Listen to the interview here!
Justin Bortz
Toni Reece: Hi there. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project. We’re here in Berks County, sponsored by Berks County Living magazine. Today my guest is Justin Bortz. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project!
Justin Bortz: Hey, Toni.
Toni: Justin, take a minute and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Justin: I grew up in Berks County. I spent a little time in California going to gemology school and a little bit of time in Seattle, but I consider myself a Berks County-ite. I’ve been in the jewelry business since high school, focusing on jewelry design. My great loves in life are music, music, and then I think there’s also music.
Toni: Do you like music?
Justin: Just a tad.
Toni: What kind of music?
Justin: That’s a good question. Melody. I’m a melody guy. To me, melody means music that hits the bulls eye in the heart. Music that is able to touch the inner heart is the music that I love, which is the Beatles, it can be Zeppelin – it can be so much – Neil Young – so much.
Toni: That’s a great segueway to the first question of the Project, which is, what does inspiration mean to you?
Justin: That’s a very good question. It means a link up to a greater sense of self that unifies all selves, or a higher love, or divine inspiration. Inspiration means to me being open and available to a greater expression of who I am, which is connective and one with who you are and what everything is. It’s a thing of beauty.
Toni: Can you give me an example off the top of the head – I know I’m asking you this out of left field here – when was the last time you were inspired?
Justin: When I was designing my line of jewelry for this holiday season. It’s a line I called The Bright. You’ve seen “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas?”
Toni: Yes, I have.
Justin: You know that bright symbol that they always show rising up as they’re singing “dahoo dores?”
Toni: Yes.
Justin: That’s The Bright, and to me that’s that unified or universal symbol of divine light or supreme beauty.
Toni: So it actually represents what inspiration means to you, and you have created jewelry, which leads to the second part of the Project, which is, how have you put inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Justin: One of the ways certainly has been with my jewelry designs. There was a line called Blessed Blue, which was inspired by a painting of the Madonna and the blue color that some people refer to as “blessed mother blue” and it’s also been with musical compilations that I’ve created. I created a triple CD greatest love songs of all time. It took me a few months to put that together. What they are is compilations of music that are medicine. They’re meant to be medicinal, and they follow a line of inspiration that follows a recipe where I consider what the first song should be, and then I just roll it out from there. What should be the next perfect song? What should be the next perfect song, and on, and on, and on. I would say musical compilations.
There’s a creation I’ve been working on for a few years called Goddess Rock. Goddess Rock takes this desire to use music as medicine and puts it together with a few other elements – mainly yoga dance – and creates a bridge to the common man, or that’s my goal anyway, is to create a bridge to anyone with something that is actually spiritual, yet it doesn’t have to have that tone of spirituality that excludes people. It’s spirituality in your home where you sit. Goddess Rock. It’s a nightclub setting, and it’s yoga dance, it’s goddesses on raised platforms, which is both sensual and consideration of the value of the goddess and the energy of women. It uses videography and obviously great music. The musical piece of it is obviously my favorite, most important piece.
Toni: With how you are inspired and how you put that into practice, you’ve given some really cool examples of that and you can see how it all fits together – has music played any part in your design of jewelry?
Justin: Unconsciously. Subtly. The Bright collection, I designed it while I was listening to my favorite Christmas songs, which I put about eight or nine songs together. That’s what I was listening to when I designed The Bright. It was directly inspired by Christmas music, which I just adore.
Toni: There you go – there’s the connection. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Justin: That’s a very good question. My first answer would probably be somebody who not a whole lot of people know, but truly he’s a gem of a human being. His name is Jack Krueger. He’s an artist. He offers a product called The Creative Intelligence Program, which is a 30-day training program, which I’ve done twice.
The reason why I would say Jack Krueger is because I find him to be a truly real person. He’s very, very down to earth, and he’s very strong spiritually as well. There’s nothing you could say or bring to him as a friend that would be judged by him or shocking to him. He’s a really great, open, nonjudgmental person, but he’s also very brilliant, and his mind is very adept. I would say he would be the first person locally who I think is really a great human being.
I would say Tom McMahon, the ex-mayor. I really dig him. I think he’s a great guy.
Sandy Solomon has been a powerful woman locally, obviously. Obviously I could go on for quite a while. Al Boscov, of course.
Toni: What do you think the common thread of these people would be for you as to why they inspire you? What’s the common thread with these guys?
Justin: I would say that they are themselves. That’s what I would say.
Toni: And they’re okay with that.
Justin: Yes.
Toni: And they’re getting the work done.
Justin: Yes. To me, that’s it. You often hear that said about somebody, like, “Joey – Joey’s a piece of work, but you know what, Joey is Joey.” That I think is really key as human beings is that we are ourselves and are creating and doing what it is we do. It’s that simple.
Toni: What you answered in the very first question, “What does inspiration mean to you?”, your very first answer was sense of self. When you talk about who inspires you in Berks County and the common theme, it’s they all have a sense of self and they all are themselves, and they get the work done. That’s so cool how that connects like that.
Justin: Thank you.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Justin: Big-hearted.
Toni: Big-hearted. Tell me what that means.
Justin: When I have the kind of power I look to have, aim to have in my life, being me, being myself, I’d like to use that power to create things that really are shockingly loving and beautiful.
Toni: “Shockingly loving …” just give me a quick example of something that is shockingly loving.
Justin: Sometimes I just like to shock people by being really loving, like saying something super sweet and kind that puts them right off of their … whoa! Just like that. With Goddess Rock, the music is complied in such a way that there might be a piece thrown in there that’s like, “Oh my God! That’s just shockingly beautiful and loving and just like, whoa!” Just like that. Just shockingly beautiful.
Toni: It’s such a gift to be able to do the Get Inspired! Project interviews, particularly with people here, and I can sit face to face with people here, having done it in the past. People tend to go to legacy when they’re gone, but you’re actually living your legacy. You’re living your legacy by the designs that you’re creating, by the products and the organizations that you’re creating, the music that you love, and I would imagine that that’s something that you do every day, which is shockingly loving. You’re living your legacy – how cool is that?
Justin: It’s pretty cool.
Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Project.
Justin: Thanks, Toni.
Justin Bortz
