July 27, 2010 in Current Blog, Things I've Learned by Marie

33. Dont worry be happy

Well that is easier said than done sometimes isn’t it?

I have just had one heck of a day and don’t you just hate that.  You are minding your own business going about your life with all its ups and downs when someone throws a curveball at you for no good reason whatsoever.  I think sometimes because they are unhappy with their own life and see others happy around them and want to take them down a peg or two.

It seems very strange to me that people get very militant about the smallest of issues when they are part of a committee.  It seems that when some people do not have enough authority over their own life and are unhappy within themselves they feel the need to exert their authority over others no matter how silly their arguments are.  My wish for people like that is that they would find something creative to do that would give them peace.

It made me think very much about this painting that is one of my early works.( excuse the quality of the image) ‘HAPPY AS A PIG IN SH….T” And no I refuse to call it mud, because Sh..T. was how I felt when painting it, well not the whole time obviously lol but I realized that I could take away my own pain and worry by getting totally absorbed in my art, and that you can make yourself happy and that happiness is a state of mind, something you choose to do.

That said let’s not diminish the fact that in some extreme circumstances that may not be possible to do for a long time, as when a loved one dies or other tragedies.  However I do believe that eventually when the pain and hurt settles somewhat we can again choose to be happy.

You see at the time I discovered that I could heal my own pain was about 22 years ago.  I had been painting for about a year, and had gone to The Northern Territory for 8 months, we had a large mortgage on our house in S.A. lived in a caravan in N.T whilst my husband worked on the Tindal Base, and had a little 1 year old child.

I had left my glamorous life to become a mum (being a mum was something I totally loved) although I had not counted on the isolation or the fact that I had relationship troubles with my own mum, and shortly after that my husband, feeling homesick and living in a caravan and coping with the heat, my darling dog died from rat poisoning in SA,and to top that all of we suddenly found ourselves in big financial trouble.

So life happens to you whilst you are busy doing other things as John Lennon said.

Another interesting fact I found out is that the saying Don’t worry be happy was originally said by the Indian mystic Meher Baba who lived 1894-1969, and not as I thought by Bobby McFerrin who made those words so famous in his song by the same name.  What a wonderful gift they both gave us – “DON’T WORRY BE HAPPY”

Till I see you again

Much love

Marie xxxxxx                                                                                       (c)

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July 24, 2010 in Animal Tales, Current Blog by Marie

32. What!! a thalidomide budgie??

This painting was one of several I painted on this theme of Cats and Birds for my gallery in Japan.

Obviously I am an animal lover so it is not too much of a stretch to be inspired by them, and over the years we have shared our lives with many gorgeous little creatures.

So let me tell you about the Thalidomide Budgie, well  in a minute I will, let’s just make it clear first, that I am the type of person who always feels sorry for the broken winged among us and it does not even have to be alive either.

My mum and dad always tell the story when I came home from a stay with my grandparents with an old mangled and very rusty letterbox.

You see I was out walking with my Morfar (Mothers Dad-in Swedish) and we spotted a very old rusted letterbox lying in a ditch,  and right away I felt so sorry for it, discarded like that, it used to be such a proud shiny fellow, I imagined.   My poor grandad thought we should leave it there, He said;  it was just old rubbish ( he knew that he would be the one, to lug it all the way home too, poor Morfar, but I insisted.    I also could see that it could regain its former glory, and it did after my dad had the same vision and restored it and we had the most interesting letterbox on our street! Anyway I digress, back to the budgie.

We now lived at the church (another story I have to tell you about) and had a big aviary, so I went to the Pet shop to buy some budgies, just a few to start.

Well I asked the shop keeper what‘s the story with the bird walking down on the floor looking a little forlorn, he said; never mind him he hasn’t got any wings.  This little birdy looked very peculiar with little stumps for wings and just walking everywhere and very cute so of course I had to buy him, along with a few of the normal variety!

I think all the birds must have liked the country air just like us, because they breed like rabbits and before long we had 14 budgies.  Lo and behold eventually the little Thalidomided Budgie started to grow some wings too, which was almost a shame, because he was ever so cute without them, lol.

Anyway one day the door to the aviary had been left open accidently and we lost the lot, they just all flew away.

We left the door open, whilst I moped around and went to work as usual and then 2 days later I was met by an aviary full of Budgies again, funny thing was though that now there were 15 of them, one extra!

Guess they found a wild one and convinced him life was easier with us then out there fending for yourself.

So I think this saying fits perfectly here said by Toni Morrison (Writer)

“Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weights you down.”

Hope you come back and see me soon.

Love Marie  x                                                                                       (c)

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July 20, 2010 in Current Blog, Travel by Marie

31. Men I Salute you (continuing Melbourne tales)

We stayed in a Hotel overlooking Albert Park and its Lake, not far from where me and Bryan used to live when I first went to Melbourne to model.

We actually took the kids there to our old house to have a look and they were suitably impressed although whilst we were trying to find it we were all starting to doubt whether this huge walk would be worth it.

We do like to walk though and spend a lot of time doing that, great exercise and also you get to see and feel a city.  We had dinners in some great restaurants along the Yarra and caught trams and busses and trains and taxis too and enjoyed the outdoor spa at the hotel,  I had the pleasure of Hillivis company a couple of mornings in the gym, but in the end they all opted for a sleep in, while I still slogged it out.

The Melbourne Aquarium is always a favourite with us but this time we also visited the Titanic exhibition which was really good.

What got me really thinking was that on your way into the exhibition they handed you a boarding card.  Everyone got one, and it had the name of an actual passenger that was on that voyage, also the background of that person, who they were travelling with and married to and what reason they had for being on the ship.

We all read our own and then each other’s and it really gave you a great insight into their lives. Then at the end of the exhibition you had to check your Boarding card against a huge board with the names of who lived or who perished in the disaster.

Two of us lived and two died, now this happened in 1912 however we all still felt it in the pit of our stomachs for those poor people who lost their life’s that night.  Many more people in 3^rd and 2^nd class died than in the first class and of course many more men lost their lives than ladies.  So many brave men who gave their lives for women and children they never even knew, so very very admirable.

I must add here that I think men are often vilified, I know that there are some bad apples out there.   However from my experience, the men in my life have all been fantastic; my son, husband, brother, father, grandfathers and nearly every man that I have ever met have been lovely.  So thank you fellows and from the bottom of my heart,  Men I Salute YOU!

Here are the last words of John Jacob Astor IV, the richest man in the world, saying farewell to his lover as he gave up his seat on an escaping lifeboat from the sinking Titanic for a female passenger;

“The ladies have to go first…Get in the lifeboat, to please me…Goodbye dearie,  I’ll see you later”

Till next time,

Love Marie xx                                                                      (c)

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July 17, 2010 in Current Blog, Travel by Marie

30. Moggy Fontain, and the Melbourne trip

Just a few days after baby boy came home from Europe we all flew over to Melbourne as one of our Godchildren were turning 21, and what a beautiful girl she has grown up to be,  well perhaps I should say always was, as she started modelling as a baby and never really stopped.

We have shared lots of time over the years with the Burns family but my favourite funny moment was when our son Kai and Saasha were playing hospital as little children, and Saasha lay down on the floor and declared that she was a LITTLE bit DEAD.  Lol,- Out of the mouths of babes.

This painting Moggy Fontain was bought by them for their second daughter Tarrah who is a fantastic Ballet Dancer presently in New Zealand where she won a 3 year position at the New Zealand School of Dance.

Their son Tristen is very talented as well and dances sings and acts in various shows around town and recently appeared in Home and Away.   Anyway we had a fab time at the Cowboys and Indians themed 21^st birthday party.

But what I enjoyed the most was that we were all together again us four, and boy did we have fun, as we always do.

For some reason we spend more time belly laughing than anything else.  You know that deep in your gut laugh where you lose control, well if you were in Melbourne a little while ago and spied a tall family of four, doubled over laughing that was us! Lol

Outside of the Melbourne museum Perth based artist Bennett Miller had built a smaller scaled set of the United Nations Commission as an Art installation, for the Next Wave Festival called Dachshund UN.

In this performance “artwork” there were 47 sausage dogs that took part and formed the delegates, speakers and interpreters of the UN Human Rights committee.  It looked so funny, the dogs were all different types of sausage dogs;  short , long and wired haired, black, brown and reddish and some were constantly barking, while others whimpered or sat quietly whilst others were bored and some could be found napping- just like the real thing really. The detail of the painting below is one of my own Sausage Dogs.( Melbourne tales to be continued)

Here is some advice by Hermann Hesse (writer) that the real UN Human rights Committee should perhaps take.

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go”

Till next time.

Love Marie xx                                            (c)

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July 14, 2010 in Current Blog, Things I've Learned by Marie

29. Religious Paintings

As you may have figured out by now, I do like to paint just about everything, any subject matter, most of the time colourful and busy.

I am often asked about my religious scenes like the one here, Noahs Ark.  Am I religious – well, I do hope there is an afterlife, I have so many people that I would so dearly like to see again.

Is there a heaven and will they be waiting for me ?     Oh I truly hope so.  Well if that is what I hope, what about God and Christianity and all the other religions?

My belief is that they all play a part and all have more similarities than differences.

To me it doesn’t matter whether your beliefs are of the Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhism, Catholic or any of the other Christian flavours.

We are all people of the world and ideally we should care for each other and help each other.  I do think the 10 commandments make sense and try to live my life in ‘doing unto others’ and all that.  Sometimes I fail but I do try to Pay It Forward, small kind gestures that make this world a better place.

So to sometimes paint a scene from the bible gives me a sense of peace.  I will have to familiarise myself a bit more with the other religious books as I am sure they also have very rich and interesting material for new paintings.

Here is a thought from one of Douglas Pagels books, which I like.

You have the ability to..

Follow your heart.

Trust your instincts.

Listen to the song that sings in you.

And let your spirit Dance to that tune

I hope you will visit me again.

Love Marie xxxx                                                                     (c)

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July 10, 2010 in Animal Tales, Current Blog by Marie

28. Sometimes its just about the little noises you hear

As I was writing a blog about another painting where I depicted us losing our false teeth while we were madly dancing, I was reminded about what happened to a good friend; she unfortunately had to have all her teeth removed at an early age and was made a set of false teeth by the dentist.

Good looking girl who lived alone apart from her two dogs.  (The two dogs are the white ones .)

Anyway she was just starting to get used to wearing these false teeth, but they had been hurting a bit so she put them in the glass by the bed, got an early night as there was a family gathering the next day.

As she explains it, she woke up and just sort of dozed in bed for a while, contemplating the day ahead.  Then she slowly started to take notice of this strange sort of crunching sound under the bed and thought she better investigate.

Well under there, she found her two darling Maltese Terriers looking up at her ever so innocently, each with a brand new set of false teeth in their mouths,  well that’s probably an over statement let’s just say that a few hours ago they were brand new…now they were distinctly chewed up and broken into several bits.

Brave lady this one, still made it to the party wearing her temporary ones whilst the dentist made another set.

It has been a lot of fun to paint for the dog and cat series and they are all so cute and great to research too, plus I have the perfect subject’s right here, our dogs and also two cats called Milo and Ozzie ( named after Ozzie Osbourne)

Ozzie is really an outdoor cat who we normally do not see for weeks at a time, however since Kai came home he has been hanging around constantly, guess we weren’t the only ones to miss the baby boy !

Here is something said by Helen Hayes from the book Wag Lines, that fits perfectly here.

“When I hear tell of the character and the loyalty and devotion of dogs, I remain unmoved.  All of my dogs have been scamps and thieves and troublemakers, and I’ve adored them all”

Till next time

Love Marie xxxx                                                                                   (c)

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July 5, 2010 in Current Blog, Things I've Learned by Marie

27. Save the Moon Bears

I first started this painting “Save the Moon bears” about a year ago because a dear friend, Joanna Polities was actively involved in the charity Animals Asia.

She has been the South Australian voice for these bears and raised a lot of money for them through various functions and fundraisers that she has organized over several years.  In any case I put the painting aside when I was half way through as I had some urgent works that needed delivery.

So there I was sitting in my studio working away on various projects whilst I listen to the radio as I always do (usually an ABC channel with current affairs and news of the day, magazine style you could say) when Simon Bryant a well know chef, who up until recently had his own cooking program on TV starts talking about his passion for the moon bears and I am yet again reminded of the half finished painting.

So again I am back painting some more on it until another deadline looms.  Sometimes this is how the paintings evolve with other more urgent works coming in between, and as my work is so detailed it does take quite a long time to do each piece.

To cut a long story short, the painting was auctioned at a major fundraiser at Adelaide Zoo July 2010, together with many other donated items.    The crowd fell silent when Jo and her husband Richard took to the stage to announce that the total amount raised from the event was $125,000 and every penny of that would go to the Moon Bear Rescue. An amazing result and the highest ever raised for Animals Asia in Australia from one single event.

The invite is below and if there are some people that would like to donate just call 1800 666 004 or go to the Animals Asia website.

I cannot bare to even write about how these gorgeous bears suffer other than to say it is barbaric and atrocious to say the least and it makes me so totally depressed, so instead if you are not across the details of their plight please look up Animals Asia (the link will take you there) and see their  website and get ofay with their terrible situation so we can all band together and stop this cruelty.

Here are some wise words from Henri Frederic Amiel (writer) about grace under pressure.

“It is dangerous to abandon one’s self to the luxury of grief; it deprives one of courage and even of the wish for recovery”

Till next time

Love Marie xx                                                                                    (c)

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July 2, 2010 in Current Blog, Travel by Marie

26.Looking for Lochy.

This painting was one I decided to do after seeing a doco on TV about a film crew who did just that, looked for Lochy and I of course saw the whole image in front of me.  Although I do know that tropical fish could not survive the Scottish weather !!

I have never myself been to this part of the world, England was as far as I got however both my husband Bryan and son Kai has and their tales inspires me too.

Bryan went there in his backpacking days and tells of a beautiful country side and very very cold weather.

He and his mate stayed in a youth hostel which was in a castle on the banks of Loch Ness,  the caretaker met them there late one cold winters evening, unlocked the 25 bed dormitory and then promptly left them to it.

Two blokes alone in a rather spooky environment if you have been raised on the “Chain saw massacre” type of movies.

It was so cold that they took all the blankets of the other beds and lay under them like little pin heads, with just big eyes poking out waiting for the end to come.  In those days you could score yourself a youth hostel bed for just 5 bucks and a promise to do a chore in the morning such as clean a toilet or two.

I was more of a 5 star hotel kind of gal myself and our son falls somewhere in between the two and also visited Scotland recently; he loved this country too and started his Loch Ness tour by walking up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle where they caught the tour bus.

Now my son and his mate are two rather tall lads and had a hard time squeezing into the tour bus seats having to resort to sitting with their legs on an angle for the twelve hour round trip.   This would have looked rather demure if they had been wearing kilts, Kais mate has size 17 size feet which would not have helped either (shoes like small canoes on the end of his legs).

In any case they admired the sights from the bus and saw Hamish the highland cow, ( pronounced, Hooland Coo) who Kai said is quite famous for a fat hair covered hamburger having starred in a few movies.  Followed by the snowy mountains and the 3 lochs; Loch Lochy, Loch Linnhe and Loch Ness.  But neither of them did see Nessie that I had painted unfortunately, however Kai did take a lot of pictures so we could share in his travels and what made me laugh was this picture of The Wee Gift Shoppe, and Kais caption under it on FB ‘that this will make his mother laugh’.

You know when kids are around 5 years old and they laugh uncontrollably at the smallest mention of wees and poohs, well that’s ME, I never did grow up and any joke to this day that refers to those bodily functions always cracks me up lol.

As they say small things amuse small minds!

So obviously I am in good company because this quote is attributed to

Benjamin Franklin, Statesman

“He that lives upon hope dies farting”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx                                          (c)

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