Aug 28 - My Dad, Almost Finished

It is about 90 percent finished at this stage; now I'm working on the likeness. I don't have it yet, and have to work on face and arms more. Just like my relationship with my father, I find myself striving harder than I normally would to depict the essence of who he was, on a level I know he would expect. That's the tough part. Rising to the level of expectation.
Another day's work, perhaps.

The summer dry heat's on out here now. Over 108 today and record 110 degrees tomorrow. I stay deep in the studio where it is cool during the day, and make sure all the critters that are outside have plenty of clean, fresh water. It was too hot for the goldfish in one water tub--they just got too much sun. I moved it to the shade and populated it back up with mosquito fish.
Last night I slept outside in the trees in my Hennessy Hammock, with only a sheet. It never cooled down enough to need more. There was a nice light breeze though. The hammock is the same one I used while in Florida, out in the pasture--great sleeping, anywhere!

Making compost, having hay delivered and stacked, working with the horses--the days are full. I'm also busy responding to the many kind emails from people who have found hope in my posting my husband's success with his protocols for cancer. I'm honored to have made a small difference in peoples' lives, whom I've never had the pleasure of meeting. What astonishes me most is that this information isn't available to everyone, and so few people know about Dr. Budwig's research, and how supplements and diet completely affect our health.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Aug 27 -Begin Details of my Dad's Portrait - and the Response to Healing Cancer

Now that the basic values and hues are in place, it is time to cover the canvas and start to pull in some of the details. The long, narrow canvas was intentional, as I wanted to show his long life symbolically, and his position on the far right, looking across that space, is a reminder of the life well lived, and retrospectively enjoyed. When the source material was taken for this image, he had not been diagnosed yet with melanoma, but he had undergone many surgeries to remove skin cancers. His mouth and nose are a bit deformed, and I'm working how I'm going to convey his "selfness" without detailing out too much of that. It will come.

I've been overwhelmed with kind responses to my posting the protocols and my husband's success with it. Yes, it was hard to go raw (but salads are raw, Elin!). I have been able to make some really good recipes and, like anything, it is a conditioned response--what we're used to. And what is it worth? That steak and fries, or preventing/healing cancer? No-brainer for me. The biggest difference is how one feels using the flax oil/cottage cheese mixture. I had this kind response to yesterday's email from one person who is fighting her second bout with cancer:

I gave my body a kick start last night. When I got home I put about a cup of CC and mixed it with some of my super reds powder (high anti-oxidant and good for flavor too) and emptied 6 capsules of flax seed oil and stirred it until it was thoroughly incorporated. This is all until I can buy that flax seed oil today after work and a smoothie machine/stirrer or whatever it is you use to make 'em. Anyway I ate that and you know what, those mild puffy feeling sort of cramps I had yesterday are gone. I feel completely normal like before all this ever happened to me. That never happened before or that quickly. I have been using the herbs like Esiak which is supposed to be the gold standard for cancer, but it never made me feel this good so fast. Can't wait to get the book. I saw they already shipped it yesterday.

(She ordered Bill's book, Cancer Free.) When I can know that my knowledge helps people make choices, like hers, I am rewarded beyond belief and feel the overwhelming response that my time here on Earth has meaning. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your lives.

I'm opening up the workshops for fall for registration. Just a few more tweaks on the pages. There will be two--one in October, and if you can't get in that one, there will be a SECOND Color Boot Camp in November. No snow here, and I already have a list of emails to send out to let people know the workshops are open. If you'd like to be sent that email, just let me know.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is not yet updated.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Aug 26 - Dad's Portrait, Laying in the Big Lights, Cancer cure protocols

Now that the largest dark shapes are in, it is time to lay in some of the biggest light shapes to define form and set the light values. It's fun to work on this.... note how I'm NOT painting his face yet? Many artists would work on that area first, and the rest would be left to chance. I like to work this way to build up the excitement in the design.

He's portrayed as so relaxed here, enjoying his family, with the "sun over the yardarm".

First, yesterday's link to Dr. Budwig's information had a typo in it. Here's the correct link:
http://www.lightsv.org/bud1.htm

Now, the protocols that my husband follows to keep his cancer healed and at bay. First, understand that cancer is an opportunistic disease, defined by the "traditional medical establishment" as cancer OF SOMETHING. Cancer is cancer, and thrives where the immune system can't compete with it. It settles where it can opportunistically grow. We all have cancer cells in us, but most of us have an immune system that is (marginally) strong enough to keep those cancer cells from growing out of control. Radical idea? Not really. It just isn't what your doctor is going to tell you, because they are trained to treat the symptoms of specific cancers, not the causes.

Our diet and stressful lifestyles set the stage for cancer to "get" us. And as we age, our immune system weakens (unless we take care of ourselves). So cancer incidence is higher in older people, right? And with our lousy diets, it's showing up in younger people now. The statistics are alarming. Those with poor immune systems also have a raging incidence of cancers. There IS a connection.

Here's the protocols to set the stage in your life so that no cancer can thrive and get a toe-hold in your body. Or, if you have cancer, you can heal it and keep it at bay.
1. Completely raw foods, a totally vegan diet. No dairy, no processed foods, no gluten, NO SUGAR in any form, no canned goods, no meat. (Cancer loves sugar--in fact, doctors put a sugary substance in you--called the PET scan--to see where the cancer is--the sugar concentrations are highest where the cancer is!).
This protocol is where most people compromise themselves. UPside: My husband lost every excess pound he'd been carrying. Until I got used to his "right" weight, he looked thin. I was used to a fatter hubby. Now he tips the scale at 150-152, and he's 5'9. (And 69 years old.)
2. Flax seed oil (Omega 3s) and cottage cheese, 1/3 c. to 2/3 cup daily, blended with fruit for a smoothie every day. This is the core of Dr. Budwig's work. You can research it. SEVEN Nobel prize nominations (guess which industries kept her from receiving any of them!) Even in three days the external and internal well-being changes are awesome.
3. Vitamin D in the form of 15 minutes of sunshine. The body NEEDS this when it is healthy enough to USE it. #2 above makes the body receptive to its own creation of Vitamin D3.
4. Supplements to turn the body alkaline. Cancer thrives in an acid body. Meat, processed foods and sugar shoot the body over to acidic. There are saliva and urine test strips to see how acidic you are. If you're eating the protein and processed western diet, you're acidic, period. Barley grass pills help to push the body to an alkaline state, although the complete vegan diet does it, too.
5. Vitamin C/L-Lysine/L-Proline supplements. Linus Pauling knew what he was doing in his research. Keeps cancer from metastasizing in many studies.
6. Exercise and reduction of stress. My husband does aikido seven days a week (noncombative martial art), and has taken major steps to reduce the amount of stress he has in his work life.

These are all spelled out in Bill Henderson's book, and with a LOT more information than this summary. But I hope it gives you an idea of what you can do to fight/prevent cancer--at a total cost of around $200 per month, instead of.... well, don't get me started on insurance issues with pre-existing conditions.

Thanks for reading this far. Please, if you have questions about the protocols, go to the links I shared yesterday. My in box is full with emails I would like to answer.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Aug 25 - My Father's Portrait, Stage 2, and Husband's Cancer Cure

I am doing the major lay-in of the shadow shapes, using the Cool Boxes exclusively. Now human skin breaks the rules, in that cool colors are in the lighter sides, and warm colors are in the shadow sides. The Color Boot Campers will remember this, and I hope you'll be able to see it unfold as I continue with his portrait.

Now, I know you skipped down to here to find out more about the revelation of yesterday. So here goes. When my husband was diagnosed, we went with traditional medicine to prepare him for the ordeal of what I now call "burn and poison" (no cutting--surgery again was not an option). The medical community was supportive on an individual basis, in that they supported us by scheduling many appointments, were kind and solicitous, yet could not give us some very common answers. They cannot, because they are not permitted to give information for which there is no "standard of research".
He was even fitted for the radiation mask. His cancer was throat cancer, and had involved the lymph nodes in his neck. We wanted to know other options for his palliative care. Their answers were all linked back directly to drugs, chemo"fear"apy, and nothing about alternative medicine.

He began the treatments. Five radiations and his neck was sore, one chemo and his guts were in the toilet. He said, "I cannot do this. My body is screaming that this is wrong. I will live with dignity, and the quality of my life matters more to me than its length." I saw a death sentence, but was honored by his courage and decisiveness, and agreed.

But passivity is not an adjective for me, so I started my search. I spent days on the computer doing research. Much of what I found was bloody awful, because the end result of chemo"fear"apy and radiation would leave my beloved man with no taste buds, no salivary glands, and huge sores making him unable to swallow. (The doctors didn't tell us that.) There's a whole world of throat cancer people who have been subjected to traditional "medicine" over at this link. Just reading their stories pushed me further to find something else. Anything else. But no quackery.

And finally, a light. Dr. Johanna Budwig's name (link fixed). Bill Henderson and his book. Chapter five in that book. There are six protocols in that chapter that have enough research showing effectiveness for cancer treatments that Bill is willing to say they offer hope. My husband began all six, and was absolutely adamant about it. He continues these protocols to this day. After eight weeks, we saw the cancer recede to where we could not find it anywhere in his neck.

Tomorrow, the protocols, in a shortened version. My beloved is whole, healthy and without the help of big pharmaceutical companies or the dance of the insurance companies and the medical system that feeds it. We are both far healthier than we have ever been in our lives, because we both changed many of our lifestyle habits.

After I finish this painting, I'm doing one of another dear artist/mentor, who I just learned died this morning of cancer. She is now in a better place, but this woman had an outstanding and full life. She has left a huge emptiness in me, and I will paint her image as a small child. I want as many people to know that there are alternatives to cancer death, and perhaps by these two lesson paintings, I will reach someone. It's too late for my Dad, for Rowdy, for my friend Lynn Thomas, for so many others.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Aug 24 - Portrait of My Father

It had to happen. I'm finally ready to paint my father, and I will do so and also share with you some powerfully profound news. But first, the portrait. My dad passed away at age 91 from melanoma. Cancer, in its most insidious form, snuck up and took a man who could play golf and do 18 holes with the goal of "playing his age"--and he did, too, at least in his 80s.
Electrical engineer, ham radio operator, gentle yet strong, dry wit, wonderful provider as a career Naval officer, he tolerated my tom-boyish nature and patted me on the head when I did well.
It has been tough to live up to his expectations, but now I am the artist I need to be to start this 12 x 24 inch oil of him relaxing with an empty glass. "The sun's over the yardarm" in evening light. This is the initial drawing, over a toned warm ground of Australian Red Gold.

The profound news is that my husband was diagnosed last November with stage four cancer (inoperable). I could not share that with you and carry you on that journey--it would have been far too painful--until now. Today, and as of mid-March, he is cancer free. His success in following NON-TRADITIONAL protocols needs to be shared with the list, the world and hopefully other people will make similar choices to extend their lives and live well. I'll be sharing what he did, the web links and our story as I unfold this painting of my father. Had I known what I know now, and had my Dad made the choices that my husband has, he might be celebrating his 102nd birthday--he was that healthy before melanoma struck. More tomorrow.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2009 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.