jen lemen - Home

photo by Anna Kuperberg

A talented painter, life coach and jewelry designer, Andrea is probably best known for Superhero Journal, Superhero Designs and the tagline: You are your own Superhero. That mantra has inspired so many women who want to tune in to their own sense of personal power and strength–having your very own Superhero necklace has become for many the talisman for that kind of confidence and joy.

I first met Andrea online in 2004, and we became real life friends at the Blogher conference last year in San Jose. Since then, I’ve been empowered and inspired firsthand by the way Andrea lives and breathes her artist life. I missed her so much at Blogher this year, I asked her if she’d mind doing a little interview with me to commemorate her absence! She graciously agreed.

JL: I’ve always been impressed by the way you value “fun and easy” as not only a successful business strategy, but also as a joyful way to live your life. I think so many times I’m afraid that the fun and easy way means I’ll somehow will be settling for less than my best or that I’ll be missing out on something that comes on the other side of struggle. How did you discover “fun and easy” was the way to go for you?

It all started with Fun. Everything I have been successful at in my life started out being fun. (Even if it didn’t end that way!) This is my way of following my heart…It is my creative compass, my deep intuition and my way of taking myself a bit less seriously. I started my jewelry business because I was having so much fun making necklaces for friends. I always thought I wanted to be a “serious” artist (a painter) but I experienced so much struggle with it. I hated applying for shows, being critiqued, doing the hustle to sell work, and ultimately letting go of my pieces. It all felt so hard.

Easy is akin to flow for me. When things are easy, there is a flow, or a rightness about it. It’s the other way I know I am on the right track. There are exceptions to this rule of course, getting pregnant being the perfect example. Overall however, when things get overly complicated and are full of struggle I often check in with myself and ask if it is the right thing for me. Before I met Matt and was dating lots of boys, this was a great tool for me. If there was too much drama I had to ask myself if this was the person I was really looking for. It never was! When Matt and I started dating it
was FUN and EASY, so I married him!

I think in some circles there’s still this idea out there that life coaches are all fluff and positive thinking, telling people whatever they want to hear–when in reality coaching is a serious invitation to take a hard look at your life and start taking your strengths and your abilities seriously. I’m curious about the role coaching has played in your life over the last couple of years–especially in those matters (like infertility) where there are no easy answers.

Coaching saved me while I was going through infertility! Both being coached and becoming a coach. (You do a lot of both when you are training) A great coach is like the best kind of therapist- She is a place to sort out the hurt, to really be in the emotions that you are in (and not run away from them, deny them, or positive think your way through them) and at the same time she speaks to your best self and your most powerful self. She’s not going to let you wallow in the crud for too long. There is a nice balance between processing, taking action, and looking at your entire life and seeing that it is all in balance.

This is a tough question because as I write about it, it seems to get bigger and wider. Said simply, training as a coach gave me the opportunity to pursue something I felt deeply passionate about, that I could actually control. It was something I could work hard for, practice a lot, and see my own growth and progress. It was like gaining fluency in a language. So empowering! In the midst of infertility (which is the epitome of working SO HARD for something you want so deeply, but never seeing any results…) this was a godsend. It was a future I could create, that I was in control of, that I could manifest. The baby thing, not so much.

What’s on your internal soundtrack these days? Any songs/artists in particular that keep you feeling connected and inspired?

Lionel Richie baby.
Always Lionel.

And of course anything by Jonatha Brooke or the Weepies.

I can’t believe Ben is almost eight months old. What’s surprised you the most about motherhood so far?

I am still surprised by the RELENTLESSNESS of the work. It is quite literally a 24 hour job. Sometimes I wonder how I get through the day in one piece! I wouldn’t trade it for the world of course (do I even have to mention that?) but my picture of what “busy” looked like before motherhood was really different.

We’ve been talking a lot in the last few days about breakdown stories–those moments in life where it seems like everything is destined to fall apart and you’re not sure what will happen next. It’s funny because this happens to all of us at one time or another and yet these are the stories we tend to keep to ourselves. You’ve been hearing lots of these stories lately–and it’s not all gloom and doom. I’d love for you to talk a little bit about what stands out to you in these stories of everything falling apart.

I’m not sure what it means yet for me and my life. I have just been noting that these stories are
unfolding all around me and I am inspired. I’m also curious why they are coming to me all at once! My dear friend from high school just said to me yesterday (after a major life breakdown and then miracles that followed) , “I want to be more excited but I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop!” I told her, “The other shoe already dropped. You already dealt with everything falling apart. Now you are building…”

It makes me of think of that quote from Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies:

“Carolyn Myss, the medical intuitive who writes and lectures about why people don’t heal, flew to Russia a few years ago to give some lectures. Everything that could go wrong did-flights were cancelled or overbooked, connections missed, her reserved room at the hotel given to someone else. She kept trying to be a good sport, but finally, two mornings later, on the train to her conference on healing, she began to whine at the man sitting beside her about how infuriating her journey had been thus far.

It turned out that this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And he said-gently-that they believe when a lot of things are going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born-and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.”

Thank you so much for doing this interview today. I feel like it would be wrong to have you on this blog and not ask if there are any Mondo Beyondo dreams for Superhero Designs or Andrea Scher, mom/artist extraordinare? I will be forever grateful that you introduced me to the idea of Mondo Beyondo–that changed my life.

Oh… good question! I haven’t made a Mondo Beyondo list lately.

My Mondo Beyondo includes:
A Superhero Book!
Balance (between motherhood, being a great partner, creativity, taking care of my body and home)
A trip to Spain
A trip to Hawaii
A trip to Italy
A trip to NYC
Learning Spanish well (anyone have a textbook I could borrow?)
Dancing regularly
Painting again
Buying a home

Thanks, Andrea for doing this interview with me! I want to mention to the fact that your store is open again after a little hiatus. We’re so glad you’re back! And dear readers, maybe the best way to respond to this discussion is to add your Mondo Beyondo dreams to this list in the comments below.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Journal, andrea scher, artist, babies, blogher07, friends, interviews, mondo beyondo, motherhood, mothers and sons, perspective, play, superhero designs, superhero journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.