134 Mothers Day and Mothers Guilt & Art

mariejon — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:38:44 +0000

THE ART OF MOTHER’S DAY

Another Mothers Day is drawing close and I have to admit I do love them. It is lovely to get those little treats and spend the day with the family. This year baby girl is taking me out for the day, starting with lunch not sure what else is planned but later in the day we will go and visit both sets of Grandparents too, Happy Mother’s Day Mormor and Nana!. To me it’s not so much the pressie giving etc that is important but to spend time together and let the mothers in your life know that they are loved.

THE ART OF BEING A MOTHER

For being a mother is the most fantastic gift but at the same time a guilt ridden curse. It was hard enough when the kids were little but at least then I was the boss and could tuck them safely into their beds at night and keep the monsters from the door. Now I need a Lear jet and an Uzi to be of any use.

This acrylic on canvas board painting is called” It’s too late to turn back now” which is a quote equally appropriate to both parachute jumping and motherhood!

THE ART OF KEEPING THEM SAFE

Kai our son is safely (LOL) living with us now but a year or two ago when he spent his gap year overseas I was driving him nuts with my various warnings of imminent danger.

Kai had been living and working at a hotel in Cheltenham and travelling around Europe on his days off so every car, bus or train accident and the like talked about on the news sent me scurrying to the phone to text and make sure he was oK.

Like Darth Vader against a terrorist bomb, that was me! Suddenly the volcano erupted another thing to worry about, he already had his flight home with a Bangkok stopover cancelled for a week. Let’s not forget there is also swine flu, Pick pockets, the Bangkok riots, sitting no further that 7 seats from an exit on the plane, drink spiking and gangs with knifes!

THE ART OF DRIVING THE KIDS NUTS

My mantra to myself was “Oh grow up girl and get a grip” I know I should, but my children are so precious, bad enough with baby girl here in Adelaide, I know I drive her crazy too. Poor baby girl at 21 years old still has to text her mum after every car trip to say she is safe, never mind the fact that one could get ones eye poked out with a sharp stick (lol that was always my dad’s warning too, as soon as me or my brother did anything remotely dangerous).

The Swedes have a very good word for my behaviour and that is “Mesar” which is a bird in Sweden that is known as a little coward, wimpy, so that’s what an overprotective mother preaching excessive caution is called!

So Mums take a deep breath and enjoy your day, relax, permit yourself to get pampered and forget about the worries for one day.

Here is quote I think fits well her by Sophia Loren;

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and stop worrying!

Love Marie xxxxx

If you enjoyed this art blog you may also like this one; 86 A million miles an hour and little miss chuck up in Art

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.

36. How it all began in Art

Marie — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:08:26 +0000

WHY I STARTED PAINTING

Dancing asparagus I hear you say, mmm…well moi have always been a little bit crazy and that probably is and asset when you are an artist! Lol Anyway this painting was the first one that I actually painted, on canvas that is.

MURAL ON THE NURSERY WALL

You see I was pregnant with my first child and was getting the house ready for this little bundle of joy (and as it turned out he was too) I asked my brother who is a very good artist if he could paint me a mural on the nursery wall.

So he came and started, laid down the background of grass and hills and a sky with the start of a train running through the country side. However at the time he was the drummer in a band called Clowns of Decadence, and they had a very strong following and were always out on tours. So I would be calling Matt up and asking when he would be back in town, and it would be “oh sorry sis, we are touring New Zealand now and won’t be back for a month.”

In the meantime I was getting fatter and fatter and fatter, and being a bit of a perfectionist there was no way that my baby was going to arrive with a half painted nursery.

So I thought to myself there is nothing to do but roll up ones sleeves and get on with it and start painting .

Now there were a couple of things wrong with that idea, one was that I had some complications with the pregnancy and should be mostly having bed rest. The other was that I could not paint my way out of a paper bag! I mean that literally, you see both my father and my brother are fantastic artists, very skilled and can do anything, whatever I had ever tried to draw or paint was usually laughed at, well not in a mean way but probably slightly mixed with pity, lol.

ART IN SCHOOL

On top of that during my school years in Sweden I would be receiving maybe an F for Art, I remember distinctly having to paint a still life; fruit bowl and mine was very hard to figure out what it was. Us naive types find it very hard to see perspective (and hey maybe we don’t want to, maybe the world is just better when everything is close and within your grasp!) In those days you were only considered good in art if you could reproduce something like a photograph. So therefore I had not drawn or painted for years.

But as I was a woman on a mission and nesting, watch out! I got the paints out that my brother had left and off I went, and you know what, with an eye blink it was lunch time, too busy to eat. Kept on painting although I would lie down on the floor from time to time and look at my handy work (doctors orders you know) I blinked my eyes again and now it was night.

FEELING LOVE & HAPPINESS THROUGH ART

The next morning I woke up, feeling so very excited and energetic and I did not know why, I was 8 months pregnant and usually exhausted, so I laid there and tried to figure it out. Well you know what, it was LOVE, I had fallen in Love and not with another man, no with painting. I did not care what anyone else thought of my handy work, but I loved it, I loved painting it and I loved looking at it and it made me feel good.

That was how it began and if you are curious how this led to my life as a full time artist in the Naive genre here is a link for that art blog 114 Elders Fine Art Gallery.. never give up

So take heart you budding artists out there, don’t let anyone say you can’t and that you are no good, if it makes you happy then DO IT.

This saying by Winston Churchill fits very well here;

“Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting to you all!

Love Marie xxxx (c)

Marie Jonsson Harrison » Love

134 Mothers Day and Mothers Guilt & Art

36. How it all began in Art