Mario the Musical: Bravissimo!!!

Nerd In Love: Illustrations by Nicole Martinez

See more at: cargocollective.com

Price of Happiness: It's Relatively Affordable

Can money really buy you happiness?

More and more research has concluded that the answer to that age old question is actually "no".

But, if there had to be a number put to it, there is a figure that the majority of folks have in mind when it comes to being happy and, interestingly enough, it's lower than you may expect. It's not one million dollars, and it's not 250 thousand dollars, the apparent price of happiness is actually right at $75,000.

Apparently anything less than $75,000 annually and folks are over-consumed with worry about debt and meeting "ends meet". Anything above $75,000 and it's not really happiness, just a compensation for a lack of happiness brought on by the problems that come with having more money.

"If survival is the primary human goal, happiness comes in at a close second," said Kip Parent, Chief Executive Office of Keirsey Research. "It's such a multifaceted emotion that is empacted by numerous variable, from personality type to age to parenting status. We wanted to learn more about who is happy and why."

According to the study, which used Keirsey's In-FlowTM "river" methodology, the happiest Americans are extroverts with an annual household income of $75,000 or slightly more. The least happy Americans are unemployed , closely followed by those who are separated by not divorced.

Source: keirseyresearch.com

Francoise Nielly: South France to Fluorescence

"... all of that classical imagery of South France is very alive as an experience inside of me. Maybe it is what led me to the use of fluorescent colors in my paintings."

Though Nielly now lives in Paris, she says it is the memories of childhood in South France, living along the Mediterranean, that are largely what lead to her style; the fluorescent colors could represent the loss of clarity or emotion with the memories. She also credits her work to her love of urban life. She does a great job maintaining such great detail but with the use of loose strokes and aggressive contrasts. Her work is greatly inspiring and urges me to try something similar.

See more at: francoise-nielly.com