Day 79: Andrea McPherson

December 18, 2009 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“I think what stops people from exploring true potential is being too worried about what others think.  So instead of looking to the outside — of course we need to look to the outside for inspiration — but also you can look to your inner self for inspiration.  It’s in there, you know?”

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Toni Reece: Andrea, thank you so much for joining us today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Andrea McPherson: Yes, my name is Andrea McPherson.

Toni: And what do you do, Andrea?

Andrea: I am a writer, a creative writer.  I wrote poetry, and I’m also involved in arts and entertainment journalism, and I’m also an actress.

Toni: An actress?  Way to go!  Well, I’ll tell you what, that leads us really nicely into the very first question, which is, when you think about that word inspiration, who do you think you might inspire, and how would you go about that?

Andrea: Who do I think I might inspire?  Well, I would hope to think I inspire young African American women.  I would hope to think that I also inspire people who have overcome obstacles and odds that are stacked against them.

I go about doing that just by living an honest, positive life.  I try to be honest with myself every day, honest to my cause which is spreading positivity through my writing and with the stage productions and film productions that I’m involved with.

Toni: So you consciously write with a very positive attitude, but you also pick projects that are very positive?

Andrea: I do.  I always have grown up with the notion that I don’t do anything unless I know my family would approve.  If my mother or father or younger cousins, my young, impressionable cousins were standing right here with me, what would I do?  I always try to live my life and definitely pick projects that would not only inspire them but that would make them proud that I was involved in any particular project.

Toni: Can you give us an example of your writing and how that has possibly inspired one of the first groups that you spoke about, which is young African women?

Andrea: Young African American women, yes.  I am a huge fan of what we deemed the underground arts, which is to say any type of art that kind of deviates from the mainstream.  So, within the underground art world, artists have freedom to talk about what they want to, to paint what they want to, to sing what they want to … without having to worry about record sales.  So in that, it’s not money that’s driving their art.  It’s art for art’s sake.

I like to expose artists with my writing who kind of skip to that mantra of art for art’s sake.  Art is meant to inspire.  It’s meant to inspire young people, old people, people of any color.  So I believe that artists that stick to that mantra and don’t let sales or money get in the way of their career, I think that that’s probably the bravest decision to make, especially in our economic situation in America.

Toni: How do you get around that?

Andrea: You know what, if you just stay positive and honest with yourself, I find that blessings just come.  It’s something that I’ve seen with the circle of people that I associate myself with.  I associate myself with friends that are just … they look at the brighter side of things.  They’re optimists.  And I honestly do believe that if you are a good person, whatever religion you believe in, blessings will come to you.

I like art that stays away from the over-sexualization, demeaning women, stereotypes.  Through my journalism, I try to seek out artists on this underground level, and I try to write an article that can fully encapsulate the power of whatever they create.

Toni: Now, when you think about inspiration from the way that you’re actually informing them of this underground art and living this positive life, how do you think, then, that will help them to explore their potential?

Andrea: Well, I think what stops people from exploring true potential is being too worried about what others think.  So instead of looking to the outside — of course we need to look to the outside for inspiration — but also you can look to your inner self for inspiration.  It’s in there, you know?

All human beings were born special and there is something within all of us.  And I think that’s also something I try to expound on with my writing is using yourself as an inspiration, your own, shall we say, vision board or what have you.

Toni: It’s interesting.  So what you do through your writing and through the projects that you pick, I would imagine, is to set that example.  That’s what I’m hearing, is that you set a really good example for those who can learn from you and see that it is possible if you don’t attach the outcome to it.

Andrea: Exactly.  And also, I’m a strong believer in that old saying, yes, it does take a community to raise a child.   But also, you don’t necessarily have to be a product of your environment.

I know that times are tough, especially in underprivileged areas like the inner cities of D.C. and Maryland and Virginia.  I just think that if one can know that their environment doesn’t necessarily dictate how they live their life, you don’t have to live a life of crime.  You don’t have to break the law or get into drugs or drinking or all of the other pitfalls that young people seem to be finding themselves in these days.

I’ve also myself … I grew up in an abusive situation, and I’ve come out of it very strong and with the notion that that abusive situation doesn’t necessarily dictate how I will live the rest of my life or even how I will interact with my family and friends.

Toni: That is a great point that you’ve just made to lead into your own inspiration, and when you think of inspiration, what do you need to be inspired?

Andrea: I need simply to just wake up in the morning.  I know it sounds very cliché and maybe very, very corny, but the fact that I have a roof over my head, I have a career that I love, I’m so privileged to be able to be a full-time artist.  I love being able to say that.

And also, my friends, my family, and my dog.  I look to my dog a lot for inspiration.  She is always just so happy.  All she needs is just a little bit of love, attention, and food and water and she is just the happiest animal on the face of the earth, I think.  You know, if more human beings attached themselves to that concept; all you just need is just some affection and just the minimal things, the sustenance and water.  That’s all you need to be happy, to be inspired.

Toni: Andrea, have you always been like that?

Andrea: On some level, yes.  I think during my teenage years after my father passed away when I was 16, I think I became more like this, more spiritual.  That situation taught me to persevere, and that was a time where I really did have to rely on my inspiration in order to stay sane, in order to stay strong.  I would say strongly since I was 16, yes.

Toni: And did people help you along the way?  Were there tools or methodologies that — coming through a difficult time for you to be living this life of an artist full-time, this vision that you had in order to do so and to be able to help others to live an honest and positive life — were there things that you gravitated to or used in order to move into this very, very positive place?

Andrea: You know, of course my friends and family, which is why even though … I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and even though I’ve been gone from there for 10 years, I’m still very close friends with the people I grew up there with and very close with my sister.

My sister stuck by me.  You know, we shared the same father, so of course she was grieving but at the same time, she also took me in.  She raised me from when I was 16.  She put me through college, and she’s still there for me and supporting me through my career.

But also, I gravitated towards my art, but that is why I became an artist.  After he passed away, I just began to write down everything.  I wrote everything down.  I got into acting, and I found that that was very cathartic.  I could take the anger and the sadness and the loneliness, the joy, the happiness, I could take that and I could use that in whatever production I was in, in whatever I was writing, in whatever I was filming.

And I think that is what shaped and molded me into an artist was that difficult situation.  So it was kind of like a never-ending circle, if you would.  My art is what inspired me, and I inspired the art at the same time.

Toni: And what I’m hearing you say is that it took coming through a difficult part in your life — you turned toward something that actually you did find inspiring, and for you it was art — but you actually not only experienced it, but you also did it.

Andrea: Yes.

Toni: That’s a great lesson for those that are listening to this, because what it did for you was it was cathartic, as you said; but there are many of us who just experience our inspiration but we don’t turn that into actually doing it sometimes, and you did.

Andrea: Right.

Toni: Now, when you think about how doing all of this and the way you live your life now, how do you continuously explore your own potential?

Andrea: Wow!  Actually that question is very interesting.  I was just struggling with this.  I’ve been struggling with that for the last few weeks, and I think what it is, is facing my fears, whatever they may be.  You may be afraid of heights, you may be afraid of public speaking, you may be afraid of the dark; whatever it is, face your fears.

My greatest fear is that I might not make it as an artist, as a writer or an actress.  My other greatest fear is that my talent will go to waste.

So every day I try to do something that challenges that, maybe.  Sing in front of people, read some of my poetry which are two things that I am deathly, deathly afraid of.  But I think recently I’ve made the decision to kind of just get over that, and no matter what happens, I can say I did it.

Toni: What a mantra.

Andrea: Yes.

Toni: What a mantra.  I know what that feels like, so …

Andrea: Oh yes.  Oh, Lord, it can be paralyzing sometimes, but who cares what people think.

Toni: But the wonderful thing about what you’re doing is that you’re not relying on others to carry you through that.  You’re facing it all by yourself, which is phenomenal.  How do you think by … just to bring closure to that and to say that you did it, to face that fear, what will that do for you to move you forward?

Andrea: Oh, gosh.  Well, I think just the act of facing a fear is courageous, and from that, I think one can become almost fearless.  I think people use the word fearless too loosely.  That’s a term that’s used too liberally.

But I think the main goal in this is for me just to become fearless and to just say without hesitation, “Whatever I set out to do, I will do it without trepidation, without hesitation.”

Toni: I would imagine that it would be important for others to read and hear this from your perspective that when you faced a fear in your younger years, does it allow you the perspective to put that side-by-side, the fears right now that you are facing in real life that they maybe aren’t as great of a fear as you might have thought?

Andrea: Yes.  But that’s such a scary area.  Basing something — and I imagine that this is true for other people too — you can have one of two outcomes.  You can either totally run away from it and shut down as a person, or you can walk towards it and face it.

Fortunately, I was blessed enough to have the most awesome family and group of friends on earth that I walked towards it and I faced it.  And yes, you are right, from that, now in my adulthood, it’s almost like “Oh gosh, this is a piece of cake.”

I have already been through what I think could be the worst thing that a  young person can experience, and so now I know that, though I may run into other situations that are tragic, I can deal with it because I’ve dealt with it before.

Toni: And you’ve dealt with it.  I think that’s … you’ve said that a couple of times in this interview that you did it.

Andrea: I did it, yes, yes.

Toni: You did it; and that seems to be the theme of this interview.  I’ve written that down several times while you’re talking, that you said “I did it”, and I think that’s the lesson in this interview, and you have been incredibly honest and forthcoming.

I know that people are going to benefit from your experience as well as what you’re looking to do.  And we wish you the greatest success in your art, in your writing, in your acting; and thank you so very much for being as honest as you were today.

Andrea: Thank you so much.  I can’t wait to read my interview, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the interviews that you’ll be doing for the rest of the year.

Toni: Thank you.

Andrea: Thank you so much.

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For more information about Andrea McPherson:  a.mcpherson83@gmail.com

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