I painted this acrylic on canvas board painting several years ago after going to the Manpower show.  For those of you who are uninitiated in the goings on of Manpower, let me fill you in; they were a highly successful male striptease dance troupe here in Australia similar to the Chippendales, all male, all very good looking and all great dancers.   Jamie Durie was one of the members who later made his fame and fortune on the Oprah show as a Life Style Guru and outdoor makeover man.

SACRIFICE FOR THE SAKE OF ART

So it goes without saying that when my girlfriend suggested we should go I said yes.  We had a 3 hour round trip to get there from the country but that was a small price to pay the three of us thought – the other enthusiastic member to our evening was a lovely male gay friend of ours.  Don’t know who was the most excited him or us,lol. Anyway we finally got there and had to line up, it was packed and what struck me was the crowd:  they were ordinary women, short, skinny, tall, plump, old, young, all dressed in their finest frocks, faces full of makeup with hair that looked professionally styled.  The age bracket was also an eye-opener as it reached from 18-70 something! However that revelation was nothing, my biggest surprise was just before the show started when this group of mainly middle age women got excited and started hollering and whistling for the show to start.  These women then went completely nuts, randomly leaping from their chairs to touch and fondle these poor dancers; I had never seen anything like it.  Manpower took it all in their stride and did a fab job and kept smiling whilst they tried to complete their very well choreographed dance routines.

If you liked this topic you may also enjoy a look at these art blogs 53. Art & Bachelorette – A Hens night out and 72. Mae West “Come up and see me some time” & Art and 158. Fifty Shades of Grey in Art

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS

As you know I don’t mind a bit of eye-candy but I almost forgot to look at these handsome men as I was totally fascinated by the behavior of what looked like everybody’s mothers and grandmothers turning into crazed sex maniacs. I laughed when I found this article on the net from the Telegraph Herald ( Dubuque Iowa 9.3.87) which describes what happened when the Manpower show was cancelled, lol and after my experience I am not surprised.  (I have shortened the article slightly but not altered it otherwise)

NO STRIPPERS; WOMEN GO ON RAMPAGE

Pittsburg – Wine and beer bottles shattered on the dance floor.  Beer bottles and chairs turned into missiles.  Some women swung purses into the air, striking anything and everyone in their way.  The word was out: a group of male strippers left shortly before they were to entertain about 600 women in the motels Ritz disco Saturday night.

“Those weren’t ladies – they were animals” said the motel owner Al Monzo.  Officers from seven police agencies – several with canines, responded to the two hour mele that began at 10pm.Saturday.  Three ambulances arrived one taking a women to a nearby hospital for cuts and suspected back and neck injuries.

There were no arrests. But hundreds of women were angry they got nothing but frustration for their $10 and $12 tickets they bought to see five featured dancers come out in assorted costumes then strip down to their briefs doing the bump and grind routines.  They were demanding a refund.

Here then is a wit and wisdom from Oscar Wilde (from The mammoth book of useless information) perhaps this is food for thought.

“Woman begins by resisting a man’s advances and ends by blocking his retreat.”

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 SALEand SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.

In this art blog I will continue with our San Francisco travels and the inspirations for lots of artworks to come.

So we finally got to Hotel Carlton, a Joie de Vivre Hotel (and it was too) but at first we thought maybe a little too much as it had a distinctive gay feel (not that that would worry us in the slightest, some of our closest friends are gay) no I thought we may rain on their parade not being gay.  That feeling soon went away as we were welcomed very warmly as everybody are to this establishment, a delightful boutique hotel that even has a Happy Hour for the guests in the afternoon, so Happy in fact that all the wine is free, together with entertainment and encouragement for the guests to mingle, needless to say we got Happy every afternoon.  So much so that we had stopped our sightseeing activities and  rushed back not to miss it!

CHINA TOWN & PAINTING

As you can see in this close up of the SF painting we were just a stone throw away from everything, China Town was nearby as were Little Italy, Union Square and many other interesting places to explore.  Happily we wondered about enjoying the sights and smells of this city with not a care in the world…… well that was until we caught the news on the telly and found out there was a so called Muni Stabber on the loose (so called because his first victim was stabbed on the Muni Trams) at this stage he had attacked 6 people (I think it was) in broad daylight.  Just sliding up on the quite like ( like a fish, for you fans of the movie Chicken Run lol)  What gave us the Heeby Jeebies is that  only a few days before we arrived, he had snuck up on some unsuspecting soul on the street we were staying on and stabbed away.  So now me and Bryan became very concerned about who was walking behind us,lol.

FOOD IN MY PAINTINGS

I always love painting food too so for research sake mind you, we ate our way through this city (I do like my food) and went to many fantastic restaurants and had, Chinese, Indian, Iranian, Mexican, Italian and our hotel had a fantastic restaurant serving Arabic fusion cuisine, delicious!

(To be continued)

I do agree with this quote from Tommy Lasorda (baseball manager) from the book ‘Don’t forget to sing in the lifeboats’;

When we win, I’m so happy, I eat a lot.  When we lose, I’m so depressed, I eat a lot.  When we’re rained out, I’m so disappointed, I eat a lot.

Me too!

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.