August 27, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

97 Meditation are you serious

I just got home from a meditation class, which was only the second time in my life that I have attended one. It does seem to me to be a little bit crazy to be waking up with the alarm blaring in my ears so that I can go off to a class to sit and learn to relax! One would have thought if that’s what I needed perhaps staying in bed and a few more hours shut eye would have done it. But oh no – powers that be says otherwise, so off I trotted to the class!

My mother used to go to mediation classes 25 years ago, and come home singing its praises. I could for the life of me not understand why someone would be going to sit in a room full of strangers and try to relax, it seemed like a complete oxymoron to me.

The way to take time out for me in the past would be getting a massage or having a glass of wine and watch a good movie etc, and that has always worked well in the past.
However these days I find it harder to shut the clutter in my mind up. What is it with that – why do we have to have an internal dialogue in our head that just doesn’t shut up! A head full of random thoughts everything from great painting ideas, to new blogs, worries about health, children, pets, parents, car accidents, house burning down, and burglars (or a combination of all of the above at the same time, LOL). Never mind all the things I said and shouldn’t have, or the things I should have said but didn’t. Don’t start me on the stuff I did or didn’t do- that alone is a whole new chapter!
Get my drift, I really need to learn this meditation – just to be able to take time out and get some rest without actually being asleep.

So there I was this morning sitting in a room full of strangers, just like my mother 25 years ago. (She has always said about a lot of subjects “Just you wait and see” so this may be another of those “I told you so moments”!)

Anyway it was not as bad as I thought, the strangers all turned out to be very nice people, friendly, kind and cheerful. A couple of them arrived in gophers (3 wheeled motorized bikes for the elderly or infirm) and as we got chatting I found out another person had Aspergers syndrome and ADD, which makes it even harder to get a quiet spell apparently.
There was a candle burning but apart from that there was no hokus pokus, just a soft speaking lady and a CD player with background sounds of waterfalls and birds tweeting and a voice guiding us through the meditation step by step.
There are lots of definitions about meditation but as far as I understand the idea is to contemplate; to keep the mind fixed upon; to study; To sit or lie down and come to a deep rest while still remaining conscious. I am aware of two different types; Insight meditation and Transcendental.

Insight meditation: A form of Buddhist meditation that employs concentration sharply focused on bodily sensations and mental events, practiced with the intention of gaining insight into reality.

Transcendental Meditation: A technique for detaching oneself from anxiety and promoting harmony and self-realization by meditation, repetition of a mantra, and other yogic practices, promulgated by an international organization founded by the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (c.1911–2008) (reference Google)

All very good if you manage to do it. However so far I have had little snippets of quietness in between sneaky thoughts that clamour in to disturb me, everything from; what I am going to eat at lunch to shopping lists and urgent matters I should be doing instead of sitting here with my eyes closed. Although there were a couple of times there when I nearly fell asleep and fell of my chair – maybe I just should have stayed in bed instead!

Perhaps one day I will manage to do it properly. Until then I leave you with a part of Kindness Contemplation, adapted from Jack Kornfield “Path with Heart” who in turn adapted it from a traditional Buddhist meditation.
May I be filled with kindness………..
May I be well…………..
May I be peaceful and at ease………
May I be happy……………….
May everyone be filled with kindness………………..
May everyone be well……………..
May everyone be peaceful and at ease…………..
May everyone be happy…………….
Till next time,
Love Marie xxx  (c)

Footnote;  A dear friend of mine has meditated twice daily for the last 40 years,  her name is Nadine Williams famous Author of bestselling book “From France with Love” a former senior journalist with the Advertiser and  now runs her own website.  Here is a link Nadine Williams as it is full of wonderful stories and information about just about everything.  So go and have a look.

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August 19, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

96 What a Virus

So I thought I was doing so well, feeling fit and healthy, giving the credit to my great fitness regime of daily exercise, lots of fresh vegetables, fruit and nuts and plenty of water.

I was watching all the others drop like flies giving in to the colds, flus and viruses and thinking that my immune system was second to none.  Feeling rather smug really and no doubt that’s what did me in – smugness is not a great quality and what happened was just Karma.

So here I sit in the bedroom feeling rather worse for wear, lol no not that kind of worse for wear- the sniffling spluttering kind, with a runny nose and a racking cough.  When I look in the mirror someone by the name of Rudolph springs to mind, and it’s not even Christmas.   With a husband, daughter and son who enquire by the door if I want anything before the scuttle off to the opposite part of the house just so they don’t, heaven forbid, should get whatever it is that has descended upon me.

I know it’s not the flu as every year for the last 10 years we have had our flu injections and if it was the flu (proper) I would not even be able to lift my head of the pillow.  However as this started it came with the aches and pains in the arms and legs and a general feeling of malaise.  It is enough to give you the pips really, I haven’t got time to be sick, so little time and so many things to do.

Now whatever you do if you feel a little ill do not follow in my footsteps and Google the ailment as that is guaranteed to make you feel ten times sicker than you already do.

This is just a taste of what Wikipedia says about viruses; A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms.  Most viruses are too small to be seen directly with a light microscope and they can infect all types of organisms such as animals plants and even bacteria.  Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and there are millions of different types.

Viruses are spread in many ways, by insects or coughing and sneezing or like the gastroenteritis virus which goes the faecal-oral route (Yucky!) and then there is the HIV which is spread by sexual contact.

As antibiotics have no effect on viruses it is enough to make you ponder whether Howard Hughes and Michael Jackson were on to something with the gloves!

Don’t forget to bring a miners lamp, magnifying glass and tweezers if you are contemplating some sexual contact, oh better bring the book “WHAT ANIMAL IS THAT?” too just in case you cannot identify what crawls down below, LOL.

Well it is quite obvious to me that I will have to stop this goggling of diseases as that would have to be a short cut to the Hypochondriacs Club, for sure.

As a matter of fact I think I am actually feeling a little bit better now that I have seen what a lot of terrible ailments I don’t have!

So here is a quote I like from Lisa Marie Presley;

“I’m a hypochondriac. Yesterday it was brain damage from the vodka the night before. Today, heart attack – my arm and chest started hurting at the same time.”

So until you come and visit me again, I hope you are all happy and very very well.

Much Love

Marie xxx        (C)

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August 12, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

95 The Mermaid

Over the years I have done quite a few paintings and mosaics of mermaids and here is one I would like to share with you called “What the?”  It is acrylic on board and actually framed in mosaic, but that part was not photographed before it sold unfortunately.

I have always thought of mermaids as the beautiful women of the sea and as a child dream about swimming about effortlessly, just as my little niece Annika does now, she is totally fascinated by the mythical legend.  It goes without saying that her whole room is full of mermaids in every description.

The word Mermaid is actually from the French language “mer” is the word for “sea and “maid” the word for woman.

My favourite mermaid movie would have to be Splash a fantasy/comedy starring Darryl Hannah and Tom Hanks.  The 1984 American movie was directed by Ron Howard and also won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Darryl Hannah was the mermaid and looked like Lady Godiva of the sea and the mermaid tail that she wore was fully functional.  Apparently she was able to swim so very fast with this tail that her safety swim team could not keep up with her.  This was due partly to the fact that Hannah had been fascinated with the Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Little Mermaid, and had as a child practiced swimming with her legs bound together.

The classic Hans Christian Andersen’s tale is of course a darker story as anyone familiar with this Danish Author knows, whereby the mermaid takes the sea witches potion to exchange her tongue for real legs, and if the prince falls in love and marries her, she will get an eternal soul.  Otherwise she will die brokenheartedly and disintegrate into foam!!

So all you out there who dream about becoming a mermaid, watch out – it’s not all it’s cracked up to be!  Never mind then the mermaids in the latest instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ where they are ferocious and fearsome and looking more like vampire fish – although beautiful of course.  How else could they lure men to the bloody and brutal demise!

I do think I prefer the sweeter version the “Little Mermaid” cartoon from the Disney stable where everything works out just fine.

When I was little and we lived in Sweden I really enjoyed our visits to Denmark and loved to see the gorgeous sculpture in bronze at the Copenhagen harbor in Langelinie where the Mermaid sits on a rock.  The statue was made by sculptor Edward Eriksen and his wife had been the model for it.  Carl Jacobsen from the Carlsberg family (well known for the beers) had commissioned the artwork in 1909 because he had been fascinated by the ballet of the Little Mermaid.

Another memory of Copenhagen is when we went to the zoo.   Mum and dad must have been feeling the pinch a bit being on holiday and all; and told my brother (who really was quite big) to sit in a pusher/stroller, that you could hire there and then tried to pass him off as a 4 year old when he was really 6.  I remember the funny look on his face and the fact that the man in charge did not quite believe the story but let us in anyway.

Lol little bit of naughtiness must run the family as my husband and I did the same trick a couple of times when the kids were little.  However not with the same success as our daughter, little Miss Hillivi who was always a handful (if you remember from other blogs) and would pipe up and say “No I’m not 4 you know, I’m really nearly 7”.  Caught out again, lol.

So I leave you then with a mermaid poem by  William Butler Yeats (Irish poet and playwright)

“A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx    (c)

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August 5, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

94 Sala & Stars

(photo courtesy The Plains Producer, photographer Lisa Redpath)

The Sala Festival or South Australian Living Artists Festival as the acronym stands for is just that;  a showcase for us artists that are not dead yet!  LOL, so that’s a good thing right, a club well worth supporting for as long as you can.

The concept I believe was thought up by Paul Greenaway, from Greenaway Galleries as he thought we celebrated the dead artists at the detriment of the living.  You know it is the old saying of “You do not know what you got until it’s gone” so true isn’t it?

This year will be the 14^th year since the festival started and each year around August we here in South Australia look forward to the buzz and excitement of exhibitions and shows everywhere.  I mean literally everywhere. (Here is a link to another blog & Sala show in the MID NORTH)

There will be 4,132 amateur, emerging and established visual artists participating in the 2011 Festival with some 543 venues statewide, ranging from art galleries, studios, public spaces, cellar doors to cafes and restaurants.  Just about anywhere you look there will be an exhibition to see, whether it is up in the hills or on the plains in the city or by the sea.

Don’t think that you won’t find something  that you like either as every taste is catered for; traditional or cutting edge and in any medium too – painting, ceramics, textiles, photography, sculpture or mixed media.

Sala has also organized city lunch time artist talks, weekday walking tours, bi-lingual cycling tours and this year has thrown into the mix a Saturday night Moving Image tour as well.

This year I will be exhibiting at the Waverley Homestead together with a very talented glass artist Glenn Howlett, who works out of his studio in Willunga.  Glenn has been involved in making the trophies for the Tour Down Under ( which if you missed it is part of the world circuit for the Tour de France Bike race – where we now can claim one of our own with the recent win of Cadel Evens)

Glenn has been making his glass art since the late 1980’s and has exhibited both interstate and here and I really look forward to see what he has come up with this time.

Our show is called “KALEIDOSCOPE” which does describe both our works perfectly so come & have a look.  You are all invited to the OPENING, where you will find bright and colourful ceramics & mosaics, paintings, sculpture, giclee prints, mixed media and glass.  Something to make you feel good Enjoy!

SATURDAY 6^th AUGUST  2011 at 6.30pm

At  WAVERLEY HOMESTEAD

ST. PETER’S TERRACE, WILLUNGA,  SOUTH AUSTRALIA

To be opened by Amanda Rishworth M.P. (member for Kingston) and the exhibition will continue each Saturday and Sunday from 11 am – 3 pm until 28 August.

So now you are wondering how the STARS come into it – well that stands for Southern Theatre and Arts Supporters and their mission is to foster a diverse and vital arts culture in the southern region. They are the people responsible for this exhibition as well as lots of other fantastic cultural events in the area relying on volunteers and always looking for new members willing to lend a hand.  Why not visit their website STARS and perhaps get involved.  Their other activities include advocating for the arts, bringing in events, creating strategic partnerships to strengthen the art community, developing artistic skills as well as providing access to the arts.

Here is a quote I like by Oq Mandino (American essayist & psychologist);

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxxx   (C)

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