My husband Mark is trying to quit smoking again. I have never been a smoker, but I see him struggle so hard with this addiction. I always told myself that I would never marry a smoker because I thought it was such a disgusting habit....but alas love overpowered that and I am very happy to be with him. He has tried many things to help him quit....going cold turkey, chewing on licorice sticks, a nicotine patch, gum, his latest attempt was to eat hot peppers(jalapeno, habanero, etc.) every time he wanted a cigarette to satisfy that craving. It was kinda working. Mark writes, draws, paints, makes puppets ...you name it, to express his own loathing of this smoking habit. He even has an online nicotine diary. His most successful attempt yet was about two years ago and he was able to quit for about a year almost. We actually hired a friend who specialized in video documentaries to come and live with us for a month and document his struggle with quitting. He was also here to do some music video work for my husbands band. Having to talk about it on camera did the job. The documentary was never completed though because the "friend" flew home and never completed editing and has never called us back....an expensive but worthwhile lesson I guess. It got him off the death sticks for a year. But the habit has crept back into our lives and it is really frustrating him that he can't seem to kick the habit again. He is respectful of the children in that he never lets them see him smoke and he absolutely never smokes in the house. I do make him change his shirt sometimes before he holds the baby.His latest project has been making puppets out of cigarette packs. They are some pretty creepy looking characters. I wouldn't want to tangle with them. I just pray that his newest project will help him get the strength to quit again and for good this time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09jnOMG-70A&feature=channel_page
He often refers to his smoking addiction in his songs as the "Devil" on his back or the monkey on his back.
Cammy thinks that this puppet is the creepiest in the whole gang. She says that"It's a good thing he makes them scary enough for people to quit smoking."
Gross! Yeah I know....this one is vomiting up all the nasty chemicals and filth that the cigarette companies put into their product.
Look at this gang of evil characters. Mark calls them the "Evil Nicoteam". It speaks loads that he can create these. At least he is using the cigarettes in his art instead of smoking them.
Going out to the garage studio these days is like peeking into some kind of freak show carnival...I never know what new character will be sitting on the bench.
This one by far is the scariest to me. He looks like he could really take out a lung! So I hope that this little blog campaign will help to motivate him even more in his struggle to quit smoking.
