Art By Tali Landsman

This is of course a generalization, but.....As we cycle the streets of Sapporo, I can't help but notice that most of the people I pass do not carry ANY extra fat on their bodies. Older or younger people, trendy and fashion oriented or just street workers wearing overalls, most everyone is thin without an inch of belly fat. Jules and I, who are considered skinny in the USA and NZ, are without a doubt the fattest people on the streets, if you do not count other foreigners. Yes, there are exceptions, and at times I do see heavy young teenage girls, or older businessmen who sit all day in their offices and then drink too much alcohol after work nursing a beer belly, but the majority of the thousands of people that I see every day, are extraordinarily lean. Let me say that this was an eye opener for me, and completely reinforced my belief that neither nutrition nor exercise is the major determining factor in someone's weight. I still believe that both nutrition and exercise matter, ...

Our plane landed late at night in Hokkaido, Japan. We have rented an apartment in Sapporo for two months, but we still had a few days before our Japanese language school was to start. We decided to spend it at Lake Toya, about an hour by train plus a short bus ride up the mountain. The area surrounding Lake Toya was devastated by a volcano in the year 2000, but much of the green, quiet area has recovered since. We spent a few days soaking in the volcanic hot springs, staying in a Ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) with rooms overlooking the Lake.   Each night during spring, summer and fall, they stage a beautiful display of fireworks over the Lake. We visited a small local museum with a display of great art, took long walks around the Lake, and admired the outdoor sculpture exhibition surrounding the lake, and hiked into the volcanic craters. We enjoyed the hospitality and the food at the Ryokan while getting adjusted to the new time zone and the slower pace of life in unhurried, ...

Our summer in Colorado is coming to an end. We have only a few more days to enjoy the green Rocky Mountains before we drive down to Denver to board the first of three flights that will take us to Sapporo, Japan. It has been a good summer. This summer, our house was painted by caring and capable painters who went above and beyond the call of duty to fix, caulk and bring our house into tip top shape. Many good things happened this summer, among them we rested and reflected, hiked and collected mushrooms, listened to great classical music, and I had a very productive summer of painting in the studio. I would like to share a fun experience that we just had over the weekend at the Aspen Art Museum.  The Aspen Art Museum had planned for over a year to host the unusual experiment of a "Dream-Sleep-Over." Jules and I were part of a small group of 10 lucky individuals who signed up for this fun and alternative experience over the weekend. The idea was to tap into our subconscious mind...

"Do you see a lot of wildlife around your house?," asked one of the painters who are painting our Colorado home. "Well... Yes, we do! That is one of the reasons why we like living here... It is so quiet, and we do see lots of wildlife," I answered. Moments later the painters came running down, calling "Bear! Bear!" They grabbed their cell phones and snapped photos of the brown-blond bear that had walked regally and calmly down the hill behind my studio towards us. The bear had blond colored fur on his back, and was obviously interested in some fruit that the painters had in their bag.   Reluctantly he walked away when we brought the bag, smelling of bananas and tomatoes, closer to us. In the last week, we hiked twice in the Beaver Creek mountain area. The narrow hiking path intertwined between pine and aspen forests and vast meadows full of wildflowers and wild raspberries. During our hikes we collected many fresh wild mushrooms to cook at home.  I recentl...

This is part two of the post I wrote last week. Sorry for the delay in my writing, I had a busy week with painting, concerts, fasting and I was fortunate to place another original painting with an art collector. So here it is: The School Of Love, Understanding Our Sexual Urge. Our cultures send us mixed messages about sex, which affect us directly AND subconsciously. But Sex is the basic URGE to MERGE. It is driven by a deep spiritual urge to merge with another and to become ONE, even if for just a few moments….to lose ourselves in the other. Sex is the urge to step into a natural high, into the ecstasy that exists when you forget the erroneous belief that you are held within a human form, and you lose yourself in the unified field of our collective being. This unified field beyond your body-awareness is the land of pure bliss, and you can access it consciously through practicing meditation, or unconsciously through sex. Sex can bring about this experience in a real physical form. But ...

For many years, I have read and listened to the wisdom of spiritual masters, in my search for meaning and for a higher perspective on life. I have found much wisdom in the words of masters who passed on years ago, and in the words of contemporary teachers. I have found profound wisdom both in the East and in the West, Nowadays masters incarnate all over the globe, in order to help raise human consciousness and help us progress in our planetary evolution. While I feel extremely grateful for all my teachers, and know that I have gained much knowledge and new perspectives on the nature of life, disease, death, love and reality, I can truly say that my most constant teacher is the one inside of me, gently guiding me towards experiences and expansion, as I become ready to receive and understand more. During our travels, I get to test how well I can implement all the knowledge that I have gained into everyday life. But when we are at home, I feel as if my inner teacher is accelerating my stu...