Longtime Nobleboro resident Bernie DeLisle has lived a life of variety, from the front lines of the Vietnam War to running a bead store in Damariscotta. DeLisle’s current project, The Peace Gallery, is an art gallery focused on promoting veteran art and providing a community space. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Bernie DeLisle’s life has taken him from the near shores of Rhode Island to the far frontlines in Vietnam, from running an upscale French restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard to starting an art gallery in Damariscotta for veterans. Wherever he may be, the longtime business owner and chef knows, better than most, that life is best enjoyed with its fabled pairing: variety.
Growing up in Rhode Island gave the sea a home in DeLisle’s heart, so when he found himself out on Lake Champlain in the early ‘90s running restaurants, he felt the tug to return to the East Coast.
“Once you have the ocean thing in your blood you have to do it,” DeLisle said. “(Lake Champlain is a) big lake, but still a lake. We wanted to be on the ocean, and we knew we wanted to be in the Midcoast area.”
After an exhaustive search by DeLisle and his late wife, Christine, from Searsport to Wiscasset, the couple ended up in Nobleboro in 1993.
DeLisle is perhaps best known, however, for his presence on Damariscotta’s Main Street, where he and his family have owned and operated a half-dozen businesses.
“I have a short attention span.” DeLisle said, laughing. “I kept thinking, is this what I want to do with my life? Do the same thing for 30-40 years and then retire? I didn’t want to do that. I love having a new project.”
From the early 2000s until present day, DeLisle and his family began Aboca Beads, Darling and DeLisle, Van Lloyd’s Bistro, and Osteria Bucci. The first two were hat- and jewelry-oriented businesses, the latter two restaurants. Van Lloyd’s was recognized by Down East Magazine in 2015 as one of Maine’s best new restaurants.
Delisle got his start in kitchens after his service in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam as a helicopter crew chief. He got a job making pizza, and that was the start to a long cooking career that has called him back time and time again.
“People have natural abilities, whether they like it or not, and most cases you don’t always like the things you’re good at,” DeLisle said, smiling. “And that was the case with me.”
DeLisle’s current endeavor is perhaps his most significant departure from the familiar setting of kitchen and food, but it is still a place of nourishment.
In March of last year, DeLisle opened The Peace Gallery, a collaborative geared towards showcasing art from veterans while also providing a community space supporting health, well-being, and understanding.
“It’s been going great, the community has been so involved,” DeLisle said.
The idea for The Peace Gallery has been simmering beneath the surface since DeLisle attended a free artist retreat for veterans about five years ago at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle. The school’s mission is to connect people through craft, and it was also where his son, Addison, was working.
“(Addison) called me up and said ‘the school is doing a weeklong veterans program, you should do it,’” DeLisle said. “Five kids, all these restaurants, always moving around. I really had put my time in the service away.”
DeLisle served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1968-1972 and was in Vietnam from 1969-1970 as a helicopter crew chief.
DeLisle eventually caved and found himself up at Haystack with 30 other veterans, where he was one of two Vietnam veterans. The rest had served more recently.
There, DeLisle went to a number of art workshops within the school geared towards processing his time in the military and felt something stir in him.
“Afterwards, I said ‘OK, I need to think about this a little bit,’ just interacting with so many veterans wasn’t something that I normally did,” DeLisle said. “I sat with that feeling for a few years and then I got another phone call.”
The landlords of 122 Main St. in downtown Damariscotta, which also was the location of Darling and DeLisle, were calling to see if he was interested in putting a business in that space again. He was.
“I never really have a set idea of how I’m going to go about something,” DeLisle said.
The gallery isn’t just a gallery; it’s a space for the community and a place of resource for veterans and locals alike. Olivia DeLisle, Bernie DeLisle’s daughter, helps run and organize the space.
“We have a writing group, host music, yoga sessions, it’s a community space,” DeLisle said. “I knew I didn’t want it to involve alcohol at all, and I wanted the door to be open to the community too.”
The impact The Peace Gallery has had on the community and veterans is evidenced in the long waitlist DeLisle has accrued for artists to put their work in the gallery, as well as the community effort to be involved with the space.
And, just as importantly, it’s impacted DeLisle, too, perhaps unexpectedly.
“I knew we were going to do some art, some yoga classes, and that we’d do some cool stuff. But I didn’t anticipate people coming into the gallery, who are veterans or have family who are, and sharing their stories,” DeLisle said. “I wasn’t expecting the emotional impact of what we were doing.”
DeLisle was 19 when he went to Vietnam and he says the experience with the gallery has opened him up to sharing his story with others.
“This has been good for me. (Vietnam) was a major part of my life, it was traumatic, and, you know, you can say you’re going to put it away, you’re going to compartmentalize, but eventually you’re going to have to address it. Whatever people’s trauma is, sooner or later you’re going to have to address it, it’s still there,” DeLisle said.
The lasting impact from DeLisle’s time in Vietnam reaches further than sharing his story and curating a nourishing community space. Delisle was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer that forms in the white blood cells developed because of his exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical herbicide and defoliant used in the Vietnam War.
“When I mention to people I’ve been diagnosed with multiple myeloma I tell them it’s from Agent Orange because people need to know,” DeLisle said. “These things are still affecting people.”
According to DeLisle, the hope for the gallery is to integrate the private experience of war with the public and The Peace Gallery’s open door on Main Street is meant to promote that blending, and, hopefully, healing.
“My feeling is, if we can keep doing the art, we can keep people aware that some people are suffering,” DeLisle said.
For more information about The Peace Gallery, go to thepeacegallery.com, call 563-1220, or find the nonprofit on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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