That is the name of my new YouTube Channel “Art and Music with Marie”, and I have just uploaded another installment of paintings and indie music in conjunction with the fabulous singer/songwriter James Abberley.

This time the song is called “Ghost” and I actually like it even better than “I’ll be a Bird” if that’s possible.

I find that the melody to Ghost just stays in my mind for hours after I have heard it and I hope that all of you like it too, as well as the paintings, sculptures, prints and public sculptures that the images shows too of course.

James Abberley says that “Ghost is a very dark song.  I wanted it to be confronting but still relevant.  Sometimes we can end up in a place that we never wanted to be in.  Sometimes you can feel like a Ghost, but there is always love and there is always someone that can see you.”

This song is also from the new album called “Some kind of Relief” and in the Indie genre as he is becoming known for and if you would like to find out more about James go to this link and have a little read.  Indie Music & James Abberley.  Also if you are in Adelaide, do not forget to catch up with James every Friday night in the front bar of the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, known just as the Gov to us locals.

ART ON YOUTUBE

I had made a couple of Youtube video clips before which also featured our two dogs Cheech and Vegas whilst we still lived at the farm and we dressed them up in all sorts of doggy clothes and put the photos in between the artwork, as I told you before you have to be a little bit crazy to be an artist!

ART AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

The new changes to YouTube, means that you can personalize the look of your YouTube site and create the feel that you want.  They have also included a new “feed” to make it more interactive as well, something I think may have been inspired by Face book.   It seems to me that a lot of the Social Networking sites are rolling out new changes at the moment, and just as quickly there are groups that form who are against that, just check out all the “I hate the changes to Face book” groups.   As someone who has only in the last couple of years learned the ropes so to speak, any new changes always take a little time to get used too.  However I read somewhere that Cyberspace is the only place in modern culture there should be nothing BUT change, it is necessary to keep the innovation alive.  So hey we better get used to it!

ART AND COMPUTERS

The younger generation take to it like ducks to water and if you Google to find some advice half the time it will be a 6 year old, lol well maybe a 10 year old that is doing the tutorial on how to use a certain function.  It reminds me of what Dolly Parton said about computers “Truth is, I wouldn’t know a gigabyte from a snakebite”, lol but she can afford to employ someone to do all the computer work for her it’s the rest of us that have to try to keep up.  I like my new telephone, my computer works just fine, my calculator is perfect, but Lord, I miss my mind!

So if you just like me need some time out and just chill why don’t you pour yourself a nice glass of wine click on my new YouTube contribution and relax with James and I.

So here is a quote just in case wine is not your drink of choice by an unknown author;

“Take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lime, and a shot of tequila.”

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.

So here it comes again, New Years Eve 2011, seems only yesterday that we were ushering in 2000 never mind the 10 in between.  How does that happen?  Where did all that time go, you tell me because I haven’t got a clue!

This acrylic on board painting “Happy New Year, New York” (which sold in America) was such a lot of fun to do and it was painted in the time of innocents before 9/11 when the Twin Towers were still standing proud.  At the time I had not yet been to the USA so it was great fun to do the research on all the buildings and images of New York.  Then finally we did go to New York and here is a link to some of those adventures;  I MISS NEW YORK, sadly by the time we got there the Twin Towers were reduced to Ground Zero but we did see all the rest of the things I had painted.

THE ART OF THE YK2 BUG

You know it’s funny to think about the turn of the last century when we thought the whole world may stop and planes would fall out of the sky due to the Millennium Bug, remember that one?  The YK2 problem or YK2 bug, that whole problem stemmed from the programming of computers.  When the computer programmers were trying to save space in the computer files they abbreviated the year to just the two last digits as in 91,92,93, but as the turn of the century grew closer they realized that the clocks of the digital age would turn from 99 into 00 which may make the computers of the world fail.

THE ART OF AVOIDING MAYHEM

Hence we may have all sorts of mayhem arising, from planes dropping out of the sky to hospital life support equipment failing, trains stopping, phone lines & mobile phones dropping out, electricity and water getting turned off and supermarkets and businesses in general not being able to serve their customers. The experts on TV and Radios around the Globe were discussing the various scenarios whilst us the public were in two camps on the issue – the “believers” and the “not”.

We lived on a farm at the time and fell into the middle ground on the subject and decided that we better stock up on some food and drinks just in case, lol.  So we had a few boxes in the shed with the necessities, should the worst happen.  Canned food, long life milk, potatoes and onions and candles and batteries, oh and plenty of alcohol, we figured we may as well be a little inebriated if we were going to live on the crap we had stored in the emergency boxes, lol.

MY BROTHER THE ARTIST

My brother was totally fascinated by the subject and read every book there was and preached doom and gloom, his artist brain ticking over.  To his credit he really was on the right track because if the “IT” world had not gotten their act together in the mid nineties and started to seriously work on the problem we really would have been in dire straits.  There was one person though who had spotted the mistake as far back as 1958 whilst working on genealogical software.  His name was Bob Bemer and he had then tried for the next twenty years to make the programmers, IBM and the U.S. government aware of the problem.  But as usual the whistle blower was ignored and it took nearly 40 years before they took him seriously!

THE ART OF WHAT DID HAPPEN

For most of us midnight 1999 past without too much trouble however there were a few glitches around the world and these statistics are from the Wikipedia site;

UK – incorrect Down’s syndrome test results were sent out and two abortions were carried out and four babies were born with Down’s syndrome even though the mothers had been told they were in the low-risk category.

Japan- had radiation-monitoring equipment at a nuclear power plant fail at midnight and at another nuclear site an alarm sounded at two minutes after midnight, both with no risk to the public they stated.  Also in Japan their largest mobile phone company found their phones were deleting new messages instead of old ones but that was also fixed within a short time.

Australia- had problems with their ticket validation system on the buses in two states.

US- had 150 slot machines stop working at some race tracks in Delaware and the U.S Naval Observatory with runs the master clock that keeps official time for the whole country showed the date on its website as Jan. 1, 19100.

France- had the same problem on the weather forecast website Metro France which showed Saturday’s weather and the date as 1/01/19100.

No doubt there were some other minor problems across the world but all in all we were pretty lucky really that for the most part all was good!

So that brings me to this year and the first New Years Eve in our newly renovated house, the weather forecast is for a hot 37 degrees and we are planning a pool party in our Bali hut with good friends and too much food and drinks no doubt.  The only thing I wish for is relative quite in the morning lol, and not like one New Years Day morning many years ago when we lived in an apartment.  Apart from the annoying dog next door that would bark loudly at his own shadow we had a water pipe burst under the road opposite where we lived and the “Government emergency water brigade” thought they would find the problem at 7am with a jackhammer going at full speed! Normally when you call and tell them about a water leak they take six weeks to come out, what the??

If you enjoyed this art blog you may also enjoy this one; 2. SWEDISH EASTER & Art

So here is a thought for the New Year by Edith Lovejoy Pierce,

“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

From me to you – I wish you the best New Years ever and hope it will bring love, joy, health, wealth and happiness to you all.

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

Love Marie xxxx  (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.

My son Kai has recently been to Spain a country that I love.

I spent a considerable bit of time there in my modelling days, enjoying lots of great work, great food, people, language and culture.  Most of my time was spent in Barcelona, where I actually did manage to go and see the wonderful artwork of Gaudi, images that stay on my mind.  He built houses and sculptures like no one else I have ever seen.  (And as I have said before about my party days, I think I did rather well to fit that into my busy schedule.)

I spent fantastic days and nights on Ibiza, my most favorite Island in the world when I was young, and would go there whenever time permitted.

This painting “Let it all hang out” was purchased by the Australian artist Pro Hart and hung in his house.

The image of this painting is probably a cross between Ibiza and Maslin’s Beach (designated nude beach) here in South Australia.  I can almost smell the scent of the sea and feel the pulse of the music from the amazing nightclubs in Ibiza (well we called them Discos then and I was the Dancing Queen. lol)

SALVADOR DALI

I remember doing a swimwear catalogue in Sitges, the town by the sea that Salvador Dali called home.  At the time I was only interested in that fact because my father is an artist and liked his artwork.

Now when I think back on that time and remember, I  was on Salvador Dali’s doorstep for the most part of a week, doing bikini shoots all day with hairdressers and makeup artists fussing over me and then wined and dined at night.   I think, boy I should have paid more attention, what a fabulous opportunity to see and find out more about one of the world’s most amazing artists.  Oh well, C’est La Vie, no regrets, it could do your head in to think about all the what’ Ifs’ in life.

Here is another saying I like from The Mammoth Book of Useless Information

‘Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes’

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.

People often ask me where I get my inspiration for my paintings and sculpture, well all artwork from.  And my answer is usually – from absolutely everywhere.  And I truly mean that, driving in the car, seeing an advertising sign, going to a birthday celebration, or a wedding or any festive occasion at all.  Going to the movies or seeing a play, opera, band or performance of any kind.  Eating out, eating in (by now you probably know I do like my food, Lol) . Also getting together with friends,  holidays and travelling of any kind, going for a walk, to the gym, listening  to songs, reading books, reading magazines, watching TV and doing just about anything.  My problem is more- so little time and so many images to create.

PUBLIC SCULPTURE

If you would like to see some of my public sculptures here is a link to one of the art blogs 109 Stories behind the Wall

CERAMIC & MOSAIC

This Artwork ( which is hand made ceramic and mosaic), IF YOU REMEMBER THE SIXTIES YOU WEREN’T THERE (check out the action under the table) came to me whilst listening to the local ABC Radio Station here in Adelaide Radio 891,  A couple of my favourite radio announcers Matt Abraham and David Bevin was doing their usual funny banter back and forward and this line came up If you remember…….. And instantly in my mind I saw the whole picture.

I must remind you that I was but a small child in the sixties so this is not autobiographical, although to be fair I did pass through a bit of a naughty stage in my youth too. I remember being totally fascinated by a tomato sauce bottle and thinking that was the funniest thing I had ever seen in my life and for some reason had the munchies something shocking.

Lucky for me I soon came to my senses and pursued more healthy paths ,and even luckier than that my darling children seem to be a whole lot more focused and  are pursuing very worthwhile areas as a psychology and a nursing student .  Or is that so that they can take care of their dear old parents in our twilight year’s lol;

Here is another quote I like from Oscar Wilde

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Till next time, happy painting and sculpting to everyone!

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.