The power of creativity

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MYNRA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 21st.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Healing through art.

Art therapy as its own practice has been around for more than 80years. It helps people heal in surprising ways: music, theater, a mural.

BROWN: Well, Mary, I met a cancer survivor who found his therapy in a traditional Japanese art form.

A year ago, Lance Clements never imagined he’d be here.

ANNOUNCER: Are y'all ready? Are y'all ready? Are y'all ready?

Clements has joined a few thousand people surrounding an asphalt stage that empties into a marina. All eyes are on a huge Blue Marlin hanging from its forked tail. It’s a surprising part of Clement’s post-surgery therapy. More on that in a minute.

ANNOUNCER: 645.6!! [fog horns, applause]

Today is the weigh-in finale of the Blue Marlin Grand Championship, a four-day sportsfishing tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama.

LANCE CLEMENTS: They’ve got a lot of security here.

68-year-old Lance Clements is hoping for the chance to literally get his hands on a Marlin, a billfish known for its speed and strength.

Clements is a budding Gyotaku artist. Gyotaku is the traditional Japanese method of printing fish, using ink and rice paper. In the mid-1800’s fishermen used it to record their catches. Now it’s an art form of its own.

Clements is also a general contractor. For decades he’s built houses and condos, many along the same beach that hosts this fishing tournament. Last year he started thinking about a career change.

CLEMENTS: it’s just not been as satisfying in the last five years that we’ve done it. It got to be more stressed. And my age has something to do with it.

While flipping through a magazine one day, Clements noticed a Gyotaku print.

CLEMENTS: I said that looks like something that would be fun to do. I should try that. And I did. I was surprised I could actually do it.

Then, in June of 2024 the husband, father and grandfather of eight got sick.

CLEMENTS: Just so happens around the same time frame, we found out about this tumor.

Cancer in his esophagus. Post surgery and immunotherapy, Clements is recovering well. He attributes his healing to his faith in God, his doctors and the time he spends fish printing.

Studies show the arts are emerging as an important and integral component of healthcare. Jill McNutt is an art therapist.

JILL MCNUTT: I interviewed fifteen cancer patients that underwent art therapy and we found art therapy benefitted patients directly.

One benefit is known as interactive distraction.

MCNUTT: Bending in that creative and imagination will easily help us slip into that flow zone where time disappears. Patients who are going through long arduous treatments, don’t want to sit there and worry all the time.

CLEMENTS: And as I start working with my hands, getting those creative juices flowing, your mood improves.

Clements is still a fish printing novice. The Blue Marlin fishing tournament will put his knowledge to the test.

AUDIO: [Watch your feet…watch your feet]

The crowds, the heat, and the tight security are putting Clement’s mission, to print one of the Blue Marlin onsite, in jeopardy.

CLEMENTS: The captain of the boat. That’s who we’re looking for. He’s the one that runs the show and can tell us if we have access to the Marlin.

To find a captain who’ll cooperate, Clements needs to be in the right place at the right time, somewhere between the stage and the marina.

MONTAGE: Let’s see if we can get up closer. Ok. Following you. You think that’s a better spot? Yes, this is a better place to be. How did we miss them getting on the boat? We’ll go back up to where we were at.

The next hurdle, getting the captain’s attention as he and his crew haul their catch from the dock to the stage.

CLEMENTS MONTAGE: Captain, captain…captain…captain Captain, captain…you have a second…

MYRNA TO CLEMENTS: How do you know who’s the captain? I don’t know. I just call them all captain.

After several attempts, Clements spots a crewmember having a conversation with another spectator. He heads over and gently interrupts.

CLEMENTS: You ever had one printed before. I do Gyotaku prints.

CAPTAIN: No I haven’t.

CLEMENTS: I would love to do one for you.

CAPTAIN: How much would it be to do something like that?

CLEMENTS: I’m not in any rush for money. What I need right now is to be able to have access to the fish for a quick print on.

CAPTAIN: Let me uh…. You know what let me skip out on this one, but I would like to do that in the future. That sounds cool.

Rejection stings, but Clements says practicing Gyotaku has taught him patience and perseverance. Traits that have served him from the confines of a hospital bed to the dock of a marina.

ANNOUNCER: Take a look at how we get these fish unloaded…

As more boats return to the dock…

CLEMENTS: Captain, congratulations….

Clements keeps pitching. Then, just like that…

CLEMENTS: Captain, captain..would you be interested in a print of the fish. I do Gyokatu.

CAPTAIN: Oh yeah!

…the opportunity he’s been praying for.

MYRNA TO CLEMENTS: What did he say? He said yeah. I want a print. We’re good.

Clements heads toward a 500-pound, 12-foot Blue Marlin, laying on a horizontal dolley. Clements is equipped with paint brushes, ink and fabric. But none of that prepares him for what’s coming.

CLEMENTS TO MALE COMPETITOR: Where you out of? Mississippi….

CLEMENTS TO FEMALE COMPETITOR: Where you live? I’m local here. I’ve been doing fish prints since ‘08.

Two fellow fish printers, competitors, already at work.

CLEMENTS: Yeah, I feel a little nervous about that.

But when it’s Clements turn to capture the print, he’s fast and deliberate. He applies the dark, non-toxic ink on every inch of the Marlin.

CLEMENTS: Yeah, this is Japanese ink.

Then he takes a long, white, cotton fabric and carefully places it on the inked fish. He firmly presses the fabric into the ink to transfer the image.

CLEMENTS: How much pressure are you applying? Quite a bit. Just like we’re pressing somebody’s old tombstone. We’re making sure we get all the details with it that we can.

A handful of people have now gathered to watch Clements carefully peel off the fabric. He smiles and inspects his work.

CLEMENTS: I can work with that. We can make a nice painting out of that. I’m proud of it.

SOUND: [Knock at the door/dogs barking]

Five days later, Clements is hunching over the dining room table.

SOUND: [Erasing and sketching]

He’s filling in and touching up the outline of the Marlin. It’s the last step before he’ll begin to prime and paint. Clements says immersing himself in his art is as helpful as the immunotherapy treatment he received the day before. He says art helps him focus on something other than cancer.

CLEMENTS: What you’re thinking about is how can I recreate what God has created here? How can I get close to the colors? You can’t do it for one thing.

SOUND: [Staples]

Tuesday, August 12th. Clements is stapling the white canvas over the wooden frame.

CLEMENTS: The final stretch. We’re stretching it lengthwise. We’re stapling it down. This is the same fabric that we saw in Orange Beach. Yeah.

It’s exactly one month to that very day back in July.

CLEMENTS: We’re gonna stand it up and take a look and see how it turned out. You’re ready? Here we go. It’s huge isn’t it?

MYRNA: Wow! Look at those colors!

Brilliant blends of blue cascade over the Marlin’s back. Silver, copper and a hint of purple fade into the side and belly of the big fish.

CLEMENTS: It’s good. But when you look at that next to a fish that just came in, someone brought up to the boat, and you see all the different colors that are in there you realize only God can do that.

Clements says his next move is to share the painting with the captain that commissioned it. He says he trusts God with that outcome, too.

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