ART OF NEIGHBORS

So here we are, living in the ‘Burbs’, remarkably it is not as difficult a situation as I thought to get used to, although I do miss having my art studio detached from the house.

One of the things I was most worried about was to have neighbors.

When you have been living on a farm and the nearest house is kilometers away this was a daunting idea. No more running around the yard starkers-well not that I made that a big habit of that but just the fact that we could when and if we wanted to.

We are making the backyard into our own little Balinese sanctuary here with high bamboo fence, lots of palms, elephant ears and ferns, a Bali hut and comfy day bed and decking around one side of the pool with paving and some feature stones on the other.

We do love water features too and have a natural rock pond in a corner setting and a Balinese head sculpture on the patio and two big white fish sculptures spitting into the pool (emm..well that did not sound very nice did it, lol but it is really, I assure you.)

It is starting to take shape and hopefully will make up for the lack of space and open fields we are used to and at least we can pretend we are in the jungle somewhere far away from civilization.

ART & ANIMATION

The animation above is a combination of several of my paintings put together; The “Balloon Wedding” ( Giclee print) combined with “Shake Rattle and Roll” (acrylic painting) as well as the stars from “You can walk your own ferret” which is an artwork in ceramic and mosaic and the animation was actually made by one of my new neighbors Suzie.

So far we have been very lucky with the neighbors they all seem very friendly and nice and I even went out to lunch with Suzie, the other day.  She is American and I had a little laugh to myself when I got to the restaurant as it looked just like an American diner.

We had a very lovely time at “Fresh Choice” and it was too, with all you could eat.  I refrained from making a total pig of myself and did not even spill a drop of my lunch on my clothes, which if you have been following my art blogs is something of a miracle.

Suzie is a bit of a whizz kid on the computer and has given me valuable advice on my art website and also has two websites of her own.

ART & ANIMATION WEBSITES

This link will take you to her Christmas Animations and you can use any of these animations with the money going to charity.  On her other site she has book marks and I am very happy that she photographed the orchid that has been officially named after moi: the” Marie Jonsson-Harrison orchid” (written about in another blog) and then she made it into a book mark.

There are lots of other bookmarks on this sight too with many Australian animals and funny quotes, so click here Flashman Bookmarks to have a little look.   Use this link to see my page with more of my artwork animated too;MARIES ANIMATIONS

So I had a nice day and it gave me joy, so here are some wise words from E.B White (writer).

“We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and also animating to you!

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.

Wow what a week,

I guess I better start to get used to this with Christmas coming up and all the extra functions and shopping and socializing that leads too. It has already started, as Monday night hubby suggests we should go to the movies.

This is rather an unusual thing for him as he is pretty much a homebody and it is me who usually runs the social calendar and often feel like I have to drag him out.
My excuse for going out is always that it is important for an artist to see and do stuff, for inspirational purposes only of course, lol nothing to do with champagne and fun!

It goes without saying then that I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and off we went.

It is rather a novel thing for us to be able to do – go to the movies like that at the spur of the moment.  As we have spent the last 25 years in the country and having an hour and a half’s drive for this type of venture, it is rather fun to just go down the road with not much effort.

Off we trot to a local Vietnamese restaurant, the food is very similar to Thai and yummy and then of to see “Red” rather a  unbelievable tale of former spies who get nudged out of retirement rather forcefully a la Bruce Willis style.

It also starred Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman and was fast paced and action filled like a James Bond movie.  As both I and Bryan are both rather fond of this sort of tale we thoroughly enjoyed the ride!

Wednesday night was another movie night out with Kai and his gorgeous girlfriend Samantha when we went and saw The Social Network.   I really found it interesting and thought the acting was great.  The whole social networking thing is such a phenomena and something as a website owner that you have to be on top of.  Crazy to think that before 2003 Facebook did not exist, it seems to me that it has been around for ages.

ART & RACES

In between all of these engagements I have been in the studio too of course and that then brings us to Friday and Orana 60^th Anniversary luncheon which was held at the Morphetteville Racecourse a rather “swanky do”  and a fundraiser for people with disabilities which they help through various programs.

The invitation said” race wear” so one had to get spruced up of course.

So there I was in the car in my finery with Bryan driving when the sunlight just shone down on my freshly shaved legs, when I spotted my less than satisfactory job with the razor.

There seemed to be several little areas that were sprouting hairs and looking rather undignified.  Time was of the essence and with no razor in my clutch I was very lucky to find the tweezers.

So if you spotted someone looking fabulous in her race wear pink suit but with her feet up on the dashboard plucking her legs, that was me,lol.  Can’t take the girl anywhere says the long suffering husband.

ART& MUSIC

The food and wine at the luncheon was great but what I enjoyed most of all was a mad little boogie on the dance floor to “Swanee” (John Swan, who is the brother to Jimmy Barnes and a Rock star in his own right, never mind the rest of the band- they are all fabulous too).

I and a couple of girlfriends decided to give decorum and tact a break and just go for it and enjoy ourselves and dance wildly and we did.  The day did not end there however we then went to a comedy show at the Norlunga Art Centre the same night.

For you who have not caught up with comedian Rod Gregory (the Old Fella), he is a must.  As a matter of fact here is a art blog about him 65. That Old Fella

Saturday morning and start the day with a walk as usual and then Christmas shopping with my daughter which was an all day affair, but lots of fun with a nice little lunch.  So busy busy busy but getting nothing much done at all!

In regards to the hairy leg situation Xi Zhi (philosopher) puts it perfectly, although I am not sure he really had hairy legs in mind when he said this-

“You should examine yourself daily.  If you find faults, you should correct them.  When you find none, you should try even harder.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting!

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.

]]> http://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/59-in-the-suburbs/feed/ 0 http://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/22-kicking-and-screaming-into-the-21st-century/ http://mariejonssonharrison.com.au/22-kicking-and-screaming-into-the-21st-century/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:11:38 +0000 http://www.mariejonssonharrison.com.au/new/?p=748 ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

How fantastic the internet is!!!

Oh it’s probably all ho-hum to you lot, but you see I am a real newcomer to this.  My Husband/Manager Bryan has been looking after my old art website and anything electronic since forever and I swore black and blue that I was just not INTERESTED and did not even know how to turn the stupid thing on!  I used to say when asked that I still marveled at the invention of lighting a match.

Well how things change….I got a laptop for Christmas and here we are and now I think it is the best thing since sliced bread and my children and husband say, welcome to the 21^st century.

SOCIAL MEDIA & ART

One of the fabulous advantages for me has been the re-connection with my Swedish relatives through Face book which is another thing I so love.  The time just runs away when you are on that, so parents don’t be so hard on your kids, they can’t help it, time speeds up I swear. Lol Really nice to meet so many new face book friends too.  You see there is a whole artistic community on Facebook & Linkedin and so many art groups and artists which is fantastic.

Anyway had a message from my cousin, whose mother had bought 3 of my paintings at my Swedish exhibition a few years back.  He had heard that I often paint the family in my work and asked where we were.  His question was “Where is Waldo?” (The Swedes have a funny way with translations; it should be Wally, right lol)

MY FAMILY IN PAINTINGS & PRINTS

So I sent him this picture of “Pottering at the Port” so he could compare and find us in the other paintings (we are on top of the lighthouse on the right hand side Bryan in an orange shirt, little Kai and Hillivi and me next to them waving. No clue who is next to us, never spoke to them, so never found out! Lol)

You see I nearly always paint us as we were when the kids were little.  Hillivi will be forever 4 and Kai 8 years old. I don’t know why I do that; perhaps it is because they were just mine and Bryan’s then.

We did not have to share them with boyfriends and girlfriends and work and just life.

They will forever be my baby girl and baby boy and I still call them that today, as you can imagine that was not a cool thing to be called during the awkward teenage years but they coped well with their mothers little idiosyncrasies.  Although understandably teenage son at 18 was less than pleased when I called him my little “Possum Poo” in front of his new girlfriend, I think as I remember I got a bit of silent treatment then, well deserved too, but I swear it just slipped out.  The lights were on but there was no one home. Lol

Here is another saying I like from Price Cobb a racing car driver.

“Some days you’re a bug.  Some days you’re a windshield.”

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

So here I am again, talking to myself lol, or maybe you, if you are out there somewhere.  So my artist website is finally up and running after its initial crash and then what seemed to be an eternity whilst it was being redesigned by Powwow.  And they did a very good job too I am pleased with it.  Hope you all use the E cards, free of course and add your own caption to a couple of them.  I have had fun thinking of captions myself, but I am sure you can think of plenty. You should find something there for every occasion.  We will be changing them from time to time to, like Christmas and Valentine’s Day etc.  This painting now a print and a portion of it is an E-card “The true colours of Hindley Street” is a favorite of mine.

HINDLEY STREET

I had so much fun painting this and it was bought by a psychiatrist and hangs in the waiting room, where it is very popular with the clients.  In my youth Hindley Street in Adelaide, South Australia was The place to hang out, we would often “crack a Hindley” and check out what was going down, lol.  You would find every type of person there, much like Kings Cross in Sydney.  The establishments offered everything from fast foods, to books, gelaterias, charity shops, pasta and pizza, nightclubs, dry cleaning, as well as adult only shops and strip joints.  People of every race and religion was there just to look or in the case of The Salvation Army and The Hare Krishna’s, there to convert some wayward souls.  Don’t know if it did them any good but it certainly was interesting.

So what a fantastic place for an artist to get inspired to paint a picture, there has been many reincarnations over the years and different shops have come and gone, but basically the feel of the street has remained the same.

If you are not familiar with the twisties packets in the pockets of the raincoat brigade, you may have to listen to the lyrics of Skyhooks’ Living in the Seventies Album’.  Lol, they were a major influence on me and a band I still love.  Mmm…Talking bands, AC/DC you ROCK!!

ARTnBED – ARTWORKS ON YOUR BED

There has actually been a very interesting development in this story as this painting Hindley Street has this year 2012 been made into quilt covers or duvet by ARTnBED.   So if you are interested in having art not only on your wall but also on the bed here is a couple of links for you to check out ArtNBed website and also my blog on the subject 140 ART n BED as well as the page ARTnBED.  Look out for more of my artworks, as the bedding range will be added too soon.

Here is another saying that amuses me…

God may have created man before woman but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you too!

Much 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.