win.

And sometimes you can just feel it.

Sometimes when you get on a roll and it just flows.

And other times it's like you're fighting against the, the paint and the canvas.

And when that happens, you have to set it all down and you just walk away.

Maybe you go out and exercise, you need to give it a day or two.

But, uh, um, being in the right frame of mind to let the energy flow.

My teacher told me at first, and I didn't really believe it that a

person's personality and how they're feeling while they're painting

actually comes out onto the canvas.

And to me, it just sounded like a bunch of baloney, but it's actually true.

It is actually true.

For example, when I, when I painted a Mick Jagger and in a, uh, Style called

a spontaneous realism where you take color values, different colors, but

the color values light versus dark.

And you paint these very abstract and vivid compositions.

I would play, , Mick Jagger music, only Mick Jagger music.

I just finished a character portrait on Freddie Mercury, and I

am just stuck on Freddie Mercury.

And my wife says, please paint another artist.

I can't take it anymore.

so you have to get in the mood.

You have to appreciate it.

And also what I find is that if you have personal experience,

Let's say, for example, you visit a place and you see something.

I'm painting

cape Royal now from the north room of the grand canyon.

Well, I've been there.

I've, I've photographed it.

I know it very well.

And, and that's the thing.

I find that if you're a photographer or if you're a painter, you appreciate

the environment so much more.

You look differently.

You look at the shadows, you'll look at the petals of a, flower and you'll

look how parts are , are radiolucent.

Other parts are opaque and the color variation.

So I can't remember.

I think it was Ansel Adams that said, 'a camera allows a person to really see

better.' And I think that's very true and I've taken up painting, particularly

for that reason too, that allows me to really appreciate nature, but you have

to have a connection to what you're painting, unless there's a connection

and certainly if you're simply copying a photograph, like my art teacher would

say, just put the photograph on the wall.

What are you doing?

Like you're just copying somebody else's work.

So there has to be a force of energy that, that is transmitted from you onto

the canvas that hopefully the person that looks at it can get a feeling for.

Um, Frank Sinatra.

I painted him and, uh, I use blues.

Why?

Blue eyes?

Ol', blue eyes.

Um, I painted Beethoven, uh, which is in Seattle right now.

It's hanging in Seattle and.

I painted real dark colors with Beethoven.

I felt that he has this presence, this very dark presence and

his music music is dark.

And I did the same thing with that.

I listened to Beethoven the whole time I was painting him.

And I think it comes across.

Sure.

Now you don't just do portraits.

You have done horses and you do landscapes and, a menagerie.

Yes.

And I must admit part of that is just trying to find my niche and, and I've

only been painting for six years.

Why can't a niche, be a variety.

My show is a variety show.

It really can.

It certainly can.

but when I, an artist jumps from near photo realism that I'll do sometimes

to the somewhat more abstract, that is a, quite a breadth of, of styles.

But, but I think at this point, people can look at the brush strokes

and say, ah, yeah, I think that's consistent with your other work.

So what I'm saying is that, if you're looking at a John singer Sargent or,

or, uh, Pollock, I mean, you know, you can kind of tell from a distance,

oh, well that style is consistent with Monet or whoever it may be.

And most people end up evolving into a particular style that's recognizable.

And, and I agree with you at this point in time

I don't care.

I'm doing it because I liked doing it.

And they're awesome, I really love looking at the paintings and can

anybody pick up a paintbrush, even if they have all of this energy flowing

and they're in the right mindset, what kind of talent do you need to have?

To become a surgeon, you certainly have to go to training and practicing and so on.

Can you do that or do you need to have something inside that you're born with?

You, you have to have drive and you have to set your goals high.

And if you keep plugging away, you'll achieve those goals.

, and you have to be patient, you know, I, I rarely will see anybody's completed,

completed a painting that I won't find some joy with and they may be a beginner.

So who are we?

You know, to judge and say, oh, this painter is better than another painter.

So I clearly recommend that if a person just likes the feel of a paint brush

in their hand and wants to throw some paint by all means, give it a try.

And I think the cheapest way I do it is go on the internet and

all you have to do is Google.

How do I paint a tree?

How do I paint a bird?

How do I paint a flower?

And there are so many websites that will take you through a video process.

Within an hour you'll have something that you can say.

I did that.

And if you're happy with that, and you say, gee, maybe there's something to that.

I encourage people to give it a try because it certainly was

nothing I ever thought I would be doing as I, as I got older.

Sure.

And now you're retired and you're able to just enjoy that.

People can go to your website.

I think they can purchase as well, but they can go to the website

and look at all of your artwork.

It's six-Robert-Parks.Pixels.com.

, it's a good website, I think.

And the images are professionally photographed.

So they're done fairly well.

So, I think the listeners would , enjoy taking a look at that.

I enjoy looking at all the different variety landscapes and horses

and other animals, photography as well.

And some of your photography is there.

So I like to end with last inspiring words from my guests.

Well, I think in today's world, I was just reading an article

in the paper today about people that are working from home and how there's a

heightened level of depression, uh, with and in conjunction with working at home.

And the fact that we're spending so much time on the internet and

Facebook and these other sites, but we're finding that the joy and the

happiness in our lives is not there.

And I don't speak for myself, but I see this happening.

I mean, you can talk about suicide rates, you can talk about any of

these other indices, uh, but they're all pretty consistent that people

are in a mental state of turmoil.

And I really think that if people would become participants in life

instead of viewers or spectators, you know, instead of watching a

sport on TV, go out and do something.

So I always advocate that being a participant, whether you're painting

or taking a walk in the morning, all of these things are so important.

and I really think that our society is leading us in some respects down the

wrong pathway when you consider that, for example, some of the happiest people

in the world are in Papua or however you pronounce it, New Guinea, , they have

nothing and yet they are, they're smiling.

They've done these studies and they find that there's no correlation

between materialistic or financial, um, wellbeing and happiness.

And so I would suggest to the listeners that they take advantage of these

great opportunities, whether it be a hobby or a sport activity and fill

their life with action and endeavor instead of being a spectator in life.

And I think.

You know, the, the, all of these niceties that we have that make

our lives easier in some regards have, I think backfired on us.

And I think there's going to be a reckoning and a riding of

the ship, but I feel bad that so many other people feel bad.

And I think we're starting to find out now exactly why this is the case.

So I would, I would, I would certainly like to put that out there.

That's good advice full of wisdom.

Bob, this has been so enlightening and having you share your

positive imprints with everybody.

And I so much appreciate it.

And I like that you have led a life, a very virtuous life, and you have

attained your happiness and the journey is not your destination, and you

are still traveling on your journey.

And I wish you the best of luck with all of your endeavors and

continue enjoying the process.

Thank you, Catherine.

And I would just lastly, like to say that.

The fact that you have this podcast positive imprint,

I've listened to some of them.

And I am so inspired.

Cody Unser.

My goodness.

I did not know her story.

You know, we all know the Unser family.

In fact, some of them live up here, but that was so inspiring what she's

done and how she's teaching OB GYN, doctors on the subtleties of an OB GYN

Table, for paraplegics and all of this that, I just think what you're doing with

all the bad news we get in the world it's good to be able to escape and hear some

positive news that people might be doing.

Oh, thank you so much for that, Bob.

And, and of course I like you, would like people to go and find their

positive imprint and put it into action.

Thank you.

And I thank you for your positive imprint.

Bob's website is six spelled out S I X dash, Robert R O B

E R T dash parks, P a R K S.

Dot pixels, P I X E L s.com six-robert-parks.pixels.com.

Your positive imprint.