It doesn’t take long for the year to roll around and before you know it is Christmas again!  This year as we often do we are going to see the spectacle Carols by Candle light in Elder Park, Adelaide.  It always inspires the creative process and I am sure many artists feel the same way.

CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT

These days we celebrate Carols by Candlelight all over Australia in all the capital cities and smaller country towns and they are held on many different dates all throughout December.   This time my husband and I together with our daughter and her boyfriend are planning to attend.  It is great that this tradition has now spread around the world and people gather usually outdoors in parks and sing carols in choirs and usually accompanied by musicians.  Lots of wonderful artists both very famous and up and coming stars do the rounds of the different shows and they are compared for the most part by Radio and Television personalities here in Australia anyway.  The audience of course sing along and everyone has a candle or two which they hold up and sway from side to side with the music at times, a very atmospheric sight just glorious!

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

As a family together with my mum and dad we started going to the open concert after our son Kai was born and soon joined by the little miss Hillivi and we have only missed a few along the way.  In times gone by we used to arrive early in the afternoon to stake our claim on a spot close to the stage put down a picnic blanket with a basket full of delicious goodies and lovely wine.  It was always a few hours wait before the show began at sunset and we would take turns to stake our claim on the blanket whilst some of us would head up to the city to shop and walk about.  These days we arrive a little later but it is still something we look forward to very much.  However there was one year that nearly turned us off for life when the weather suddenly changed and turned so nasty we thought we would freeze to death.  We still talk about how the coldness that night was equal to shopping down Canal Street in New York at Christmas time, well nearly anyway!  This time the weather is supposed to be nice and warm so lets hope that is the case.

CERAMIC AND MOSAIC

It was this time last year that my art blog and painting featured the acrylic painting of Swedish Lucia which was used for Project mapping on the Swedish Embassy in Poland see this story 205 Projection Mapping & Art in Animation This week however the artwork is a wall based sculpture and made from handmade ceramic and mosaic and features a sing-a-long family around the piano, with some recognizable artists artwork on the walls! (If you look close, you will find Picasso and Miro among others)

Here is a quote I think fits well by Carol Nelson;

“Christmas is a time when you get homesick — even when you’re home. “

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and Happy Holidays to you all.

Love Marie xxx

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

Oh boy what strange 6 weeks I have just had!!  Life happens to you whilst you are busy doing other things as John Lennon said.  Normally I sit in my art studio with an amazing view, the house perched up high like an eagles nest, high above a train track and overlooking a valley, beach and sea as far as the eye can see going all the way to the horizon.

Really wonderfully inspiring for an artist and probably why a lot of my paintings lately have been aquatic scenes.  Well our wonderful world was interrupted a couple of months ago with the Transport Departments electrification of the railway line.  Not something we had anticipated would bother us too much, we had seen the artist’s impressions and they looked just fine.  A couple of poles 50 meters apart and a few wires – not much to whinge about and you cannot stand against progress.

So the drilling started and then surprise, surprise they struck rock (we live on a mountain DOH! Why they didn’t anticipate that is beyond me.)   The drilling went on and on for weeks, day after day, 3 days drilling in every one of the 9 holes outside us, 7am – 5pm seven days a week.

PAINTING HAPPY PAINTINGS

Well to cut a long story short, painting happy paintings is impossible with over 83 decibels of incessant drilling 15 meters from your doorstep.  As is just living life and apart from tearing our hair out to add to the drama now my husband and I were fighting too.  So hubby got that fed up and cross he went out and told the workers off and that is when we found out what was actually happening on our street.

5 MONKEYS WITH A COMPASS COULD HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB.

Our street one of the most scenic streets in Adelaide had been selected for special treatment, not poles 50 meters apart for us.  No the “so called experienced” (cough, cough) engineers from Halcrow designed this by Google map from Queensland with no visual consideration as to where these structures would be best placed from an environmental and aesthetics stance.  Instead the Tensioner Hubs (overlaps) has been placed more like a game of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” with an astounding haphazard lack of forethought.

STATE OF THE ART

I would like to point out though that it is not the POLES that we object too, we are well aware that we would have poles all the way along the railway line for the wire to sit on with this old and antiquated system.   The South Australian Government who is clearly misinformed call this a “State of the Art” design (LOL) perhaps they should have done a little bit of Googeling themselves.  It is not too hard to find out that the Noarlunga/Seaford Rail Electrification was actually first designed in Hungary before World War ll and trialed back in the 40’s before it came into widespread use in the 1950.  So the statement ”State of the Art” is terribly misleading as there are multiple much better designs available across the world this Century.

THE ART OF THE OVERLAP

No, what we are strongly objecting to is that the Transport Department in their wisdom has picked our street to erect the Tensioner Hub (overlaps); which will consist of Portals, Junctions, Gantries, Tensioners, Double Poles with cross Members, all set very closely together some 20 meters apart and others with 1 – 2 meters apart.  Made from huge steel beams,  7.5 meters tall and 350mm wide with lots of electrifications gadgets hanging from them.

NOT ROCKET SCIENCE IS IT?

These so called “Tensioner Hubs” (or overlaps) will then be erected all the way down the line to Adelaide at a distance of approximately 1.6 km.  So there are a lot more people all along the coast line who will be unfortunate enough to get one of these monstrosities outside their houses.  Our objective is to get these unsightly structures placed in a less obtrusive position wherever there is an alternative place suitable, as there is here some 100 meters away from the presently planned position.  We have enlisted several independent engineers who verify that the structure can be moved without any safety concerns or other issues.

STATE OF THE ART SUPPORT

We have had strong support from Nick Xenaphon (Independent) Vickie Chapman & David Speirs (Liberal) and Amanda Rishworth (Federal Labor)as well as the Messenger Newspaper, Radio 891’s Matt & David and 2 episodes by Paul Makin from Today Tonight.  The recent Today Tonight showed the Labor Government’s Ministers and Transport Department’s cronies as they really are; inflexible, uncaring, misleading and arrogant.

And so the infrastructure started going up 10 minutes after the TV crew left and officials left, as the workers and trucks must have been sitting waiting in the wings.  So the “Big Cheeses” who after 6 weeks of us begging  finally came to our street, were only here to give us lip service in the most insincere way.

It did amuse me to see they had employed a few security guards to keep watch, one stationed outside our house and the other by the vehicle entrance.  Funny how frightening my threat must have been to the powers that be, to chain myself to the railway track.  We put up a sterling fight and Power to the People I say!

ART AND POLITICS

Here are a few of quotes I think fits perfectly here;

“When leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders.”

(Veterans Fast for Life)

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”

(Voltaire)

“As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.”

(Clarence Darrow)

Till next time, when I should be back on track (pardon the pun) and telling you some happier stories, Happy Painting and Sculpting to you all.

Love Marie xxx

Footnote:  I would really like to thank all of you involved in fighting this cause, you all did a fantastic job and everyone played their part and never wavered.  All spent hours researching railways, electrification systems, best practice, environment, the law and the like.  Countless meetings, protests and media calls and never mind all the hours of writing emails, letters and making phone calls. For a small group who really didn’t know each other before all this we did a fab job.  Thank you Bryan for getting us started and Richard for being the good cop against my bad cop (although I did like your analogy of me being the bull at the gate and you the limp squid too, lol:) Thank you Ursula, David, Susan, Denice, Keith, Jenny, Steven, Dot, Paul, Dawn, Nicky, Sam, Kai, Tonia, Jan, Graham, Nadine,Paul  and everyone else that helped.  You are all stars and at least we did get a slightly less offensive monstosity erected, well done!   Big Hug, Love Marie xxx

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’sPAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale orWALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

The time had come to leave Sundsvall and it is with sadness that we do so.  Our visit with my lovely cousin Kent and his gorgeous family was not nearly long enough and the setting and town so picturesque that I could have stayed a long long time!

TRAVEL AND ART BLOGS

Our travels today take us to Stockholm by train and if you should want to catch up on the travel and art blogs leading up to this point in our recent Europe trip here are the links;  156. ART & FREQUENT FLYER POINTS and 157. Art & Never judge a book by it’s cover and 155 The Art of Packing Light and 164. ART, TOILETS AND TRAVEL

ACRYLIC PAINTING

This acrylic on canvas board painting is of a little red Swedish cottage during the winter months.  It was commissioned by my American Gallery and as chance would have it unbeknownst to me at the time; my cousin Bjorn and his wife Ann live in a setting almost identical to this by a lake in Huddinge.

My cousin Bjorn picked us up from the train station when we arrived and had arranged for us to stay in an apartment with his son Kalle.  I had really been looking forward to seeing Bjorn again, we knew each other as very young, playing together at family celebrations but had lost touch and reconnected through my art website and Facebook.

.

MAKING SCULPTURES FOR CHARITY

Bjorn has been especially supportive with my art and my artblogs and I think we have found a few common bonds too.  Bjorn who is a whiz kid in IT with IBM commutes between Sweden and England for work, found that in his spare time he would like to give back and thought to combine that with his love of tinkering in his shed where he was originally carving wooden figures.  So to cut a long story short, Rundellhund.com was born.  Roundaboutdogs is the English translation and it is about making small dog sculptures and placing them into roundabouts across the world for the general public to enjoy.  All dogs are made from recycled materials and all money collected goes back to charity.  If you would like to participate or know a little more about this use link RONDELLHUND.  Also here is a previous art blog that I have written about this Roundaboutdogs – sculptures for charity.  The other thing we had in common was that he is a big kid just like me!  Bjorn is all grown up obviously but acts and looks decades younger than his years, full of life and fun.

Before we settled in to the apartment Bjorn took us on a tour of Huddinge which is where I grew up when I lived in Sweden.  A lot had changed of course but some things stayed the same, my high school looked completely foreign to me until I figured out that I always came to it from the opposite entrance climbing up a hill.

ROUNDABOUTDOG SCULPTURE FACTORY

After all this sightseeing we were taken to the little red cottage, home and also head office to the Roundaboutdogs Factory whereby after meeting Bjorn’s gorgeous wife Anne and afternoon tea we were promptly inducted into the Rondellhund makings ourselves.

THE ART OF FOOD

Then we were treated to a scrumptious smorgasbord of Swedish treats including more kantarell dishes (my favourite mushroom) where we were also joined by Bjorn’s mother Lillian and stepfather Hasse.  Yet again I felt as I was in the bosom of my family right at home even though it was 30 years since I was in Sweden the last time.

Here is a quote I think fits well here by John Ed Pearce;

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.”

Till next time, happy painting and sculpting to you all.

Love Marie xxx

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

We’ve just had Chevy Chase here to stay, all the way from California via Sweden, without a word of a lie – see for yourself down below is the picture to prove it.  Well ok then maybe just a little untrue, but you have to admit he is a dead ringer for him, my cousin’s boy Kalle.  As delightful as it has been to have Kalle and his friend Kristoffer staying with us, it is Kalle’s father, my cousin Bjorn that I would like to tell you about.

PAINTING IN SWEDEN

This acrylic painting was bought by his mother when I had an exhibition in Sweden and it pretty much depicts where Bjorn actually lives today, although when I painted it, their little red cottage in the woods by the sea did not even exists.  Perhaps I inspired him to build one, who knows.  Anyway Bjorn is in the corporate world of IBM and has pretty much traveled the world with his job, currently working mostly out of the UK.  But he calls the little red cottage and Sweden his home and goes there as much as time will allow.

ROUND ABOUT DOGS SCULPTURE

You see that is where Rondellhund.com (Roundabout-dog) was born, in the shed at the back of the cottage.  It was in 2007 that Bjorn Andersson decided to combine his love of dogs and the tinkering in his shed by making some Roundabout dogs and giving the money raised to charity.  According to all that know him – Bjorn has a heart of gold and his vision is to keep Rondellhund at Philanthropic Street Art level and give a moment of enjoyment to all people traveling by car.  His dogs have traveled the world to places in the USA, Australia, UK & Germany to name just a few.

RONDELLHUND ARTIST

The first Rondellhund was actually made by Peter Nyberg and his intention was to “mock the state-employed artists, who get so much money to make sculptures that we can do just as well ourselves”  he said.  From what I understand, that was after there had been an official roundabout installation in Lindkoping by sculptor Stina Opitz, made in concrete.  This sculpture was vandalized and got some media coverage and shortly after anonymous people started placing little wooden dogs in roundabouts. (ref. Wikipedia)

PAINTING ON WOOD

The dogs Bjorn makes are of scrap pieces of wood and then painted in every way imaginable, with spots, stripes, checked, stars  & flowers.  He even made some for the Royal weddings between Sweden’s Crown princess Victoria and Daniel as well as the English Royals, Kate and William; with the crowns on their heads of course.   The idea is to sneak out in the middle of the night and place your dog sculpture in the middle of a roundabout or in some other public place to be enjoyed by as many people as possible.  Now lots of family groups come to the shed to help build & paint the dogs, and they are also available as flat packs (like Ikea) to send across the world.  The dog sculptures all have a tags on them, as quite often they go missing, and it is asked if they are “stolen” that some money is donated to charity and this seems to be the case too – nice honest thief’s lol.

So come onboard and make a dog yourself or sponsor someone else to make one.  So far the money raised has gone to a local dog rescue center, Starlight children’s foundation UK, Guide Dogs UK & many other charities.  You will find an easy instruction on how to make your own dog and see pictures from Rondellhund across the world on this link.  You can also join Rondellhund on Face book.

The quote for today comes from my cousin Bjorn who says on his website;

A few simple situation I wish for but I will never know ………..

When the family see a rondelhund in an roundabout they smile and stop to buy ice-cream.

When Steven see a rondellhund he smiles and call his mother to say how are you, I’ll stop by for coffee.

When Rosanne see a rondellhund she smiles and stops the car and hug her kids.

When Jane see a rondellhund she smiles and start thinking of new ideas for her class.

When Peter see a rondellhund he smiles and new music ideas start developing in his mind.

When ………..

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie xxx        (c)

If you enjoyed this you may also like this art blog about my artist brother Matt Jonsson; 91 He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

]]> http://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/88-chevy-chase-and-roundaboutdogs/feed/ 1 http://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/82-are-you-fond-of-fondue/ http://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/82-are-you-fond-of-fondue/#comments Sat, 21 May 2011 02:26:08 +0000 http://www.mariejonssonharrison.com.au/new/?p=2385 CERAMIC AND MOSAIC

I had so much fun making this ceramic and mosaic artwork piece, firstly because I am a little piggy when it comes to food and just love to both eat and look at pictures of food and also it was fun to make the people all have open mouths with bits of broccoli and stuff poking out.  At least in my wall based sculpture I don’t have to worry about my table manners!

THE ART OF FONDUE

The fondue was such a lovely craze back in the 70’s when there would be Fondue parties held all the time.  However the history of the practice stems back to 1699 when it was firstly printed as a recipe in a cookbook (melted cheese cooked with wine to dip bread into.) As far as I understand Switzerland has always made wonderful cheeses but during the cold hard winter months of yesteryear the cheeses would dry out a little bit and since food was scarce and roads covered in snow they had to rely on a little imagination and voila the fondue were invented.    As early as 1875 it was already the Swiss National dish and then became popular in the United States in the 60’s & 70’s.

THE ART OF THE SWINGING SIXTIES

Perhaps why this dish became so popular in the rest of the world was because the Swiss had invented a little game as you sit and take your turn dipping the bread into the pot.  According to Hamlyn Press the publishers of The Fondue Cookbook it goes something like this:  If a woman drops a her bread into the pot she has to kiss all the men at the table, if a man drops the bread into the fondue pot, he has to buy a bottle of wine, and if either of them drops the bread for the second time, he or she must host the next fondue party.  So perhaps this was the start of the swinging 60’s and the Swingers party – it all started with cheese and not sex!

ARTISTIC FOOD INSPIRATIONS

The imagination boggles, lol but it sure makes stale bread taste great – although us Swedes (as opposed to the Swiss) have another way of doing that.

Our contribution to the stale bread is Fattiga Riddare (Poor Knights is the translation although the Google translation says it is French toast) however this dish has more in common with pancakes.  As the stale bread is left overnight soaking in milk (you can also add egg and flour if you want) and then they are stirred like a pancake mixture and fried.  Served with jam and cream or whatever you fancy.

Problem with writing about food is its making me hungry so if you just pardon me for a minute – I will be right back with you after a little spell to the kitchen……. Back again …bugger I will have to restart that diet tomorrow again!

THE ART OF MULLED WINE

Another of my favorite dishes when I was living and modeling in Switzerland was the Raclett, which is yummy melted cheese served with a couple of small boiled potatoes, gherkins and pickled onions, could also include some meat (but being a vegetarian I would opt out on that bit).  I don’t know if I remember it so fondly because of the food ingredients or because it was usually served with Glue wine (gluhwein is spiced and mulled wine served hot) In Sweden we call it Glogg and we add some vodka or brandy to the recipe too, oh trust the Swedes, lol.

So here is how to make Gluhwein/Glogg

Start with a bottle of red

6 cloves

Cinnamon stick (broken up)

Lemon rind/orange

Caster sugar to taste

Raisins, almonds

Assemble all in a saucepan. Heat it over a low flame and be careful not to let it boil, simmer for about 45 minutes then strain the bits out of it (or have fun picking cloves out of your teeth – well that’s not that bad as the raisins and almonds are delicious.)

Here is a quote by the wonderful artist Frida Kahlo

“I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all,

Love Marie xxx    (C)

If you enjoyed this art & food blog and would like to see another on this topic here is 73 The Art of Snack attack at hungry jacks

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALEand SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

I had so much fun designing and creating this work, all the animals are hand made out of clay, set to dry over several weeks on boards on the floor of my studio and then fired bisque.  Followed by, in some cases up to five coats of paint, two coats of glazing and of course drying in between and then fired again in a kiln up to 1000 degrees.

MOSAIC

The artwork is much like a giant jigsaw puzzle, glued on a waterproof sheet and then mosaic around.  My ceramic work hang equally well inside or outside as everything is waterproof and the glue is the same as they use in swimming pool tiling.

I am particularly fond of this art piece and love to imagine all the different species of animals all being friends, no one is being anybody’s lunch.  All in perfect harmony, everybody is happy, just like I would like the world to always be.

ARTISTS PASSIONS

This artwork which recently sold, “All Creatures Great and Small”, celebrates the wonderful animal kingdom of our planet.  As does a lot of my artworks both in sculpture & painting.

So another passion is of course animals, how anyone could live without animals is beyond me.  Particularly dogs, man’s best friend (and womans.lol) right now we have two dogs Vegas named after Las Vegas of course, where we renewed our wedding vows a few years ago and Cheech named after the comedy duo Cheech and Chong.

And really those names so suit them ,Vegas a Chihuahua and very lady like and likes the finer things in life and Cheech is like and adolescent with ADHD and a learning disorder, lol.

He is all over the place all at once and drives us all crazy even Vegas, but hey, is extremely cute and very lovable.  They told us at the pet shop that he was a cross between a Chihuahua and a Mini foxy, but I am sure another “ring in” got in on the act. I will tell you about all our other animals another day.

Here is another thought that I like by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

“Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms”

Hope to see you again in the meantime Happy painting and sculpting everyone!

Love Marie xxxxx   (c)

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALEand SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

I have actually painted a couple of paintings on this theme, as well as the original “Adam and Eve”, which I will tell you about another time.  What inspired this particular artwork which is done in handmade ceramic and mosaic was that my gallery here in Adelaide was having a Christmas show called Erotic and Exotic, and as I discussed this fact with a fellow artist (who paints wonderful landscapes mainly) she suggested the scene of Adam and Steve in the bridal getup.

ARTISTS SUGGESTION

The second she said it, I saw the whole finished image in my mind.  That is a funny thing with me, it often happens like that, one sentence and the finished painting or sculpture is already formed.

Well in any case home I went to start it, but it never made the Christmas show instead I kept it for my solo exhibition where it sold before the opening.

This conversation was related to me by the gallery director, and I found it quite amusing.

An elderly client in his 80’s came in to have a look with his elderly wife and after having looked around the exhibition for a while he pointed at “Adam and Steve” and said that he would like to buy that one.

His wife was up in arms over this suggestion and told her husband in no uncertain terms; “Goodness me, whatever for, you are over 80 years old and for goodness sake, what are you going to do with THAT artwork?”

Whereupon the elderly gentle man replied “That is exactly why I would like to purchase this artwork, because I am TOO OLD to do all the things I used to do or would like to do, but what I Can Still Do is to sit at home and look at this artwork and be amused by it.”

And without further discussion he went ahead and purchased the piece. (I may also have to paint that interaction at some later stage. Lol)

ADAM & STEVE IN A BOOK

It should also be said that this image was use for a book published in America (Hendrickson Publications Peabody Massachusetts USA )

Here is a quote I think fits here by Walt Kelly (cartoonist) from the book which I find very amusing called ‘Don’t forget to sing in the Lifeboats’

“Don’t take life too seriously.  It ain’t nohow permanent”

Till next time, happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie xxx                                                                             (c)

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.