All posts by keith

Life, Paint and Passion: Reclaiming the Magic of Spontaneous

I saw this at Goodwill for $2, and thought I’d give it a try. Not for me. Basically it’s “Art (or spontaneous art rather process) as therapy”. There are better books on that, and also on using the process to make art. She focuses on spontaneous process, which is fine if you need to work through some stuff, but she doesn’t want you to show the result, because “it’s not important”, It’s just a product.
So kinda woo-woo, and not much there for an artist who wants to share an end result, which is what artists do, but if you are not a painter, and want to work on “creativity” you might get something out of this.

[showbookcover isbn=”0874778107″ display=”excerpt” action=”amazon”]

My Top 10 Reads From 2017

I read 41 books last year (not as many as I wanted, but not bad), here are my 10 favorites, in no particular order. These don’t include short or monthly comics, or art catalogues.
[showbookcover isbn=”1609452240″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1609452534″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1534300279″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1631406507″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1935233386″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”0804170150″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1101875682″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1603586865″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1570273243″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]
[showbookcover isbn=”1520536038″ display=”justimage” action=”amazon”]

2017-2018 Happy New Year!!

So it’s 2018 now. A new year. Time for changes, as it were. 2017 ended in a not so good way for me, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma cancer on November 14th. Ive had one operation on my spine to remove a mass that was impinging my spinal cord, and causing pain, and some bad neuropathy in my legs. The operation took care of the pain, but I still don’t have full function of the legs.
I’ve been through radiation, and have started chemotherapy. This week I head for Dana-Farber in Boston, to see if I’m a candidate for stem cell replacement therapy, which has great success in long remission.
More changes in 2018. I am going on the ketogenic diet/life style. I started this already, but have not done perfectly so far. You all can help me by not sending foods with sugar, or high carb things like pasta, bread (including anything made with flour) legumes, etc.
My diet needs to cut these out, and include meat (organic grass fed/pasture raised is best, more expensive though), veggies (lots of veggies), good fats (olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, avocado oil). This diet has been shown to help with, not only preventing cancer, but with battling it.
I appreciate all that everyone has done in the past 2 months, you are all great. But please try to remember I’m battling something that is never truly cured according to the doctors, and need all the advantages I can get.
Also in 2018, I’m hoping to get the brace off pretty soon, and starting on OT or PT so I might not need the walker any more.