Bettie Grace Miner Interview Page 2

Smitty: (Laughing)

BM: (Laughing) I laughed too and said, “you think I can? You’re not real sure about it?” She said, “well, she hasn’t attacked any women yet…she doesn’t like men very much, but she’s never attacked a woman and women take care of her, get in her pen, and you know, her veterinarian is a woman, and the people that feed her and take care of her, are women.” So, with that in mind I said, well, I’ll try it. I said, “I’ve seen Wild Kingdom, I’ve watched Animal Planet, I could do this…” So I actually climbed the fence and got in the pen, with this cougar. The funny thing about it is, in my effort to be cool and look confident; I actually fell flat on my face getting into the pen. From the top of the fence, I got sort of tangled up and fell flat on my face right in the middle of the pen with this cougar. And I immediately thought that the cougar would probably attack me (Laughing).

Smitty: I’m getting a visual Bettie. (Laughing)

BM: And I sort of looked up and picked my face up out of the dirt and looked at this great cat, and she was just sitting there with this look like, well, that was really smooth. She didn’t come after me, I thought well, if she didn’t come after me for that, then she’s probably O.K. with me being here. So I just sat in the middle of her pen, and photographed her. Randy was taking pictures of me the whole time, probably as proof for the insurance (laughing).  At one point, she actually walked up to me just to see what I was doing and I have a picture of that on my website. You’ll see, on the homepage, there’s a little thumbnail that shows this big cougar, just looking at the photographs in my lap. She just came right up to me and looked at these photographs in my lap, and rather instinctively – probably not real smart, I reached up and petted her…

Smitty: Nice.

BM: You’ll see a picture of me petting this cougar, her name was “Beauty”. And, what was very, very cool for me and was one of those wonderful days of my life, was, when I did that, she literally laid down in front of me and showed me her belly like a house cat.

Smitty: AH…(laughing)

BM: (laughing) So, I got to photograph her close up and, you can actually see a lot of that on my website. In fact, any sales from that benefit Animazonia, the people that are taking such good care of these animals. So that’s one of my pet projects if you’ll pardon the pun. A bigger project of course, going back to jazz for a moments, is for the past four or five years, I’ve been creating a huge collection of all the various smooth jazz artists, and have released this in a limited edition book. Also, I have exhibits of these pieces and you might see me from time to time at some of their shows, and I will have some of the artwork. That’s been a huge love, a huge project that is still ongoing. I’m about to wrap it up and hoping to perhaps do a coffee table book with the collection, which is probably as many as a hundred or more portraits, of various smooth jazz artists. If I can get a publisher, or a sponsor, or somebody who would like to help me pay for it, that would be what I’ll do next.

Smitty: Wow, I like that…

BM: A collection.

Smitty: Sounds like it’s a great project, I’ve seen the book, and it’s nice.

BM: Thank you. I have a small book of it now that is a limited edition, they are hand printed, signed and numbered, it comes with a certificate of authenticity, there’s fifty artists in the book, and it’s set up like a…little autograph book where you can take this book around with you from show to show and get all of your favorite artists to autograph it for you. And it’s actually a collection of fifty art prints, it’s not really a book, it’s actually, fifty art prints that are bound together.

Smitty: You know, that’s a great project.

BM: Thank You. It’s been a labor of love. I even wrote a biography, even though it’s of the various artists, I tell stories about them which I’m not too sure they wanted me to tell… but, fun stories umm you know little insights about the artists and their lives, and their families.

Smitty: Very cool...

BM: Stories about the artist that most people haven’t heard.

Smitty: You know that’s a great project for fans to have; to get your collection of prints, the book, and to go to different shows and collect autographs from the different artists as a part of the collection.

BM: That was the idea. Actually the idea for it came from the fans. I have an exhibit of the work; it’s called Jazz Impressions. And of course impressions means that it’s an impressionistic art form. So I thought that was fun. So Jazz impressions, and it’s actually a fifty-piece exhibit that I have, and the fans would see this and say “Wow! You know I wish I could have them all. Couldn’t you do these, you know, as a book?” And so many people asked me to put it together as a book. That was the reason I did it the way I did as art prints, so that people can actually have the same art prints that are in the exhibit in a small format; and have the chance to meet with the different artists, and have them sign it. It’s just a real collectible, collection to be able to carry around, instead of having fifty pieces of art on your wall.

Smitty: Very nice...

BM: You’ll have them in your pocket.

Smitty: Yes, I love it. There’s something that I really want to ask you about, your involvement with music therapy. Now you have a music background if I’m not mistaken.

BM: Yes, yes it’s true; actually it’s funny that you know that. I didn’t know that you knew that about me, music therapy. I studied music; I was music major when I was in college. And originally my major was music therapy. I was actually a voice major, and I studied guitar for many years. I was a performer, a writer, a composer, arranger, all that. But I really had a love for how music can help, especially children, children with autism. I worked with children that had Downs Syndrome, physical handicaps, and mental handicaps. Music therapy is something that can bridge the gap in the world, really, and I loved it so much, and this was an area that I thought I’d go into professionally. The truth of the matter was, I didn’t have the heart for it. In fact, I had the heart for it, but my heart would break every time I worked with these children, and I just couldn’t toughen up. You need to be able to work with these children, and help them. You have to remain objective, and you have to be patient, and thorough. There’s just so many, so many attributes that you have, to be able to do this, to be truly effective. And, what would happen with me is that I would go home with a broken heart everyday, you know, trying to work with these kids. So I discovered that I was just too sensitive to be able to work with them effectively, and they deserve to be able to have someone work with them in a way that will help them. So I moved on, and went into the performing arts, and I did it for a number of years. Actually I changed career paths when I was about twenty-seven, or twenty-eight because I was injured in a car accident, and was no longer able to play guitar, and I was in treatment for eight years for the injuries that I had. By the time that I had surgery to correct the injuries I had, I felt as though my time as a performer had kind of passed me by. At that point I was working with a photographer, Randy actually, I mentioned him earlier, as his studio manager, and kind of helping him with all aspects of the photography that he was doing. I became interested in art and kind of started to go in that direction, and started painting, and started a whole new career, at that point. That’s what I have been doing for the past ten years.

Smitty: It sounds like a smooth transition.

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