Bigfoot. Sasquatch. Yeti. Whatever you call it, you’ve most certainly heard tales of an ape-like creature that lives in the woods. Is it the missing link? Is it a prehistoric beast that defied extinction? Or, is it simply a myth with a few ardent believers? I ventured to the woods of Whidbey Island in Washington State to attempt to find out for myself. I met up with Paul Graves, a Sasquatch expert, part of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and a man who has dedicated his life to studying and searching for this seemingly mythical animal.
I, of course, am already the father of a yeti. Granted, he’s a SkyMall product who I’ve forced to bake brownies, but he’s mine and I love him. That said, I wanted to find the real thing.
At his cabin in the woods, Paul showed me the tools of the trade: night-vision and thermal goggles, cameras and, perhaps most important of all, patience. We searched for tracks, belted out Sasquatch screams and waited. And waited. Watch the video to see if we had any luck and check out the photos from my day with Paul. And, listen to all of Paul’s Bigfoot song, “Jim Henry.”
How impressed was I by Naoki’s abilities? After he finished painting the octopus that we caught (OK, he caught it but I swam it back to the boat), I bought the work, brought it back to New York, got it framed and hung it smack-dab in the middle of my living room. Every time I look at that painting, I remember being in the water with Naoki, feeling the octopus wrap itself around my arm and marveling at how something could go from living in the wild to being a completed work of art so quickly and magnificently.
