NFS Best Buddies

I spent an afternoon last week messing around with a sketch of my two grandsons. They live clear across the country in Seattle.

I've used these two quite liberally in a few of my paintings over the years, and while this is not a very good representation, it was nevertheless great fun, and almost like having them right here in Maine. They are after all, my best little buddies, who also happen to be best buddies.

Best Buddies • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • NFS

SOLD - Goldfish

A friend posted a photo of the new pink Goldfish packaging for "Princess" goldfish crackers on Facebook the other day. This is corporate America at its best. It will do anything to pump sales to girls, but not a whole lot to pump their mother's pay scale!

I don't eat these things, but was curious about them, so did a little digging and found out the crackers were invented by a man named Oscar J. Kambly in 1958, who launched them through his Swiss company called Kambly. It was just a puffed cheese-free fish-shaped cracker called a Goldfischli. They’re still available under their original brand in Switzerland. In 1962, Pepperidge Farm (now owned by Campbell's Soup Corp) founder Margaret Rudkin brought the recipe for the cracker back with her after a trip to Switzerland. Her company created Finn the goldfish as the mascot - no one knows why he wears sunglasses.

Goldfish • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $250

#274 Scanning the Skies

A stargazer by nature, I spent an inordinate amount of time in my youth during the month of October scanning the skies for witches and flying monkeys. I was terrified, thanks to the Wizard of Oz movie we all dared each other to watch every year on TV.

These days, when the moon is full out in the countryside, I look for Eliot and E.T., the result of many years of therapy.

Scanning the Skies • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $250

#273 Fall Weirdness

The big fall rollout has begun. Up in the western mountains it is well underway.

I find this time of year fascinating. There's an element of something otherworldly at work out there as the countryside begins to morph. It might have something to do with the hazards of shrinking daylight hours - like getting caught in the dark on an evening walk. We forget that a giant twisted fallen limb up ahead on the side of the road is just that, and that the rustling of those little leaf tornadoes are simply a dying daytime breeze. There are no giant hissing lizards in Maine, we assure ourselves.

Fall Weirdness • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $250

#272 The Green Induced Energy Woods Walk Experience

Ever go for a walk in the woods and feel that energy thing – you know, that thing when you begin to feel a tingling in your body, and everything out there starts to morph to more vibrant colors and mysterious and magical forms. No synthetic mind altering drugs here. It's simply what I call the green induced energy woods walk experience. GIEW WE! for short.

The Japanese have a word shinrin-yoku ,that was coined by the Japanese government in 1982. In Japanese shinrin means forest, and yoku here refers to a “bathing, showering or basking in.” More broadly, it is defined as “taking in, in all of our senses, the forest atmosphere.” It's based in Shinto and Buddhist practices and is essentially a form of “forest bathing.”

In their documented research, the Japanese found walking in the forest, even for one day (the longer the better) has enumerable health benefits. It lowers cortisol (stress hormone), blood pressure, reduces physical pain, stress, depression and hostility, lowers blood sugar and improves concentration, immunes system, vitality, concentration and creativity. Children with ADHD show improved focus after just a 20 minute walk in a city park

Forest therapy has also been found to increase NK cells. Natural killer immune cells (NK cells) are a type of white blood cell which sends self-destruct messages to tumors and virus-infected cells, including cancer cells. And people exposed to vaporized stem oil from a common cypress tree have had a 20% increase in their NK cells during their three night stay in a hotel.

I wonder if walking through woods when the trees are in full fall color mode adds an extra boost to those stats!

Below is a link to a fascinating article about the healing power of a walk in the woods that appeared in Mother Earth News.

The Green Induced Energy Woods Walk Experience • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $250

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/herbal-remedies/forest-bathing-ze0z1301zgar?pageid=1#PageContent1

#271 Happy Place

Today is my son Brecken's birthday. We mothers always wish the best for our children - that they grow up be decent human beings, find what they love to do and somehow figure out how to make a living at it, and find happiness. I prefer to wish that they find their happy place, whatever that is.

Being happy is tough - you have to go to a shrink to figure that one out. In the meantime, being in our happy place can be as easy as watching puppies, hanging with kids, easing into a warm bath or sailing a flat sea in a stiff breeze. More advanced practitioners can be happy in the present and in a void. But for the rest of us, conjuring up a good memory is way easier. We can close our eyes anytime, anywhere, and imagine it - because we've been there. We just need to remember it.

So, happy birthday Brecken. May you spend today in your happy place. And for tomorrow, May The Force Be With You as you continue to add to your portfolio a thousand more.

Happy Place • 8" X 8" acrylic framed to 12" X 12" • $250

SOLD - Fleeting But Nourishing

Once in a while I find the need to stop what I'm doing, take a deep breath, and simply be in peace and quiet. It's a survival thing, putting life out there on hold, taking a time out.

This is what was in my mind during the last pause. It was fleeting but nourishing. Hope it is for you too.

Fleeting But Nourishing • 8" X 8" framed to 12" X 12" • $250