going, going, gone raw

Hi there
Well, just keeping y'all updated on the events in Banos. It seems that the volcan is just a tad quieter, but the community gave a practice alarm today. A siren screamed through the air this morning and fortunately the boyfriend de Rachelle, immediately text her "no disculpes, y no preocupados" basicly no worries, it was just a test. Okey dokey the heart rate went back down and things chilled out and everyone went back to work. Practice is a good thing..... right.
I finished my 19th painting here in Ecuador only another 19 or so to go. I still think that I would like to put together an illustrated book about the animals of Ecuador. I would like to have this available for not only tourists who come to visit this country but also to the locals to inform them of the wonderful ecology that they can be proud of. This could be very helpful in saving the animals here. I always thought that in a country such as this that there would be more wild animals. I was sadly mistaken. In Canada, we treasure our animals, for they can be seen everywhere. Here, you would have to hike wayyyyyyyy into the jungle to find them and you would probably only find an abundance of snakes and bugs. The poor people here do what they have to to survive and that is eat what you hunt. Therefore not many wild animals. I get very emotional about this and my love is for the animals. I hope that I can get my point across
but is really uphill.
What I have done is combined 2 art forms. I first use my typical painting of the animal true to life, then because abstract is very much loved here, I put the animal on an abstract background that tries to show the environment that this animal lives in by using form and color. The effect is quite eyepopping. Everyone knows what the jungle looks like but what does it feel like and what energy does the animal influence it. I was just starting to do this more and more when I left Canada, but here I an compelled to do it. For example, last month Dane and I went to the zoo and got the most amazing pictures of a pair of ocelot. The one was enraptured with my lense cap and got within inches of the camera. You can imagine my photos. I decided I just had to do one of those photos to canvas. There in the center is a marvelous ocelot on the abstract background of leaves using good old fashioned splatter painting with heavily outlined designed leaves with rich colors of many kinds of green and bright energy spatters of color creating movement and excitement. The effect is great, better than I would have ever expected. So now I can go onto the next, I have 2 photos of mother and baby photo's: one with spider monkey's and the other with capucian monkeys. There is alot of work to do with them. I usually don't like to do alot of background on those type of paintings as the message is clear and doesn't need emphasis. So in some ways those are kind of boring to paint except the subjects are just soooooo tender and sweet there is desire to paint just on raw feeling.
Ahhhhh yes, the raw feeling. Well, we are still eating raw and are finally of our cleanses. I have to say that I have never felt cleaner inside our out. My skin feels ...... wow. And so does the sharpness of my thinking, which became apparent in my painting today. I finished that painting in just under 12 hours. Sometimes paintings are just meant to be and I am just the vehicle for them to pass through. Sometimes the faster the painting comes out the more perfect it is for me. It is like being a receiver for a message, if you will. For me when this occures, that is when the sence of that painting belonging here happens.
Sorry back to the raw food thing, I digressed once again. I had these irregularities on my skin that I thought were permanent and definitely hereditary as my mother has the same thing. My mother has told me that "they" were not sure what they are but they are a purpley colored scaley and itchy patch of skin about the size of pencil erasers. I have had one on my wrist for over 3 years, guess what is no longer there except for a very small patch. The color is completely faded and there is no itchiness. There is still a bit of scaliness but hey it was there for 3 years and I tried all sorts of things to get rid of it. There are others also that are starting to disappear. Sooooooo I guess this means I have to keep rawing. As Rob and I have continued our research into raw fooding, we realize that those people who come off raw food gain all their weight back and also all their dysfunctions. Sooooo again, raw for life might be the best idea. It is a good thing that I love it, or it would be hell and I probably wouldn't keep it up. Still there are some foods that are best ,for health reasons to cook, like various beans. These little beggars can be not so nice raw. Yuck. I have also lost some weight too, so has Rob and Rachelle. Rachelle actually has lost about 10 lbs, without even trying, so there you go. Rachelle finally caught our bug that we all got in Mompiche but it is not lasting that long or as intense.
We are babysitting Ally the St. Bernard. Yup, and he is big, and gangly and uncoordinated and more to shovel up in the backyard that any one person would want. Although we love him and he is very sweet, we are looking forward to him going home. Isis our drama queen dog it quite beside herself with unhappiness about Ally being here. Where ever he is, SHE IS NOT! unless there are hugs going around or food, and then out come the vocals.
Anyway, all is well, hope all is well in your worlds.
Talk again soon
Rawbin