North Sound Voices

Creative Medicine: Art and Health Intertwined

• North Sound ACH • Season 2 • Episode 1

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In this episode of North Sound Voices, three artists come together to explore the deep, often unspoken connection between art and health: Coast Salish artist Jason LaClair, filmmaker and musician Remy Styrk, and creative coach Spring Cheng. Through conversation, reflection, and lived experience, they share how creative practices don’t just decorate our lives — they heal them. Art, they remind us, is not separate from care; it is care. It is protest, presence, and possibility. 

As you listen, ask yourself:
Where does creativity live in your body?
How might you use your hands, your voice, your story — to tend to your own wellbeing, or someone else’s?

Episode links:

University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine - Creating Healthy Communities Through Cross-Sector Collaboration

Arts and Health - Tasha Golden

Spring Cheng - Resonance Path Institute

Remy Styrk - Halogen

Jason LaClair 

North Sound Voices Film Festival 


Learn more about North Sound ACH: https://northsoundach.org/

Resource Library: https://northsoundach.communitycommons.org/

Questions? Team@NorthSoundACH.org


Find us on socials @northsoundach

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to North Sound Voices, produced by the team at North Sound ACH, which exists to create a just and inclusive culture and the necessary conditions required for all community members to thrive. We were created by community for community. North Sound Voices is brought to you from the northwest corner of Washington State, five counties sitting on the traditional homelands of eight tribal nations. We're sharing local and regional voices that inspire us. working in collaboration to have this region be a place where all feel they belong. In this episode, you'll hear a conversation among three incredible artists being interviewed by Meg on our team, who is herself also an artist. Hear how art is a means of expression, culture, healing, introspection, and joy, bridging community and building connection. As one panelist says, it is a way of seeing ourselves. Thanks for listening in, and we hope you'll come back for more episodes in the series.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm Meg Stevenson, Communication Manager for Storytelling at North Sound ACH, and I'll be in conversation with Jason LeClair, a Coast Salish artist from the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribes, whose murals can be seen around Whatcom County, Remy Sterk, a filmmaker, musician, and the founder and director of Halogen, and Spring Chung, a first-generation Chinese immigrant and the founder of Resonance Path Institute, bringing creative expression into leadership development. So yeah, name, occupation, where you live, and a little background about what brought you not into just art, but art and wellbeing.

SPEAKER_05:

Hey, my name is Jason Allen LeClair. My family given name is Siena. My career is, I would say a Coast Salish art contractor. I do a lot of murals, and it all has to do with Coast Salish design work, anyhow. I'm a member of the Lummi Nation up here in Bellingham, Washington. I reside in Whatcom County, and I've been an artist for 30-something years, but ultimately, it was my recovery that brought me to where I'm at right here with you guys. I would say I'm a recovering heroin addict. I spent 16 years in that life, and... Getting into recovery back in 2019 made it possible for me to find my place in the community. So I teach how to identify Coast Salish art in public schools up here in Whatcom County as part of the STI curriculum in collaboration with Allied Arts. And my murals is speaking volumes to the community. So I feel like those are my largest contributions is to show other people who are still living that life that if i can do it then anybody could do it you know and also share with younger artists that we don't have to limit ourselves to what other people's ideas are about what we should be doing with our lives yeah that's me in a nutshell

SPEAKER_04:

i am spring chung my chinese name is chun chun and my occupation uh I guess you can call embodied creative leadership coaching and also cultural transformation. And I live in Bellingham. What brings me to art? Actually, I didn't start my music journey until I was 41 years old. And to find the music within myself not play music i didn't start doing music like playing a song or something i was being trained by a teacher being led by a teacher to listen to the music within myself and play the way that my body wants to play it was a tremendous healing experience for me i feel like i've reclaimed a part of my soul that has been outcast since i was uh as earthly as i can remember so yeah so art becomes like a vessel for part of my life expression and i i um i'm doing art not so much focus on performance even though i sometimes i do it when when it comes to it um but more more as a modality for healing for creative expression and for kind of um cultivating power and integrity for social change.

SPEAKER_03:

My name is Remy Sterk and I'm not quite sure how I would describe what I do. So I think I'd have to describe kind of the thread that brings all the things that I do together as what I do. So I'd say the closest thing would be like story steward. Cause it's been so many different types of art and so many different avenues to like hearing stories that I've been a part of and been space with. And yeah, so I'd say, I'd say story steward is the, if you zoom out far enough, that's where you're going to see everything that I've done and do currently. And I currently live in Seattle. How I got introduced or entered the space of art and wellbeing is really through music. I'm 26 right now. And I started playing drums and guitar when I was six. So 20 years ago, it really felt like when I got my first drum set and I got my first guitar and started to play, it really felt like that was the first time I saw an extension of myself in the physical world rather than a critique of myself in the physical world. So it was really like, this experience of one being able to see the world the way I see it and exist in the world the way that I want to rather than having to navigate the way the world sees me and so I think for a number of years it was just going deeper into that feeling and that experience and then I'd say about halfway through high school it really turned into like how can I share this feeling with other people because I mean I've been on stages with a lot of big names, for a while it was like, yeah, this is cool. You get to do all these things that you dream of doing. And then it reached a point of like, is this actually fulfilling my journey? Or is it aligned with my values? And so I think halfway through high school, I really realized a lot of my values were in preserving the feeling that I have doing this work and sharing it with others and creating myself in the way that I want to see others in society. So yeah, I went from purely benefiting it, benefiting from it for myself to kind of like using my benefit to have a larger impact within the space.

SPEAKER_02:

Nora sound ACH works in the health equity space. We define this, and I believe we took our definition from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, but our definition of health equity is that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health, such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness, lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and healthcare. so there are five uh identified public health issues um from folks who work in public health collective trauma racism mental health social exclusion and isolation and chronic disease so these five each have their own symptoms their own solutions for these but they also all clearly interact with each other. They completely intersect. The usual interventions and treatments are struggling to address these issues. So I would like to pose to you, how can art, how can infusing art and creativity into our solutions for collective trauma, racism, mental health, isolation, and chronic disease, how can art help with that?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Yeah, you can go ahead, Remy. I'll go after you.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think I was just going to say, you had mentioned, I can't remember your exact wording you had, Jason, but it got me thinking about the way we talk about basic needs, especially in human services and social services. Sometimes it can be a little bit predatory in the way that basic needs kind of get boiled down to situational needs. approaches and I think there are kind of there's two levels of basic needs one being like yes housing food universal income all these things but on top of that like that next level I think is art because it informs so much of what basic needs people need outside of like the basic basic needs because it's like yeah for some people a basic need might very well be art because it informs like where their mental state is at um kind of like provides that ability to dream of like where do i where do i want to go what do i want to do and what basic needs do i need to support my dream so i think like yeah there's two levels of like the absolute basic basic non-negotiable needs and then the basic need of art to identify how do you want to live your life and how can you like receive help and support in elevating that life.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Um, so me being an artist is started out. So I went to a really racist school out in the County. I've lived here in Whatcom County my whole life, but anyway, um, so a lot of that going on and, uh, And then my dad went to prison when I was, like, eight years old. And I was going through this phase of, like, really acting out and losing my temper and just, like, really not feeling good about things. And my mom was a paralegal, so we were at, like, this bookstore, and she was studying or something. And I saw this Native art book from Hilary Stewart, and that's what kicked off everything. so it started out for me as um and i didn't even know it because i'm just a kid right i'm not thinking like i need some kind of healing right now all i see is man this art looks cool i want to do it and uh but as i get older it started being a thing of pulling myself from chaos or just heavy feelings it's like that one-on-one time with me and my spirit you know what i mean through my addiction I suffered with heroin addiction for like 16 years. And through all the chaos of it, I would always take time to pull myself away from things to create something. Even if it was for an hour, sometimes maybe 10 hours, but I needed that time away from people so I wouldn't snap. You know what I mean? Being able to take your place to that realm of comfort, whether it's through painting, drawing, building things, music, what have you, I feel like it's connected in our DNA. And, you know, on the medicine wheel, you know, not to get too far off track or anything, but in the medicine wheel, our elders say that you have to work on mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional health. at least make sure you cover a couple of those, you know what I mean? And my art has really helped me with my mental and emotional in such a huge way, you know what I mean? And teaching art to kids, you know, a lot of kids that I teach in these public schools, you could tell that there's things going on at their house or in their lives, you know, because they're just having a hard time, you know? And so me coming into their classroom for an hour, hour and a half to, Like, all right, you're going to learn about some Coast Salish art. And it totally, they get excited about it. And then the next thing you know, they're like really getting in the zone creating and being able to separate from their thoughts from that kind of thing. Yeah, art to me translates into being able to speak openly. That's what art translates into for me.

SPEAKER_04:

yeah beautifully put jason uh i love what you said art translates to spoken being speaking openly yeah it's a i feel like it's um allowing us to speak from such a deep source of ourself um not just superficially like um the daily daily talk um and i also want to just add in, I think the two of you have spoken a lot of what I want to say in my heart. I just want to add in that for me, the one way to look at, you know, I work with people who wants to express themselves through arts. And I feel like sometimes the art itself can carry a certain oppression if we treat art as a performer, like only from a lens of performative. Part of my work is to coach voice coaching and creative expression through sound and music. And I've had so many people who came in, like they want to have their voice. They want to speak openly. And yet the first thing they would say, oh, I'm not a good singer. I can't sing. I sing off keys. I think this is the kind of self-discipline denying self-oppression, like internalized oppressive power lies at the root of collective trauma, like racism, isolation, and it may, you know, it plays a role with mental health and probably, you know, all these can be somatized into chronic disease. The self-internalized, like my voice is not worth listened, be heard, is at the root a lot of things, and to engage in art as a way to heal that part of yourself is, yeah, it's so healing.

SPEAKER_05:

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm curious how, to Jason and Remy, how the two of you work with people who are resistant or fearful or held back by this, you know, internalized oppression that I'm not. i often find that's the hardest part once once they over that then the rest of his playfulness

SPEAKER_05:

a good example of this um i was teaching at alderwood elementary school a couple years ago and uh there's a kid like really just not in a good space and so i just sat there until you know the feelings passed and then i didn't like start with students sometimes i'll just sit down and start doing art because You know, as human beings, sometimes when we're told to do something or we're talked at, we get shut down. And so a lot of the times how I connect without even speaking words is just to sit down and create and have whatever we're working on available to them on the table if they want to grab it. And oftentimes they grab it. It's recognizing that their feelings are valid and And it's also telling their spirit that they're free to do, to create or not to create. It's acknowledging, you know, it's not, it's not necessarily saying, it's not necessarily words. It's, I don't know. It's hard to explain. It's like, it's a human connection thing, right? If somebody were to do that to me when I was younger, losing my temper at first, I'd be like, what is this guy doing? You know, why is he just sitting there like that? And then after a while I'd be like, That actually looks kind of cool. You know, with adults, adults are a lot harder to deal with sometimes than students are. But at the same time, there's only something that we can relate to. And being kind helps out a lot. My puppy's over in the window barking at me. She's like,

SPEAKER_03:

hey, I'm right here. Something that I tell kids, any student that I have or groups that I'm working with is that like everything that you tell yourself about yourself is an idea and most often a lie. So like why not construct a good idea or a good quote unquote lie? And it's also like you create the immediate world around you. So you have like I think it's the thing of like people often don't realize that they have much more influence in their immediate surrounding and their immediate reflection or view or assessment, if you will, of themselves and their ability than we are like conditioned and told that we have.

SPEAKER_04:

I love that. It's like a way for self-hypnotize ourselves anyway.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Hypnotize ourselves into something we enjoy, actually.

SPEAKER_02:

You've all really touched on what art can do for community and how we bring in community. And all three of you do a lot of really public work in a way. But how can people start to see themselves as contributing to the community well-being? And that's community health is a community that is healthy mentally and and emotionally can then maybe tackle those bigger environmental health issues or other public health issues. Any thoughts on?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I would like to jump in. First of all, I think I would like to advocate us recognize our own health itself is a part of community health. I think we're inundated, we're kind of hypnotized, let me use this word, into this notion we're separate. Isolation is part of it. It's not realizing, just like a forest, every tree is connected with each other through mycelium network that might be invisible. But our own well-being itself sets the foundation for everything we do, every interaction, small talks with cashier, you know, our relationship with coworker and the family members. When we are in a good state of health, mentally, emotionally, physically, we're much more likely to supporting other, helping other, and having more resource and agency to navigate difficult, maybe tricky situation, relationship. That in itself is already a huge contribution. And I think to acknowledging that, feel that, to notice how our own healthy state contribute to adding the well-being of those environment around us is a good first step foundation. And of course, for those of us who are in this profession, we actively cultivate the skills capacity to do that in a more public professional way. But I think this foundation is really crucial, this awareness.

SPEAKER_03:

I think a large part of it comes down to language as well, about like how we talk about the community and shifting language from kind of viewing community as something that is created to something that just exists. So I think about working in and around substance abuse. And a lot of the language is get people sober so they can be a part of the community or be a contributing member of the community. That language already in itself says that community is something that has parameters or has prerequisites to accessing. And I think if it's continued to be talked about in that way, there really can be no baseline for health or like how do you measure progress for something that's like exclusive, but you're still trying to like care for everybody that is inherently community.

SPEAKER_02:

So what is it about the language that we should be aware of for folks in people that are in decision-making positions? Are we asking them to recognize a change in language?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think it's going to, I mean, it's definitely going to start at the person to person level. So those grassroots organizations, those community organizations, the smaller, quote unquote, smaller nonprofits that are going to have the influence, like that upward flow influence of creating new language and new systems that work so well that like this old way of, not old, but the other way of approaching it no longer has really any like relevance to it. And I think like another example I can give around language and community and the way it's like, we need to maybe look at it a little bit deeper and more critically is a lot of the language coming out about around like the immigrant community, undocumented folks and immigrants of just saying like so much of their value is like, they shouldn't be deported because like, you know, they do this. And it's like, so it's like their value is not tied to a service. They shouldn't be having because they're humans. So it's kind of like you're tying their value to their contribution to a community. You no longer see them as a human. You see them as a service. And I think that is one of the more extreme ways outside of chattel slavery that's still very much happening today. But just sort of like a lot of community now, especially out of this administration, is tied to value. What are you providing? What are you doing? And how are you progressing a set value forward rather than who are you and what is your part in this inherent group of people?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I agree on that too. Because ultimately what it sounds like, I mean... I'm chuckling. It's no laughing matter, but just the way it sounds, right? Because what it ends up boiling down to when it's spoken like that of our, you know, our relations from, you know, Mexico or, you know, down south or other countries, right? Is it saying we don't want them to leave the country because that means that we're going to have to do that work. You know what I mean? It's... It's not putting just a, I get what you're saying about maybe how we see things and especially how we speak about because ultimately every human being has value. It's not, well, we like Jason just because he does art or we like so-and-so because he's good at this or that. It's yeah, yeah, it's really

SPEAKER_04:

great. I want to boil it down to say like our beingness is contribution.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes just a nice hello. You know what I mean? Like, but, um, so earlier I had stated this and, and, uh, Remy, when we're speaking on getting clean, uh, me speaking of getting in recovery so I can connect back to the community. So, um, I guess the next time I say that, what I should say is it fully. So people understand that it's not because of what my expectation, like it's because I didn't feel comfortable being around the community. You know what I mean? Yeah. I just raised my awareness about that. So the next time I say that I took a little note, you know what I mean? Cause I, I'm very open about my, um, my life as, uh, a community member who struggled with addiction and is overcoming it, you know? So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And I think it's also very, it's personal and very like case by case or experience by experience of like your definition of community is very different from like someone else's definition of community.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. It's definitely like, I wanted to make sure I also voiced that and not like, made it seem like it was like anything attacking or anything. Not at all. Not at all.

SPEAKER_02:

One thing that we, that I hope to kind of achieve with this is connecting and having this, the systems and the structures start to see the value of what art does for wellbeing, what art does for community. How can health systems and structures see themselves as Part of the change, the change being that health is not just going to the doctor, taking your medications. Art is health. People speaking to each other with respect, with compassion, is a part of health. What can we say, what can we ask of these structures and systems to be part of this change?

SPEAKER_05:

In American society, everything is so rigid. Like with resources, it's like with Lummi Housing, for instance. So we're talking about equity. What I would say to these organizations is to take into consideration what the struggles are of people who are making these transitions or simply trying to exist. Maybe not like finding ways of making people ineligible, but seeking out ways so that resources can be a little more easily attained. So like, for instance, coming out of treatment, one of the biggest problems that we have in things, people coming home from long-term incarceration and, you know, places of struggle is they don't have anywhere to stay, you know? And also, you know, what's really important to all these art projects that are going on and, you know, it's, It's movement of these nonprofits communicating. You know, communication is huge, right? If I didn't do that first salmon run mural on North Forest Street, it really created a buzz in the community. I'm really thankful to Gretchen for that collaboration. But that really got the community buzzing and it got people talking who might not normally talk. It got nonprofits really seeing that, hey, we can... we can apply for grants we can make these collaborations happen because when people see when the community sees collaboration what they see is connection and uh and they also see that we can have fun and accomplish our goals at the same time most important thing i would say to you know these programs who are who are involved in you know in behind the scenes and making things happen is uh number one try to find ways for more people to be able to contribute or participate without so much rigid limitations and number two is uh it's often thought of that man i would really like to get this huge art project done but man i don't know how to apply for a grant and sometimes it's uh it's one of those deals where you just got to take the leap you know because And all this movement, right? I love seeing art, you know what I mean? Because it goes back to those voices, right? I see artists who I know for a fact have struggled with mental health their whole life and who get to express themselves now and they're living a fully balanced life because of that, because of being able to express themselves or be a part of these events, whether it be the farmer's market or allied art shows. are going to speak in schools. My hugest thing in life right now is communicate. We have our opportunity now. Things are just an arm reach away, but yes, there's still some work that needs to be done, but there's some pretty awesome connections being made and we can always do better. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02:

Spring, what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_04:

I agree a lot with what Jason says. Maybe the people who inhabited the system and structure themselves could open up to this, just see, experiencing, bring elements of this kind of art as a creative process, art as an organically playful connecting thing, find ways to incorporate that in their work. life and relationship with each other i think yeah if we the humans inhabiting the system can embody this spirit and find more in touch with using arami's work words like more meeting ourselves in our purest form then we can bring this spirit in our work and also in the service with come to the community i

SPEAKER_03:

love that yeah i think if i if i had a chance to directly sit and talk with those people in those positions. I think the simplest way to say it is just kind of back off. I think a lot of what I've seen, even just looking through artist grants and looking for grants for my company and looking for grants for nonprofits and just a lot of it is they've taken the human out of the art and they've turned it into we just want like this fun graphic or we want less like art that has been kind of sterilized and molded into this neat little package when in turn like art is like it's all of the behavior of humans like it's the messy it's the complicated it's the detrimental it's like it's all of that and so I really say like back off like it's not something that can just be compartmentalized into this neat little package that serves a purpose of one mission going forward. And I think art and nonprofits and human services and all that stuff needs to be thought of in the context of the strategic vision. It's very much a tool as a direct cash transfer or giving somebody a bus ticket or something. It's a tool of access. And so I think, yeah, if you put so many barriers on something, it becomes so easy to just be like, no, I don't actually want to engage with that. And in turn, you're denying getting to know a whole other side of yourself or discovering what you actually want and how you want it. There are all these other tools and all these other supplemental ways of getting to know the full picture of someone that have been compartmentalized and sold

SPEAKER_02:

I'm also hearing like just trust that person, that they know what they need, they know what they're asking for, and for it to be more, and yeah, you were definitely using reciprocal, that it's, and not in a transactional way, but human to human, putting the humanity back into systems.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Yeah. And it's like, the way I think about it is like, you wouldn't give a brain surgeon to do one type of brain surgery for all brain related matters and say like, you only have funding to do this one type of surgery. The people that are in it know it the best. The people that are working with the people in it know it the best from a different perspective. And if you get that many degrees removed and you hold the most power, it is pretty much your responsibility to pass that resource off to those who are closest to it. Say that like, if you want whole human care, then you have to fund whole human care.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's pretty,

SPEAKER_04:

yeah. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. And I think I love what Remy said. And I think we, I think ultimately maybe that's the actually most sustainable way to use a resource is actually to be acknowledging the whole, to fund the fullness, wholeness, like what Remy said. The way that we're cutting up right now, like we try to save money, but actually it doesn't, because we're just wasting money, because we're repeating the same pattern. We're not actually doing what we're set out to do. So it's actually more wasteful that way.

SPEAKER_05:

It's important for people to hear different perspectives, right? There's definitely a lot of movers and shakers in you know the area that we live in and it's definitely awesome to hear other perspectives also speak to you know what they've seen work and you know maybe what their opinion is on what can help even more you know

SPEAKER_04:

i would like that that's great jason that like what you said the importance of hearing different voice it's like know talking about community with the different voices the choir choir choir of the community that sometimes we stigmatize like i think jason's story of you know i love what you how you um on transparent authentic about your heroin addiction um journey and um I think there's mental health, addiction, poverty, all these experiences, they actually can be in art. A lot of artists transform that experience. It's like alchemize those kind of experiences we tend to stigmatize in an oppressive system. But in art, it's like art-based alchemy that transforms that experience into... creativity into expression, beauty and connection, poetry and music. So I think art is really the alchemy to, it's almost like a different system in relationship to oppression. We don't need to stigmatize anything, which is the art can create a heart space that we can embrace. all kinds of experience in life and then we can embrace each other and not to marginalize and exclude or judge other people and just hold them in that heart space.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I tell people when we give people a platform, it creates conformity. And when we give people voice, it creates community. So I think, yeah, incorporating as many different perspectives as you can and really like not policing or tone policing art. And kind of like, yeah, creating awareness around like, yeah, if you bring art into a space, like you can't control what comes up because it's humans.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, thank you again so much for being part of this and sharing with me and sharing with each other and ultimately sharing with, you know, community and the wider audience.

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

Check out the show notes to connect with the work of Jason LeClaire, Spring Chung, and Remy Sterk, and find the times and tickets for our upcoming North Sound Voices Film Festival, which are showing films featuring Remy Sterk and Jason LeClaire, among others in the North Sound community. Kickoff is this Friday, June 27th, and you can find more dates at northsoundach.org slash

SPEAKER_00:

nsv-film-festival. Thanks for listening to the North Sound Voices podcast. Make sure you subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast so you don't miss out on our latest episodes. You can also find us on social media at North Sound ACH on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. This podcast is produced by North Sound ACH with Meg Stevenson, Natalie Esparza, and Liz Baxter. Our music is by Die Hard Productions.

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.