LC Van Savage

My name is LC Van Savage and I am 74 years old. I was born on Staten Island, New York, and I’ve lived in Brunswick, Maine since 1974 with my husband Stephen. We’ve been very happily married for 53 years, have three sons, and six grandchildren.

I wrote a weekly column called “LC’s Take” in the Times Record here in Brunswick, Maine for over 28 years and now it appears in The New Maine Times. It also is seen on “Pencilstubs,” www.pencilstubs.com and the blogger version www.pencilstubs.net.

I write rhymed and rhythmed poetry, and have included these in a book called “LC’s Take – Poetry- I.” I occasionally do readings around Maine from my poetry book, columns and books.

I hosted a local TV show on Maine Public Broadcasting Network called “incredibleMAINE” where my crew and I traveled all over the state to film interesting shows about Maine, her people and the things they do, and we happily know we will never run out of show ideas. These shows appear every Saturday morning at 10:30 AM on MPBN. I also hosted several in state weekly radio interview shows.

A collaborative writer, I wrote a book with Marilyn Monroe’s first husband (Jim Dougherty) entitled, “To Norma Jeane with Love, Jimmie,” featured on E!, TV Guide, The Larry King Show and Bill Green’s Maine. It is being translated into Japanese and Chinese for sales in those countries and is being published in England. Three other collaborative books are completed; the biography of Virginia Mayo, a movie star famous from the l930s through the ’70s entitled, “The Best Years of My Life,” and I’ve written the biography of John Agar, also a famous star from the 40s and on, entitled “On the Good Ship Hollywood.”

In spite of my love of writing, painting has always come first. Many years ago I tried to “learn” how to paint “properly” but the primitive-naive-outsider style of painting was where my heart has always been, and I’ve never been able to lose the appeal that style of painting has for me and happily for my customers. For years I painted entire life stories for people all over the US and a few in Europe in that self-taught style. These were huge, incredibly detailed paintings and while I loved doing OPS (Other People’s Stories) they eventually became too overwhelming and now I’m happily doing simple, one scene paintings—on the insides of bowls. Bowls have such a universal appeal ––they are amongst the most ancient, necessary and appealing of implements. I now paint one tiny story on the insides of these bowls – either from my own memories or on commission.