PaulaPenny Art L.L.C.
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Tom's Place 
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A place for fund raising with art for neurological research and development, and a place to learn about NASA art.(Please scroll down)
In loving memory of the Artist's brother Tom. A Mechanical Engineer for NASA Contractors at JSC (Johnson Space Center Houston), a great outdoorsman, a man of honesty, wit, strength and courage, a man of loyalty, compassion, and a fantastic pal and brother.
Links to NASA space art: Click here: Hubble Space Art
Look to the future 2009 Thanks for your donations! Click here to make your AFTD donation and receive complimentary art titled "Trees of Life" with an AFTD donation of $30.00 or more. When you make a donation please make it in memory of Robert T. Buchholz Jr/Tom. Also ask AFTD to notify Paula Radvansky about the donation.
Holiday fundraiser "Look To The Future 2008" Donations to AFTD holiday season 2008 were rewarded and appreciated with complimentary 8" x 10" prints of new art "Super Nova". Big Thanks!
AFTD News about fundraisers
Click here: AFTD
Johnson Space Center Memorial Tree
NASA plants a tree in memory of individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to the space program approved by center management. A Memorial tree (Live Oak) with a trunk 3" or greater has been planted at JSC (Johnson Space Center Houston) in memory of Tom. Tom's high school Girl Friend suggested this and Tom's Sister followed up. Team work!
The tree was planted this December 2008!
Please visit Tom's Tree when you are in Clear Lake. Enter NASA through the front gate located on NASA Pkwy at Saturn. You will be directed to the visitor center in bldg.110 for a visitor badge. This is a great honor and Tom's Tree is marked by a marker with his full name Robert Thomas Buchholz Jr. If you visit and have any comments you would like posted to Tom's Place please email pbrdesigns@aol.com.
The Art Alliance Center at Clear Lake
The Art Alliance Center is located across the street from NASA (JSC). A memorial brick has been purchased and placed beside the garden bench in front of the Art Alliance Center at Clear Lake in memory of Tom. Please visit the Art Center and spend some time enjoying local Clear Lake Art and rest on the park bench as well.
Learn about FTD or Pick's Disease:
Click here: Overview of FTD
Tom's Story
Tom's Story is provided to give insight and understanding. Tom passed away at age 46 in August 2007. FTD first presented symptoms in Tom's Mid 30's with pacing back and forth. Then some years went by and some paranoid behavior began. There were no other symptoms at this time. He saw a doctor because family insisted on it and nothing was diagnosed. Years went by and Tom became withdrawn and often apologized for not having much to say. There were no other symptoms at this time. As more years went by he became more and more withdrawn and had less and less to say. As time went on clarity of thought and some parts of memory were effected. He was having difficulty focusing and remembering math equations he use to have no problem with. He always remembered friends and family and how to get from one place to another. He was developing a slight tremor and this progessed to a constant moderate tremor. He purchased items he liked over and over as though he did not remember buying them before. Collecting his favorite things. In the late phases of FTD (which ran about a 10 year course) he became depressed. After one year of treatment his depression seemed to be treatment resistant. He became focused on digestive problems. These problems were real but Doctors and tests could not pin point a cause. Tom said the muscle movement that moves food through the digestive process was not occurring. We did not realize at the time that this is a common problem in late stages of dementia. Daily living was becoming more and more difficult. There was no treatment plan or advice on how to deal with this. In the last year there was no pacing and no paranoid behavior (which was the way the illness presented in the beginning). This illness had changed and evolved. This illness was always obscure. It never fit the criteria for any psychiatric illness and no physical illness could be pin pointed either. Tom intuitively knew he had some illness that was causing irreversible damage. He said he was sure it was a neurological disease. His biggest fear was that no one would diagnose it and treat it before too much damage occurred. Which is exactly what occurs in FTD/Picks. It renders victims unable to function in every day routine and it is irreversible. You can't stop it and you can't cure it today. He was certain his illness was not a psychiatric illness but rather a metabolic illness. Tom was aware of the illness he had but had no name for it. The name we now know is Picks or FTD. Tom tried to be admitted to a hospital 4 or 5 times and never met the criteria for a psychiatric or physical illness to be admitted. Each time he was sent home in great distress and pain. And so he went home and took control and stopped the pain. His personality was one that was very confident and always in control. Tom was always his smart and loving personality beneath the disease that he had.
We must fight to find a way to diagnose this illness early on in order to illiminate the distress it causes victims and thier families. There needs to be a simple test that is used in any Doctors office to find a diagnoses. Through fundraising and research we can find a treatment and someday cure it. Today it is like fighting an invisible enemy. You know the enemy exists but no one else believes it. Please help!
Make a contribution:
please make a note to notify family
Click here to donate: AFTD
Donations of $50.00 or more will receive these two prints (not framed) shipped rolled in a tube. The prints titled Tom's Trees Left Panel and Tom's Trees Right Panel are 12" x 36". Frames are available at Aaron Brothers frame shops very reasonably priced. Please be sure to make a note to notify family when making donations. When family is notified of a $50.00 or more contribution the prints will be shipped! Thanks for your support.
Researchers Find Cause of Frontotemporal Dementia (another name for Pick's Disease)
How to Recognize Frontotemporal Dementia (another name for Pick's Disease)
Tom's Trees
This painting is an open spacious abstract landscape of Texas black oaks. It has a very relaxing, warm, strong confident feeling and also creates an aura of freedom. This painting is named after the Artist's Brother Tom, who passed away in August of 2007. He was a Mechanical Engineer and worked for NASA contractors at the Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake City, Texas. He was awarded the NASA Snoopy Award. This is a life time achievement award given by the Astronauts on STS shuttle missions. He also built hardware that was a part of Space Station. He loved the Texas outdoors with camping, hunting and the wide open space. He was a fantastic Brother and a great man. This art is available for purchase through Bentley Publishing Group.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. more info on Pick's Disease:
Click here: More on FTD or Pick's
