November 26, 2010 in Current Blog, Travel by Marie

57. Signing the Contract

I had been painting for about 5 years when my gallery in Melbourne called me to let me know that a scout for a Japanese gallery had been in to see them and were very interested in showing my work in Nagoya.

This painting depicts my Qantas flight over to Nagoya in Japan for my first exhibition, however there was a lot of I’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed before that first trip.  You see the Japanese do not do things by half and it took more than six months before that first contract was signed.

So in the meantime I lived on hope, as during both my days as a model and then in the art business I have come to know that you win some and you lose some, and I didn’t know which category this was going to fall into.

Firstly I had to send pictures of my artwork to Japan, price lists, mediums and sizes etc, and then they wanted to see some of the actual paintings in real life so a couple of paintings had to be sent over to Nagoya.  Then there was lots of to-ing and fro-ing about the price I was to receive for each art work and the commission for the gallery in Melbourne.

Eventually a representative from the gallery in Japan flew to Melbourne and they flew me from Adelaide for the final meeting and signing of the contract, which was held at the Melbourne gallery who were my agent in this new venture.

I took one of my dearest friends Christina with me as well as my two kids, Kai and Hillivi.  So off we go; Miss Hillivi my daughter  was 2 years  old at the time and had just sat down in her seat on the plane and fastened the seatbelt before she threw up all over herself, (there are quite a few stories like that with little Miss Hillivi) luckily I had Christina there to help me out.

us in the plane

I do know that first impressions are really important and thought my chances with the Japanese would not be enhanced by being covered in baby spew, so by now I was getting a bit worried.

The problem was we had to go virtually straight from the plane to the Japanese meeting, as typically the plane was delayed.  However as one door closes another one opened and I ran into an acquaintance on the plane that said we should come to his hotel and get changed.  Saved by the man on a white horse so to speak as both I and Hillivi did not smell so good by this stage(brave man), so that offer came in very handy.

Then there was another small problem with taxis.   Here in Australia you have to have children in seatbelts and in booster chairs when travelling if the child is under 7 and of course, I had not thought of that.( I am normally very safety conscious but tell me how you get around in a new city with kids and no car.)

We eventually found a taxi driver to take us (although we had to duck in the backseat all the way) and surprisingly enough still made it to the meeting on time.  Christina, bless her cotton socks amused the kids in a café down the road whilst I against all odds and with nothing left but hope finally had that contract signed and sealed.

So here is a saying from Lu Xun (writer) that I think fits rather well here.

“Hope can neither be affirmed nor denied.  Hope is like a path in the countryside:  Originally there was no path-yet, as people are walking all the time in the same spot, a way appears.”

Till next time,

Love Marie  xxx                                               (c)

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November 19, 2010 in Current Blog, Family & Friends by Marie

56. “I DOOOOOOOOOO”

There are weddings and then there are good weddings and I went to one of the Great ones just recently.  Now I may be biased as this was my darling nephew (who is just the coolest guitar playing guy around) and his beautiful Fiona, who already has been part of our lives for the past 7 years.    Although I thought it was longer than that as I liked her lots right from the start and she is a person with a kind heart and easy manner and positive attitude that you enjoy sharing time with.

So that being said, I don’t know how you feel, but I know from my own personal experience, all weddings are different.  Some you enjoy because the food is great, others because of the band or location or as in this case because you can see and you know in your heart that these two people are so right for each other that they will last a life time.

That’s not to say that at this particular wedding all those other elements weren’t there too because they were, if I have to pick on anything it would be they had the ceremony starting at 11.30 on a Sunday morning!  Just as well the Hens night was a week earlier is all I can say to that.  (I do believe I was nursing a rather large headache the Sunday before, and it was all Fiona’s fault.)

The ceremony was held overlooking the water at West Lakes Resort and then followed by a Greek Feast at Zacs, where every wish was catered for.  Such a memorable day!

This painting depicts the ceremony of birds of a different feather completely, the artwork sold in Japan, and I had lots of fun painting it!  Oh and in the pretend story of this painting of course the birds were let out of their cages and lived happily ever after in the wild.  That goes without saying!

In my own case people predicted our marriage would last six months tops (they of little faith!)Oh I do love proving people wrong, as we just celebrated our 28^th wedding anniversary, so you never can quite tell.

That reminds me of another friend of mine, who got married in the 80’s, this marriage unfortunately only lasted a year.  The wedding itself was a rather splendid production at the finest locations and no expense spared and a total bill of $60.000.00 which for the 80’s was a rather large amount to pay for a wedding.   Rather a waste of money, just for one night I thought at the time, but hey we had a fantastic night!

We have been to a lot of wedding over the years and another one that springs to mind was also a splendid affair at a seaside location followed by the reception in the top hotel of the time in Adelaide with a 20 piece orchestra and silver service all the way.

So there we were at this glitzy Do with half of Adelaide’s “who is who” in attendance and what do I  do- well klutzy me had to go and spoil it, lol – I managed to dribble half my dinner on my taffeta dress (you do remember the taffeta dresses of the 80’s?)  The spill was not somewhere low down where it could be hidden, but right up top on my chest, where some sticky mess looked mighty unsightly.

Long suffering Bryan takes quite a delight in his wife’s history of food dribbles, as he thinks it is all rather funny to see this model looking bird dressed to kill with food stains, isn’t he mean! LOL

Off to the ladies loo I go as I thought I better try to wash it off, easier said than done!  Have you ever tried to wash a dark purple taffeta gown in a public toilet (well a Hilton toilet but still!)  There I was trying ever so hard to get rid of this stain but instead of making it smaller it actually seemed to be spreading all over the dress, no matter what I did.   Who ever invented those horrible hand dryers that you have in toilets, they are absolutely useless when it counts, or should I say absolutely useless at anytime, especially useless at drying hands for which they were invented I do believe.

I missed some of the speeches and the cutting of the cake as this procedure took half an hour to accomplish.   Needless to say I spent the rest of the night with my hair covering the stain, thank god for long hair!

So here is a bit of wisdom for you who may be contemplating marriage from Pythagoras (philosopher)

“The oldest, shortest words – “yes” and “no” – are those which require the most thought.

Oh and by the way if I find any advice from any other philosopher on “How to avoid food stains” I will be sure to let you know.

Till next time,

Love Marie  xxx                                                                               (c)

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November 13, 2010 in Current Blog, Family & Friends by Marie

55. The Rise and Fall of the Tooth

I must be very fascinated by teeth I think, as I always paint the big broad grins, or is it that I want the whole world to be happy and gay the Laxit way! (to borrow from an old Australian commercial)

As you can see in the snippets of these artworks lots of teeth are the go.  So it goes without saying then that I have another couple of stories up my sleeve about teeth.

When my adult teeth came along as they do round about 7 years of age I had a gap in between my front teeth, everyone said that it looked charming (but I don’t think I ever believed them)

So during my modeling years I would if the job called for, wear like a little gadget that fitted over the front teeth and made them look straight from Hollywood so to speak.

However eventually in my early thirties I decided that with the inevitable wrinkles about to land on me, perhaps it was time to finally have perfect teeth.

And so it was and they were very nice, until my daughter was around 4 years old, suddenly whilst eating a sandwich, I felt that there was something else floating about my mouth and it was not part of the sandwich filling!

Off to the bathroom mirror I went and shock and horror, one of the caps of my front tooth had come off.  Now I do not have to describe that to you, how I looked was not a pretty sight.

So I rang the dentist and had an appointment to get it fixed the next day, thank god.

However in the meantime life had to go on at home and the kids came home from school and kindy and I greeted them with one hand held firmly over my mouth.

Kai my son took it all in his stride but baby girl Hillivi, who would never accept the word NO, did not give up and asked me at every turn, to take my hand away and show her my mouth and the missing tooth.

She nagged and nagged me all day until bed time and then she said ever so sweetly as only a little 4 year old girl can do “Mummy I love you so very much and I don’t care what you look like I will love you anyway, and you are my beautiful queen, so don’t worry and just show me”

So how could I resist such comforting words and her sweetness got the better of me and I did show her very quickly.   She took a good look with her eyes as big as saucers and then she said “Oh mummy I still love you, my darling little WITCHY POO!”  Out of the mouth of babes, right?  (Where had the beautiful queen gone now, I wondered, lol?)

Another friend of mine, a lovely lady just told me her tooth story and it goes something like this.

She was 11 years old at the time and playing netball (a game similar to basketball) when she fell over and broke all of her front teeth and consequently had to have false teeth made and fitted.

Some time passed and then one day at school, those pesky teeth fell out of her mouth and broke and of course she did not want any of the boys to see her with no teeth, so even though they were broken she put them back in.

But the story does not end there, she finally got home from school and sat down to have her dinner, and you guessed it, she swallowed them!  Off to the hospital it is with the parents in tow for x-rays and the medical staff could not believe that this child had actually swallowed her false teeth until they saw the evidence before them!

So to all of you who now feel terribly worried, fear not I say and keep these words of wisdom from Benjamin Franklin (statesman) in mind.

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen.  Keep in the sunlight.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx

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November 9, 2010 in Country Life, Current Blog by Marie

54.The Place of the Ground Frog (All Roads lead to Mallala, part 2)

Unlike this painting, this little country town is actually rather quiet with only a population of 500 and according to Wikipedia the name is aboriginal for ‘madlola’ which means ‘place of the ground frog’ , not that I saw anymore frogs there than anywhere else,  but maybe that’s how come I picked up the frog inspiration because I do like to paint them, for you who are familiar with my work.  Below are two different versions of the painting “All Roads Lead to Mallala”.

At various times in the time we lived in Mallala, there actually were both cows, sheep and runaway horses that raced through the streets,  my artistic licence is just that they did not all do it at the same time!

The yellow school bus you see is one that stopped outside our church and took Kai the 10 km in to the local primary school.

A lovely little country school with nice teachers and principal, as a matter of fact the first time I met the principal he was dressed up from head to toe in a purple monster suit, a friendly monster I should add, being the Purple people Eater on a “school dress up day”.

To me that was quite amazing, coming from Sweden where people were more stiff and formal and you would never on your life catch the principal in a dress up costume (well not during office hours anyway, I am sure they have their scandals too just like the British and their pollies in suspender belts and the like.)

The pub on the right is where “Smokey the Chip eating sheep” was raised, and the white ute in the top picture was Bryan’s car that Smokey came home in, (if you missed that story it may be worth a look, number 11. In the blog archive )

This pub has been owned and run by several different owners and continues to thrive, now perhaps the most popular it has ever been with delicious meals and often a band rocking the night away, and it is a popular spot for my daughter and her friends.

Mallala is quite famous in its own right for its Motor Sport Park which regularly hosts national and international car racing.

The Royal Australian Air force originally established their base there in 1939 where they used to train their pilots until they closed down in 1960 which is where the car racing now takes place.

With the Air force in mind here is a quote by Toni Morrison (writer) that I like.

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

Till next time,

Love Marie xx

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November 3, 2010 in Current Blog, Little Naughty by Marie

53. A Hens night out..without mentioning the P…word!..impossible

The invitation read” HENS NIGHT, come and join Fiona and dance the night away before she walks down the aisle on her wedding day!  Girl’s Night Out with fabulous food and wine, Dress code Bling”- and Yes it was and Yes we did!  We had so much fun but I must say that hen’s nights had changed a lot since when I got married.

Funny thing is I cannot actually remember my own hens night, maybe that is because I did love to party and probably had a dozen girls nights out before I actually walked down the aisle, or maybe that is also something that we should blame on the champagne.  Oh the champagne has a lot to answer for!

I do remember that Bryan had a bucks night though, well maybe that is because there is pictorial evidence documenting the terrible deeds!  That was in the day when the groom would get tarred and feathered.  So there is a photo of a rather worse for wear groom standing in his jocks with shoe polish all over him, and I mean ALL over him.

Lucky for both him and I that it all ended well as some stories I have heard of what the so called “mates” do to each other sometimes ends in tears.  This next story is a classic example.  One” groom to be” was tied up after a very heavy night of partying to the pole of a jetty, by his best man and some mates.  It was a hot balmy night and the tide was out so the lads figured all was sweet and left him there and continued to party up the street.

Well a few hours passed as they do when you are having fun and finally they thought they better check on the groom, who at this stage was now millimeters away from drowning, the water was lapping up under his nose and he had to time his breath after each wave.  If they had waited another couple of minutes there would not have been any wedding to go to.  He lived to tell the tale but the story ended bitter sweet anyway as that was the last time that the best man and the groom ever saw each other, he and the other couple of mates involved were persons non grata at the ceremony and 20 years later they haven’t spoken to each other again, the bride saw to that and who can blame her.

This painting depicts seals at the Zoo (which sold in Japan) and the only thing it has in common with this story is the being up to ones neck in water!

Anyway us girls are a little more kinder to each other and these days the last night of freedom (as it were) are carefully orchestrated affairs with every little detail taken care of by very dedicated and wonderful bridesmaids and maids of honors.  At this one for my gorgeous niece Fiona (who is marrying handsome nephew Regan) held at the Ambar Lounge at the Ambassadors Hotel, there were hors D’oeuvres and drinks, a scrumptious main meal and for dessert a Penis cake.

Mmm…haven’t I mentioned that word yet!!!  That’s funny as they were everywhere on this night.  Just the generic brand actually and not attached to an actual man or anything!  There were lots of games both guessing ones, like” What part of the body does the groom prefer on his bride to be”, and each right answer was rewarded with something a little bit naughty.

Then there was “Pin the tail on the Donkey” although in this case “he” was definitely not a donkey and “it” was certainly not a tail”.  Would you believe that I was the winner of that game, go me!  I obviously know where they grow, lol, although I will have to admit the blind fold was not done up too tight and I actually had a little peek.  Naughty me, and that won me a tube of Chocolate Body Paint, funnily enough my daughter came second and she got a funny little toy in a box, we haven’t figured out what it is yet, looks like a little torpedo, lol.

The Penis cake was to die for and both I and my daughter was wildly excited it was also gluten free, so we could actually have some.  It was presented with lots of little chocolate penises around it on a silver tray and the chief bridesmaid had made it herself.

She said her husband came home unexpectantly whilst she was baking and wondered if she always made penis cake and chocolates whilst he was away.  She also pointed out that the cake had collapsed a little in the middle but she had got over that problem by filling that part up with cream,  which all us girls thought was rather authentic anyway!

The rest of the girls went out clubbing afterwards and I should have too, as life is too short to sleep it away, next time!  But this time I caught the train home with my little box of goodies- oh did I forget to tell you about them, all of us got a little box full of little naughty sweets, yep you guessed it in the shape of you know what!!

So there I was, sitting on that train which was absolutely full of people, some perhaps a little bit worse for wear just like me (well it was 12am on a Saturday night) and I could not help having a little giggle to myself thinking about what my little box contained!

So here is something I’ve learned said by J.A.Wheeler (physicist)

“If you haven’t found something strange during the day, it hasn’t been much of a day.”

Till next time,

Love Marie  xx

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