.... continuing with Gary Bianconi's Biography

While attending College of the Siskiyou's in Weed I discovered my talent and love of acting. It seemed that the more completely I embodied my character, the less chance there was of stuttering. Like many of us, one of my biggest fears is speaking or reading in front of people. Becoming an actor taught me how to more fearlessly incorporate who I truly am into my everyday life. I will remain eternally grateful for those life changing experiences.

In '74 I moved to Washington State and settled around the Bellingham area. I moved there to learn various natural healing arts including acupuncture. While studying I supported myself by making jewelry, being a handyman and a massage therapist.

Around 1976 I married and started a company that specialized in fine jewelry and art pieces made with fossilized ivory. The ivory came from Woolly Mammoth and Mastodon tusks and teeth. The last of them died as recently as 75,000 years ago but some were roaming the Earth as long as 4,000,000 years ago. Our company grew quickly and fortunately did very well. Our products were featured in many high line jewelry and art stores worldwide and we were often commissioned to make special order scrimshaw and carved pieces for people like Gerald and Betty Ford, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, John Denver, the ruling family of Kuwait and various rich and famous people from around the world. Most of those people from back in the day have also passed on.

It felt odd and yet somehow natural to be around such high profile people. When I would be describing the work or the artists, people started gathering around to admire them in more detail. They'd end up with big smiles and often express their admiration with oooooo's, aaahhhh's and wow's! It was wonderful to be a part of those special moments!

After a few years, scrimshaw and products made with fresh ivory started flooding the markets. Even though I refused to use, buy, sell or be involved with fresh ivory, it was partly because of me and people like me, that scrimshaw and ivory carvings became so popular. As good as the money was, I decided I could no longer be a part of the slaughtering of innocent animals like elephant, boar, walrus, Sperm and Narwhal whales. So I decided to get out of the business.

My first love has always been helping people and especially animals. So I studied for my state boards and after passing them, started a holistic health center in Bellingham. That quickly grew into a huge center and school of practitioners and instructors. We offered local and international classes and were regularly on television and radio stations worldwide. For the most part, that was a wonderfully enriching experience!

During the jewelry manufacturing days of the 70's and 80's, I had enough money to seek out and study with many of the world's leading edge healers, teachers and authors. Quite a few of us became good friends and they would regularly come to our center to teach and learn with us. It was such an honor to become friends with people like, Andrew Weil, Donna Eden, Anthony (Tony) Robbins, Louise Hay, Bernard Jensen, Wayne Topping, Gordon Stokes and many other people who continue to enlighten us all.

In spite of enjoying the notoriety I've always preferred to be a loner and in fact totally suck at management... I have a difficult time being someone's boss and am much worse at being an employee. So eventually I sold my practice and the business, divorced and moved back to Mt. Shasta in 1984.

Once there I joined the practices of the two doctors who had been my mentors. Dr. Ledbetter, the Chiropractor had recently moved to Sacramento and was only practicing in Weed part time. Dr. Wheritt, the Osteopath, was in his late 70's and was winding down his practice. They welcomed me home with open arms and helped me get reestablished. Within two weeks I was working on 8 to 10 people a day, giving talks for local groups, starting classes and so on. Basically I hit the ground running...

I soon realized that really wasn't why I came home. I came home to take a break, have leisurely visits with old friends and family and to start a new slower paced life. So in less than a month after my arrival I closed shop and became reclusive for a while.

In the late 80's and early 90's I ended up spending most of my time in the SF bay area. As my practice grew there I began working with a lot of people in the movie industry. Around 1991 I became so busy that I moved to Marin and eventually started hiring masseuses. I placed them at studios like Colossal Pictures, Pixar, George Lucas's studios, Wild Brain and a few others. Pixar has continued to be my favorite.

Did you see A Bugs Life? The people at Pixar surprised me by creating a character of me. I was "Gary the Massaging Millipede" who was giving a massage to the lead Grasshopper while they were hanging out in the sombrero bar.

Like I said, I've always been somewhat of a gypsy and a loner. So as much as I loved that exciting life, in '02 I decided to go back to having a private practice so that I could wander when and where I wanted.

I feel very fortunate to continually be enjoying my gypsy lifestyle. Being around so many intelligent, creative and open minded people is truly a blessing!

My latest creative outlet has become photography, especially macrophotography. I'm amazed at how good some of those photos come out! It's almost as if the camera has a mind of its own.

It would be wonderful to hear from you so please DO get in touch! My regular email address is garybianconi@sbcglobal.com and I'm on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gary.bianconi.

I'm looking forward to our visits.

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