Now who was the idiot that thought that would be a good idea!!!!  Fourteen days in Bali sounds nice, yea right!  Mmm…might have been moi ! (well Bali was fantastic, it was the aftermath that sucked! Lol) You see the timing of this little holiday really sucks but it worked out this way as we had our house on the market for a while and decided to live our lives as we always do regardless which meant painting and sculpting and also having holidays.

We had no idea that the week after sunning ourselves in Bali (at the time of booking the holiday) we would also have to move the entire contents of the previous 17 years of our lives out of our huge farm house. We tried to change the settlement date but had to work in with the new owners,   so for the first part of the holiday we were feeling  decidedly STRESSED, so much to do and so little time! Not only did we have to shift all our stuff but also all the animals we own, birds and cats as this painting shows and also the dogs too.

COMEDIAN; THE OLD FELLA

I suppose I only have myself to blame with the timing of this but I couldn’t help but laugh when a comedian friend of mine Rodney Gregory, you probably know him as The Old Fella from the Australia’s Got Talent (check him out on Youtube here) said:

“Good luck with shifting, great idea to go away in the middle of it??”  I might try that, we are shifting in about 3 weeks, can hardly sleep in anticipation”.

There is no way in words to describe, what a terrible and stressful time we had for that last week at the farm,  as we sorted, gave away, threw away, burned, packed, dusted, scrubbed and cleaned and I thought it would never end. As the settlement deadline loomed closer and closer we were 5 people working our fingers to the bones, including our cleaning lady and the window cleaning guy and my baby boy.(here is the window cleaning guy, Craig as he has appeared in a previous artwork, in ceramic and mosaic)

THE ART OF SORTING

Of course we could have hired removalists, however as we were downgrading and only taking half of our belongings we actually had to go through everything ourselves anyway.  We had of course started packing before we went away but we are talking 17 years of accumulated stuff.

We also have many objects of value and sentiment, however I cannot understand why I agonize so much about throwing away stray bits of paper and ornaments with a chip in it and clothes that are out of fashion, never mind the perfectly good rubber bands and paperclips and the like.

Why do I think it will all come in handy one day lol! Someone SAVE me and just put it all in a big skip!

For the last 2 nights Bryan and I only got 3 hours sleep each night, the pace was that frantic that I’m surprised we didn’t have heart attacks so I can only deduct from that our hearts are probably quite healthy!  We still managed to go over the time limit by 2 and a half hours but the new owners were very gracious and did not complain.

So here are some wise words from Ernest Hemingway (writer) that I think fit well here. “Never confuse movement with action.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you.

Love Marie xx

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.

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.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

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 artist dad had the same vision and restored and painted it and we had the most interesting letterbox on our street! Anyway I digress, back to the budgie.

ART OF RECOVERY

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.

Here is another story & naive art in my art blog about another bird we shared our lives with 38. Little Birdy Floyd

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, till then happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie  x                                                                                       (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.