March 25, 2011 in Current Blog, Little Naughty by mariejon

75 Story about Pooh

Now you think this is a story about dogs don’t you? – the kind when you are out walking and the dog does his business and you being a good citizen and all, you’ve bent down and scooped it up in a little plastic bag eh?  Well you couldn’t be more wrong…….

So this cute little puppy in my acrylic on board painting,  Precausious Pug was not to blame here. Are you game to keep on reading or not? This is a true story told to me by a good friend about her girlfriend and for obvious reasons we won’t be mentioning any real names!  So we will just call the lady in question Lucy.  Well Lucy got dolled up and went out for the night to her local pub, and as faith would have it she met this really nice guy. They chatted for a bit and had a boogie on the dance floor, she got introduced to his friends, a few drinks were consumed and a fun time was had by all. So then at the end of the night when the young man in question asked Lucy to go home to his place for a night cap she eagerly said yes. They had the nightcap and then one thing led to another as they do and what eventuated was the most wonderful night of love making.  Lucy was falling in love and as fate would have it the young man was smitten too.  He whispered sweet nothings in her ear and hinted at a future together and how sweet life would be, and Lucy could not remember a better night ever. Well in the morning the young man had to go to work but kissed Lucy tenderly and told her to make herself at home, have breakfast and get ready in her own time, let herself out and that he would call her later that night.

Lucy did just that, she had breakfast and coffee and got dressed and thought about her wonderful night and as often happens in the morning, nature called and she went off to the toilet. As Billy Connelly the comedian says during his performance “the wee little jobbie” would not flush down.  Try as she might flush after flush without joy, and to leave” it” there and let her new love find “it” was out of the question so she hunted up a plastic bag, yes you are right – fished it out and put it in the bag.  Now of course she could not put the bag in the rubbish could she, incase he happened to find it so she decided to take the bag with her when she left and dispose of it properly. However before she left she put all her stuff on the kitchen bench whilst she wrote her new love a love letter – telling him what a wonderful lover and nice guy he was and that their shared night had been so very special and she just could not wait to see him again.  With butterflies in her stomach and love in her heart she scooped up all her belongings and left and closed the front door. OH NO – that’s when she remembered that next to the love letter on the kitchen bench she had accidently left the bag with the pooh!  Now she tried to get back in but as he lived upstairs in a flat there was no way she could get in without breaking down the door. So this is a love affair, lol that ends badly for of course, he never did call her again.  What was the poor man to think when he got home and found a beautifully written letter about what a wonderful lover and sweet guy he was and then next to it a bag with a pooh in it!!  What message does that send ,lol.  You were really, really crap, or you stink or at the very least he would have thought that this girl certainly has a screw loose.

Here is a thought from Stephen Hawking (physicist) which I think fits well here,

“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx    (c)

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March 18, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

74.Pop-Eye II

This painting is of Popeye which is an iconic Adelaide institution, it is privately owned and the first ferry was launched in 1935 and took you between Elder Park and Adelaide Zoo.  The first two boats in service carried 20 passengers each and the three next Popeyes made seated up to 40 people. A very popular tourist attraction and they even took Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Philip on a little ride in 1977.  The new fiberglass models,  was launched in 1982 by the then Prime Minister Malcom Fraser.

If you look closely at this acrylic on board painting you will see me, my husband and the two kids in the middle of the boat, the kids loved going on it when they were little (I’m in pink and hubby green).  I have even done a ceramic and mosaic version of this painting which hung in the old Adelaide Airport for many years.

I will get back to the Popeye story soon but firstly let me tell you why we came to take another ride on the boat a few years back.  When the kids were in high school here in Australia they had a program going whereby Japanese exchange students would come over for 2 weeks each year and learn English and also learn about the Australian way of life. So we discussed this as a family and all thought it would be a worthwhile experience for our family to do.  We thought it would help to teach the kids tolerance and respect for other customs and cultures and perhaps learn a little Japanese too. I have for many years had a strong connection to Japan anyway.

During my modeling days I fulfilled a couple of contracts there as a Fashion model each one of three months duration (that’s another story) and then as I have written about in 57. “THE SIGNING OF THE CONTRACT” ‎as well as 64.  “FLYING TO JAPAN” ,  I have also been there many times for my art exhibitions as well. All the parents who agreed to have the Japanese students attended meetings and were given information and lists of what to do and not to do, what was expected of us and also some basic words in Japanese. According to this information the Japanese students loved going for car rides, sightseeing, shopping (particularly for souvenirs), food shopping (as they liked to see the different types of food we have here) exploring Museums and Galleries and going out for lunch and dinner.

Over the years this had all worked very well and we had 5 students come and stay with us over the years and all were delightful.  However one particular boy drove me completely nuts one day, he was a very quite boy and hard to communicate with but seemed happy enough.  A week or so into his stay when we had been very busy with life and work we thought we better plan a day for the boy to see a bit more of Adelaide.

None of us really had any time to this, I could not really afford to take any time away from the studio, my teenage daughter was supposed to go to a birthday party which she regretfully cancelled and son and hubby likewise cancelled other engagements. We asked him what he thought of the plans and he seemed very excited at the prospect so up early in the morning and into the car for a big day of fun.

Now we lived a three hour round trip to the city and with a few detours for points of interest we covered a quite a few kilometers to say the least.  However the “Star” of the day sat bolt upright with his eyes firmly closed asleep for the entire trip, (as only the Japanese can do on transport,lol) only to open them for a minute or two when poked to have a look at something.

Then as we showed him the Museum and the Art Gallery, he walked everywhere with us but looked down on the floor the whole time, and when we sat down to enjoy a lovely lunch he was not hungry and only had a glass of water. So we thought a spot of shopping would surely get him in the mood and took him to the centre of the shops and asked what type of things he wanted to get and which shops he would like to go to?

That’s when he informs us that he doesn’t like to shop and doesn’t want to buy anything! What was wrong with telling us that yesterday!!  So at this stage we are nearly all tearing our hair out, my children rolling their eyes as teenagers do. We then ask him what he would like to do now and when no suggestions were forthcoming we suggest a few other things and he settles for a ride on the Popeye.

So we go and purchase the tickets, now the tickets aren’t expensive but for the five of us it’s still 60 dollars, ordinarily I would not have minded, but when the five of us sat down and the Japanese boy promptly fell asleep again I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, lol. However the four of us looked at each other and just cracked up laughing, thinking about what we should/could have been doing that day instead of dragging this sleeping boy around Adelaide and totally wasting everybody’s time.  We laughed till tears streamed down our faces and still the boy just slept.

So as we drove the one and a half hours back to the farm I thought of this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson (essayist and Philosopher)

“Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx

FOOTNOTE; we hope and pray that our Japanese exchange students; Kaori, Kazuya, Takahiro, Yuki and Megumi, and their families and friends are all safe and well.  We are thinking about you and hoping to hear from you.  Love Marie, Bryan, Kai and Hillivi xxxx                (c)

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March 11, 2011 in Current Blog, Sculpture, Things I've Learned by mariejon

73 Snack attack at hungry jacks

Isn’t it a drag that we can’t just eat whatever we want and not put on weight!

This ceramic and mosaic artwork  “Snax attack at Hungry Jack’s” was a delight to make.  I do love food, although for the most part I do eat healthy, I too dream about all the naughty foods that I enjoy, hamburgers with the lot (although in my case, without the meat, lol chips, milkshakes and yummy pizza.)  I had so much fun sculpting all the food out of the clay and then painting it all, I was constantly hungry the whole time!!   So when whilst in the kiln the breast exploded and fell off on this artwork I instead of feeling upset, thought it was just karma and decided it fitted very well with this subject matter.  That could happen if you eat too much,lol.

The  Snax attack artwork will be making it’s way to The 4th “Festival Mondial d’Art Naif” in Katowice, Poland along with some other paintings for the worldwide naive exhibition at the Szub Wilson Gallery during 17th June – 14th August 2011.

How nice would it be to wake up to a Buffet every day, you know the one that you get on holidays,  a whole room full of food, there is 6 different types of cereals, yogurts in every flavor, low fat, full fat and birch. Then you see a tropical color delight with all the different fruits of the world. Oh I know it all sounds pretty healthy so far – but wait a minute then we go to the fry ups, sausages of every country, and ham and then as you get in some of the Asian countries there is beef ham-what the?

Fried eggs, sunny side up, poached, scrambled, boiled or an omelet with whatever you wish thrown in. Never mind all the different breads, white, whole meal, mixed, kibbled, rye, sourdough, lavash, damper, bagels, pita & naan.

Then there is all the really Asian food – now I for one absolutely love my stir-fry’s and curries, sushi, laksa and all the rest.  However I must draw the line at eating fried fish and miso soup first thing in the morning and what about the porridge?  Nothing wrong with porridge I hear you say; that is good old fashioned food.

Well perhaps it is just me being a vegetarian that I cannot stomach the combination of breakfast porridge and chicken – that you get in Bali and Malaysia – what’s with that?  My stomach is a bit delicate in the morning, but show me all the delicacies and I am all yours if it is later in the day! I have always loved food and at times been totally obsessed with it.  Most probably it all stems from my modeling days and the fact that you seemed to be on a constant diet.  In a way though later on in life I am glad of that discipline as I have been reliable informed that most people increase their weight by 2 kilograms each year.

The funny thing is that just 2 kg is nothing that you would really notice over a 12 month period, but then the next year rolls around and suddenly there is another 2 and that makes 4, right?  Most people put these kilos on during the Christmas – New Year period or holiday time.  All of us have good intentions to lose the weight but somehow or another suddenly there is the holiday coming up again and here we go again.  So it’s no wonder then that so many people become obese over time- 2 innocent little kilos over say a 20 year period suddenly amounts to 40 kilos of fat!  Oh what a bugger!

Perhaps you need to surround yourself with a few more brazen thieves whilst you have your brekky, so that you can finish the meal of with a hearty run up stairs and all around the hotel lobby to try to catch him. Well that is what we did on a family holiday in Penang recently.

My husband is one of these people that “people watch” and that keeps him amused no end and he can always spot when something is not quite right. So there we were enjoying one of these wonderful Buffet breakfasts when hubby pointed out this fellow to me – he was sort of skulking around, but I put that down to that he was looking for his group or family.  Then there was the fact that in the very hot Malaysian morning he was wearing long pants and a light cream jacket, well again I said to Bryan some people feel the cold more than others.

So it goes without saying that I got a surprise when this fellow made a very swift move and dove like a swan onto the back of the chair of the couple a few tables up and made off with a handbag, quick as a flash and he was gone up the stairs into the lobby.  Of course hubby saw the whole thing and both he and I and the kids ran after him but to no avail – as far as we could understand he must have had an accomplice with a car waiting to scurry him away. The lady tourist in question wasn’t too bothered, the thief had made off with some change, a comb and a lipstick but what did irk her were the scripts for some heart medication, so I think he would have been rather a disappointed thief that day, looking at the loot he ran so fast for,lol.

So here is a quote I think fits in rather well here, in relation to that thief, lol, said by Ernest Hemingway (writer)

“Never confuse movement with action”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx   (c)

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March 4, 2011 in Current Blog, Little Naughty by mariejon

72. Mae West “Come up and see me some time”

Funny isn’t it how life is, you go along and suddenly you have an epiphany, well in my case I just realized that perhaps I have been influenced by someone far away from my own upbringing in Sweden and later on in Australia.

Mae West – how strange this realization is, but I have to say I have always admired her hutzpah , she was in the forefront of the sexual revolution and certainly one of the most outspoken and openly sexual women of her time.  This painting “Come up and see me sometime” was inspired by one of her sayings, which I heard growing up.  This artwork can also be found on the E-card page of my website (free of course), so why don’t you send it to someone you fancy!

Mae West was 87 years old when she died in November 1980 after suffering a series of strokes and was buried in New York.  Her last film was made in 1978 called “Sextette” and co-starred Tony Curtis; you could say she was the original Cougar!    However it was her dry humor and quick wit with the sexual innuendos and her way at poking fun at the straight laced society that appealed to me.

For you who may not be familiar with the lady (but I am sure you still have heard and may quote some of her sayings) here is a brief run through of her life.

Mae was born Mary Jan West in 1893, her parents earned their living in vaudeville (surprise, surprise) and she joined them by the time she was five years old.  She was billed as “The Baby Vamp” when only 14 years old and studied dance and later began to write her own plays.  One of her more famous plays was called “Sex” which landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges in 1926.

My god can you imagine how ahead of her time she must have been.   If you think about your own life and the outrage that would have attracted even as late as the 70’s, and really today too it would be controversial with the “political correctness “ creeping into everything that we say and do.

Mae made her Broadway debut in a play called “Diamond Lil” that she had written herself and caught the attention of one of the Hollywood studios, which later led to her first movie role.

I think the movie was called Night after Night and in it she was able to show her incredible wit that was to make her famous all over the world.  She became a box-office smash and broke all attendance records.  Her next film “She Done Him wrong” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best picture and also helped to make Cary Grant a star.

Mae was really known for her double talk (her sexual innuendos) which really came about because of the Motion Picture Production Code, which was established after her first two movies to regulate what was allowed to be said in movies.

As a result of these new codes, Mae very cleverly began to speak in double talk, so she could get around the censors.  By her double speak, the listener could take the phrase anyway they wished, quite innocently or perhaps with a more sexual connotation.  That is really what so appeals to me, her double speak, the hint of sexuality without it being overtly so.  I myself am not a fan of explicit sexuality whether it is visual or in the written context, but think it is great fun to play with just the slightest suggestion of it.    How ahead of her time she was, and I leave you here with a few of her more memorable quotes, as she lives on in the minds of many of us.

“Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?”

“When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad, I’m better.”

“Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else.”

“Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.”

After all that I am tired too, so till next time.

Love Marie xxx       (c)

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