Someone from my distant past crossed my path again recently.  He wanted to know more about my murals.  If these are also new to you, let me tell you a little about my community murals projects.  Contrary to what you might think, it isn't just having an artist show up to paint a gift for a local community.  When I create my murals, I make them with the local population.  They give input for the ideas incorporated in the art.  Then, I create a paint-by-number kind of design for the participants to paint their own mural.  Anyone and everyone is welcome.  No talent is required because I have enough of that to take care of the project. 

Every community is different.  It could be a dozen people in a very rural village in the Peruvian Andes, 100 mural volunteers at a food pantry, or even the entire student population - more than 650 children - at an elementary school.   No matter the size of the community, everyone who wants to participate, gets a paintbrush.  So, long after the artist leaves the scene, this community has ownership of their mural because they truly had a part in every step of the project.

So, if you are like my friend and ask me about my murals, I will give you more information than you ever expected, intended to ask for, or particularly wanted.  I seriously know how to "show and tell".  I have favorite photos from around the globe, blogs to documents the experiences, and links all over my mural website that share recipes, adventures, disasters, folktales and so much more that I've gathered as I've colored the world. 

Yep, there is so much to share as I've made the news all over the world.

I've been on national television, national radio programs and interviewed for newspapers locally and abroad. When I started to compile the information to send to my friend, there was more information than even I remembered.  So, I'm quite sure that it will come as a surprise to you.  It occurred to me that it might do me well to compile these sources in one location so anyone can have easy access at their fingertips.  No, I don't expect anyone to look at every link and read each article.  But, if I mention a country that piques your interest, feel free to explore what I've done in that corner of the globe. 

The Radio -- I've been on the radio more times than I remember.  Since nobody has ever sent me a link or given me a recording, I can't prove much of this.  I remember interviews in the Galapagos Islands (because I had to speak in my very limited Spanish) as well as Albania and Moldova.  All of these were brief experiences.

However, I have also been in two radio stations for extended interviews.  The first session was in Liberia.  I was in a sweltering dark room without a fan or air conditioning for half an hour.  I don't remember much of what I said, but I will never forget the heat.  My second interview, in Brazil, was even longer.  I had a translator, a small audience, and air conditioning.  Both of these are documented in my travel blog, Wander My World with Me.

The Newspaper -- There is a lot more documentation for my murals in print around the world.  The record-setting write up is from Mexico.  I don't think the record will ever be broken.  The reporter, Ramon Carrillo, confessed that he was so nervous about the interview that he couldn't sleep or eat.  I assure you, I'm not worth that kind of intimidation.  And, he quickly realized it as he wrote his FULL PAGE NEWS STORY about me and my murals.  Thank you very much, Piedras Negras, Mexico, for that long-standing - and very surprising - record.   A much more normal-sized article, in La Pancarta, documented another trip south of the border.

 It may be easiest to divide the other stories up by region.         

          Africa -- My first mural was at a daycare center for AIDS orphans in Namibia.  It was written up in ExPats
          Abroad.  My other article, in South Africa, talks about a mural that I painted for a church in Potchefstroom.

          Europe -- While eating breakfast one morning at a bed and breakfast in Albania, I met a connection that
          brought me to Estonia to paint at a local school.  A very unexpected invitation to the south of France to
          paint a mural at a high school, gave me not one, but two, French write-ups.

         Latin America -- The US Embassy in Jamaica brought me to Kingston for two murals.  There were write-           ups on the Embassy Website, the local Kingston newspaper, as well as the US State Department website.          (Whoo-hoo!)  A group of young people raised money to bring me to Brazil.  They treated me like a celebrity.
         And, there were not one, not two, but three articles about the experience. 

         Oceania -- Working with the US Embassy once again, I painted in Fiji with write-ups in the Fiji Sun and the
         U.S. Embassy website as well as an appearance on the U.S. Embassy website about Nauru.  Don't
         know where that is?  I didn't either.  Go to Australia and head north to the equator.

         The Good Old U.S. of A. --  In my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, I've made the news several times.  The
         mural locations varied from a local church, to a youth center where Google came to document the process,
         a food panty and an elementary school where all 650+ students participated. 

YouTube and Videos -- I thought my record for television interviews would always be in Albania where I had back-to-back interviews at the school where I painted.  Alas, I have no video links to prove it ever happened.  But, a nearby Balkan neighbor, Moldova, blew that record out of the water.  For one mural, I had one interview on national radio and five on television!  Sad to say, only one Moldovan interview link is still active online.  Links for other interviews have been killed off over time.  I can't blame Moldova too much because the very same thing happened to my favorite video made in Columbus, Ohio.

          Estonia -- You cannot be an art diva and paint community murals.  The lesson was reinforced in Estonia
          when a television crew came to the school.  In the eyes of the students, I was just some artist who didn't
          speak Estonian.  However, the kids went nuts when a local celebrity news anchor came for my interview.   
          Okay, this news video is in Estonian, but if you want to hear another in English, I made national news in
          Nauru as well.

          Ohio, USA -- When I painted with 650+ students in Upper Arlington, someone took videos of me on their
          phone.  I didn't see them doing it.  But, if you want to see the Mural Man in action, there is not one, but two,
          videos that will give you a good idea of what takes place.

          My Personal Videos -- If you've waded this
          far into the blog, you will see that I have saved
          the best till the last.  Whenever I travel, I take
          the best of my photos and mix them with a
          a dash of local music to make presentations
          that speak for themselves.  They provide the
          view with much more of my experiences
          around the world than mere words are able to
          convey.  If I have permission from musicians
          (which seems to be much easier to get in
          a smaller country where everyone knows
          someone), I post the videos on YouTube. 
          You can view muraling with students at Earth University in Costa Rica, a project with the US Embassy in
          Moldova and Transnistria, and painting with art students from Fiji National University in Fiji.  I also painted
          on a mission trip to Haiti, with Ebola survivors in Liberia, and with such enthusiastic students in Brazil.

          Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I've made several other similar videos that I
          can't post on YouTube because I don't have permission for the music.  So, you're missing out on my
          muraling videos for Albania, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, France, the Galapagos Islands, Mexico,
          Namibia, Peru, Romania, South Africa with Swaziland, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
          If you want to see these videos, I guess you're going to have to come see me in Ohio.  Or, better yet,
          invite me to paint a mural wherever you are, and I'll bring paintbrushes and entertainment.

Those two words, "Pick me!", usually remind me of my first book, "Pick Me!" Cried Arilla.  Anyone and everyone knows the feeling when you raise your hand and hope with all your heart that you will be the one picked.  It doesn't always happen.  That was the case for Arilla in my story.  She wasn't always picked.  But, when she was, she was in the right place at the right time and, certainly, the right one for the job. 

It's a very good feeling.

And, just like you, I have been in the very same situation raising my hand and hoping that I would be the one picked.  Sometimes, it all works out just the way your want it.  On one Christmas holiday, I heard my brother-in-law say, “I’ve always wanted to have a cookbook with the recipes that my wife and son create for our guests at our Alaskan fishing lodges.  Guests have requested a cookbook for years and we just have never gotten around to doing this.”

Right away, I raised my hand.  “Pick me!  I know how to do this.  Pick me!  I can photograph the dishes and create the cookbook.  I’ve made several books.  Pick me!”

I seriously doubt that my brother-in-law ever suspected how good I was for this job.  I've written thirteen children's books, three coffee table photography books, and assorted e-books about my murals, travels and recipes that I've garnered along my path.  I am handy with my camera to photograph the food, excellent with writing and editing text, and I have the artist's designer eye to put it all together.  I am the full publishing package that not many people can boast.  Very fortunately, the guy picked me.

And that is how I came to King Salmon to work on Feasting and Fishing in Alaska.  Over the course of two summers, I photographed each recipe as well as a lot of the other pictures used in this book.  A couple of my blogs also made it into the final draft.  And, while my sister and her husband visited me for two weeks in December, the book finally took shape. 

Fishing and Feasting in Alaska is divided into different recipe categories, but it isn't just your ordinary collection of recipes.  Soup:  I hate tomatoes in almost every form, especially tomato soup.  But, the Tomato Bisque recipe is so delicious that I ate every drop.  How is that even possible?  Salad:  My sister always makes her own salad dressing.  I didn't even know that was possible.  What's the secret?  It's worth buying the recipe just for that.  Entree:  Some of the recipes are Alaskan specific.  I mean, most of you don't have reindeer meat for your lasagna or all of the ingredients for Alaskan Paella.  But, if you are creative with hamburger, fish or shrimp, you can make any and all of the dishes. Vegetables:  For a  large portion of the population, there is nothing you can do to make veggies worth eating.  What did my sister add to her broccoli?  Well, it rhymes with " makin' " and it did an incredible job makin' those veggies to die for.  Pasta: Who knew you could make mac and cheese that was not from a box?  That would be my nephew.  And, you may never want to go back to the box, no matter how convenient it is.  Dessert:  This was the hardest part of the entire cookbook.  After photographing each dessert, I had to eat them.  I can promise you, none of the desserts are bad.  And, finally, Breakfast:  There is one dish that my sister refuses to eat.  However, mysteriously, it is still a favorite of almost every fisherman who comes to Alaska.    Can you guess what it is?  I never would have.

Between each of those delicious sections are stories and photographs that reflect the fish, fishermen, wildlife and destinations around King Salmon, Alaska.  These sections include bear tales and Amanda screaming, "Save me! Help! I'm Terrified!"  Of course, there is a story there that you have to know.  Yes, I'm terribly biased, and you are not allowed to disagree with me on this, that the book really looks great.

As I write, and as you read, the different sections of the book are being compiled and reviewed by several pair of eyes.  It's so hard to get text and recipes perfect.  But, we're doing our best.  It's my hope that the book will go to the printer in January and be ready for sale in the spring. 

Fingers crossed.
 
I wish I could say that I took every picture in the cookbook, but I received a lot of help from other people I met in Alaska.  Thank you to Sage, Kodie, LBJ, Matthew, James and Mike.  Without your photography of Alaskan fish, fishermen, wildlife and scenery, this book would not have been nearly as beautiful.

Thank you to Jim for wanting this project and picking me.  Thank you to the people I met in Alaska who made me feel so welcome.  And, especially, thank you to my sister, Phyllis, for welcoming me into her home and kitchen.  We all have our own unique talents and mine are not in the kitchen.  Thanks for sharing your gifts with me and now to the world.  Every recipe is delicious.

Of course, I'll let you know when the Fishing and Feasting in Alaska is available.  You know you want one.