Doesn’t the featured image tell a story of a feisty and proud tomboy awaiting her punishment, but with the attitude, “Do what you want to me now, at least I got to kick his ass first!” …or perhaps, “Is this fight private, or can anybody get into it?”

From the Illustration Museum on Mansion Row in Newport, RI to the Dr. Seuss Park in Springfield, MA to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA …we got our fill of great American illustration this week. To boil a story point down to one terse image is difficult. Norman Rockwell was a genius at catching the daily life of American families in the 50’s, and our pride in our accomplishments. Hey Gals, don’t you identify with the proud and feisty tomboy awaiting her punishment outside the Principal’s Office? ….or is that just the tomboy in me?

 Then to carry a more complex story through multiple story boards to grab attention and hold it for effective storytelling is a unique challenge. We really enjoyed the Memorial Park dedicated to the Dr. Seuss books, Seuss being the middle name of the creator.

One of my favorite TV series is Mad Men and their ads from the 50’s remind me how linear, flat, and static the graphic images were as used to sell products. Compared to the graphic images we are accustomed to now, the ads from the 50’s wouldn’t even make us pause for a second to understand the message. The 60’s brought us Peter Max (think Yellow Submarine type images) and intense use of color and icon. Japanese graphics brought us dramatic and explosive image, and finally the advent of computers made simple drawing skills unnecessary. Now graphic designers really have to be creative to snare us for long enough to stay for the message…and we do stay for the message!

We also do what they tell us to…buy, buy, buy!  LIFE EDITED (www.lifeedited.com) is a site you may enjoy for novel ideas about how to live with less debt, less space, less stress and …increased pleasure, with more community, activity, and creativity. That is part of our great joy in traveling North America in a rolling 100 sq. ft. home, and using our bikes and kayak to check out local areas. We got to enjoy visiting local community centers in Western Mass and Upstate NY:

The Red Lion Inn with free live music nightly throughout the snowy winter in Stockbridge, MA:

Smith College in Northampton:

…and the Syracuse Zen Center including a warm welcome from Jikyu Bonnie and a visit to the Onondaga Nation School outside Syracuse. So many people finding different ways to step off the consumer escalator, slow down, and see if they can live smaller and simpler, whether in dorm room size spaces or with more sharing of “stuff”.

Less Space + Less Stuff = Less Spending + Less Production of Toxins.

China’s enormous increase in the production of toxins in the last 20 years is caused predominantly by the manufacture of products… products ultimately shipped to the USA to satisfy consumer demand. We could create lending libraries for so many products we use infrequently, and then we wouldn’t have to have big spaces to store them….think what is in YOUR garages and closets right now…