Chapter 43 - March 27, 2012

My Aunt and Uncle win the prize for the best answer to my question.  Yes, the device you see in the previous blog is worth every penny, every 500,000 pennies!

Imagine this, imagine you're in the Bahamas on a beautiful beach listening to reggae, drinking a beer, working.  You're on your last photograph of the day.  You get done with your shoot, give out a holler, "Yipee, we're done!"  You throw down your sunglasses, your hat and your shirt, you hand the camera and beer to your assistant, kick off your flip flops and jump into the ocean.  The water is super salty.  You play in the waves for a while, come out, and the hair and make up artist pulls up a chair to give you a haircut.  You grab a towel and a beer from your assistant and you get an awesome haircut on the beach. After you're done, you jump into the sea with the beer, of course, and you wash away all of the cut hair.  You come out, towel off, put your shirt on and go off to have dinner, cause of course, you're shooting in front of your favorite restaurant and bar in the Bahamas.  That was a good day at work for me when I was a fashion photographer.  It's moments like this I would think about when I was in a bad way, going through what I'm going through.

The other thing I try to think about over and over again was one specific day I had with a friend.  I was windsurfing in South Hampton NY.  The moon was rising and the sun was setting.  You would tack between a full moon rising and a sun setting.  The wind was offshore so the waves were super clean.  I was powered up on a 4.7 meter sail (which is small).  And I was on my fiberglass wave board.  It was a great day.  I guess what I'm saying is, when you're going through crap like this, think about a good spot to be in, and try and stay in that spot.  Just a little break will make a big difference.

Hi everybody.  How is it going out there?  My week has been up and down.  I got another cold.  It's in my chest, and man it's kicking my ass.  I work through it but it's tough.  I guess you gotta just work through it.  Same old thing.  I go to therapy all day.  I've been doing water therapy.  It's great.  It's a good way to start walking again.  I've been doing that and painting a lot with my father and cooking a lot with my mother.  It's a good time.

What's also good is to have great friends come by.  I've had many visitors and it's really good for the soul.  Various people will help you out with different things.  I've got a few irons in the fire, a few projects going on and they help me with these.  It's good to have projects to stay busy.  You'll find staying busy is so important.  Do what you love to do.  Speaking of doing what you love to do, I spoke to Chuck Close the artist the other day.  I was inspired to call him because I saw his work at the Met in NYC.  I went to the Met with my parents the other day.  They both have helped me tremendously.  They encourage me to keep going and take trips like this.  It was a great distraction from my routine.  It was tough but great.  They have a new American Wing there.  I recommend seeing it.  The reason why I was inspired to call Chuck was, he always said, "Do what you love to do."  He told me to keep the faith, keep going.  That's why I do my photography projects.  I'll keep you posted.  I'll talk to you next week.  Have a good one.  Love, B. Nice.

P.S.  Below you'll find some images I painted with my father who has helped me tremendously.  I like them because a year ago I couldn't even move my left finger.  I can't wait to see what next year brings.  Happy Easter.