Saying Goodbye To Big Sandy Mush

My time here in Big Sandy Mush is now limited - my belongings and maybe my body too will be in Hot Springs NC sometime this weekend. Everything is packed and ready to go on my next adventure in these mountains. I have loved Big Sandy every time I have lived here but Madison County has my heart and I am finally going 'home'.

I am going to attempt to ride my electric bike there almost the entire way to avoid having to ride in a car - finga's crossed ya'll, that this 3rd electric bike doesn't break like #1 and #2! Cause I have go way more then 5 miles... more like 5 miles x's 4 ---> that is unless I do the secret trespassing shortcut plan I have mapped out that I found on google. Sketchy, yes ... sneaky, yes... way shorter... oh my gawd, yes! I think like, maybe a church and someone's house is there in the middle, but I am not sure... my plan is to get to the middle and if another human catches me bike handed to act like I got lost from where I need to go so they will help guide me towards my house and not back to the HWY. ;)

Let me show you the secret shortcut on the map...

(it is the part private paved road at A and part graveled in road at B- which looks like a dark black line ---> going between point A and point B .... you can see if I don't go that way, I have to ride the blue line which goes around a whole mountain.)


View Larger Map

BTW... here below is a cell phone picCHa' my friend Mark took of my house, when he was part way finished putting in the locally milled and way cheap Hickory Floors I got. (There were no floors except plywood before that.) If you are local to Madison County, you can hire Mark to do cool stuff to your house too... he is all eco-fied.
And before I go, I wanna show ya'll a project I was working on a few weeks ago - but I think it came out like an inappropriate 4th grade "do not litter" style poster. I need help with slogans, reallllly bad - so leave some suggestions about what could be said that would get the point across, be mature, and can include censored naked ladies.
I heart this:::



And This too:::



AND I heart every single one of you!!!! Wish me luck...

Xoxoxoxoxoxoo

Nude "Canary" Calender for 2010

Bet you just couldnt wait for the Sorta Naked Women of MCS Calender to arrive! ha ha... actually I bet you didn't know it existed! Hitting the awareness scene this 2010 is a naked calender showing pictures exclusively of women who have been chemically injured causing them to have the socially & phyiscally disabling disease called Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. These injuries have a range of causes usually stemming from an exposure to chems in the work environment, in war, in 9/11, and even in the home. Since MCS is a disease only known to recent history (AKA major pollution & use of unhealthy chemicals) there has not been much research to validate and search for a cure, leaving people with MCS in the dust with the many of the other invisible diseases that Big Pharma has no invested interest in.
This Awareness Calender was put together by Susie Collins of The Canary Report in order to bring some attention not just for the cause, not even so much to raise money for charity - but to show the real human side to an illness which has been treated with disdain and rudeness by most of the medical community, up until recently when Gulf War syndrome was recognized by the military.
So... for you dirty birds out there who don't really care whether the ladies have MCS or not but more so about seeing some naked skin - do you have a mask wearing fetish? Like big and skinny ladies? Love some artsy nudes? Love nature with naked ladies in it? If so... you'll love this calendar! (Click that link and see it!)
For those who can't purchase it (cause duh the fresh printed ink makes peeps with MCS cough and swoon), don't worry a video version will be coming out later this month!

PS- I submitted about 5 photos for the calender (all including the F word), and the pic up top was the one chosen... this one below was a reject!!! I kinda like the reject, ya'll!

XoXo

Prepping For the Canary Calender

Recently I volunteered to be part of a calender that raises awareness about people suffering from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities - a disabling illness that makes functioning in our modern world darn near impossible due to the fact that these people have been chemically injured and their body will no longer tolerate even slight contact with chems. People get chem injuries from all sorts of places like working in labs, working in factories, being the front line in wars and 9/11 rescue, being exposed to toxic renovations, or other issues of acute pollution. People who end up with MCS are often refered to as the canaries in our 'coal mine' environment, because they are the first to get sick from the unregulated over exposure we now deal with as a society, on a daily basis. Even if you don't live downstream from a power plant dumping junk into your drinking water and don't work in a science lab using aldehydes, you are still being exposed to chemicals through common household and care products like bleach, lipstick, detergents, harsh soaps, perfumes - plus paints, carpeting, varnish and other indoor air quality issues. If going green is not your shtick cause you don't care about the health of the earth, then it should at least be essential to even the most selfish human for your own personal health. The beauty in it is, when we are in balance, things fall into balance behind us.
Now for the calender... The Canary Report is putting together a wildy fun video calender called "The Naked Truth". It's a slightly nude, alluring video of real women of every shape, size and background living with MCS... these pics below are the 'making of' for my submission - *of course I can't show you the final product until it's either published or rejected.* :)I had the idea to write some of my feelings on the subject out in yellow maple leaves, I tore up each leaf into smaller pieces and placed them carefully on a large flat-ish rock. I have been making nature related art like this for years (Andy Goldsworthy does a good job of making beautiful art with leaves too!) I always got flack in art school for using "words" with my images, it left many artists uneasy- but i love the use of powerful words along with powerful images to say exactly what I want. Having the picture being completely in nature was essential to me, because at the core of the issue is that we depend on nature being healthy for our survival- without clean water, soil and air, we are basically screwed.So, maybe this should be the easy part next... getting undressed... but no way! You wanna lay naked on a freezing cold rock in the shade of the evening?!!?? I suppose I did.
I submitted my pictures to the Canary Report for review... I can't publish any of the final shots here yet, but this is just your sneak peak of the fun! Ya likie?
XoXo