If ever verification was needed for the power of positive thinking… positive action… and the extreme benefits of taking the leaps of faith I have had to take over the past 14 months… I now have it.
Just climbing through 19,000 feet… [okay my love of flying is officially now legendary - say no more] I have been away for nearly four weeks. How did a week turn into four I wonder? I am now winging my way home to pack up and move south. I know I know… I said I wasn’t going anywhere for now… but the Universe apparently has other plans for me!
Funny how things happen when you let go… and say yes to pretty much everything [within reason of course]. I can’t begin to tell you how much my life has changed over the past year… and how many opportunities have come my way since I began saying yes to the Universe instead of fighting it every step of the way… which I’ve now realised is something I have pretty much done all of my life! [Grin]
And this especially includes saying yes to a whole range of opportunities and experiences that I might otherwise have thought were not for me. I’ve now learned not to do that… for things are rarely as they seem at first glance.
We all have limitless potential but first we have to get over our limiting beliefs to realise it. All I can say is…
TAKE THAT LEAP!
The only downside to this move [if ever there could be one] will be that I shall have to relinquish… for now… my beautiful tropical northern Australian location… my good friends [if they don't come visit! grin]… and life as I had re-invented it. But that’s okay for now.
Nothing is ever for nothing… and nothing is ever forever!
ahhh… I love this place… [insanely hot here at the moment tho]
What it does mean though is that for the time being I shall have a home on my own terms… and a definitive place from which to go forward. And the very best thing of all is that…for the first time in over a year … I shall have a dedicated creative space from which to work!
Oddly enough this one requirement has become more essential to me than breath… so urgent is my need to simply get on with the work at hand. My creative process has been the one sure thing that has sustained me throughout this transformational period of my life. And it’s this process that shall finally have my utmost priority over the next few months as I adjust to my new home.
At last I shall have somewhere to do what I love to do more than anything else in the whole wide world… when… where and however I want to do it.
Write. Paint. Create. Plan. Dream. Go forward… and move on.
It’s a sensational feeling… almost as exhilarating as those first few moments of flight! (((chuckles)))
With the stars aligned… and God willing… I may [at last] be the master of my own destiny and the architect of my own dreams.
I would have once said “I can’t wait”… but of course… I now know that I CAN [wait] and that now anything… absolutely anything… is possible.
The sky might be the limit.
But the Universe knows no such bounds!
Hope to see you all on the other side… watch this space for updates on my new space! Coming soon.
I fell in love with Sweet Addiction the first time I heard it.
It was a couple of days before Christmas… andLa Belle Femme was in the early stages of conception. I had received a commission for a large nude painting in landscape format. So not being someone who does things by halves… I decided instead to paint three! [I know... I know]
As I was sketching out ideas… and deciding on how I would approach the series… this piece of music dropped into my email inbox via Facebook.I had it playing in the background on my laptop… and listened to it over and over again. I never tired of it. Before long I was completely beguiled by the sound. It was indeed a “Sweet Addiction” [grin]
The making of the Music…
Sweet Addiction was created by Daniel Marolla… a young man who is definitely going places! He created and recorded this piece of music one afternoon in mid December using [keyboard drums and base guitar] an Mbox and Garageband… then shot his video for You Tube from the built-in camera on his laptop and edited it in Final Cut Studio. If all that sounds like double dutch… well… don’t worry. Just listen to the music… it will speak for itself!
The making of the Art…
The first in this series was initially a commission. The paintings were relatively large for watercolour at 76cm x 38cm – [that's 30" x 15"] with the figures approx. 1/2 life size. It was so much fun working wet into wet in the initial stages… just allowing the paint to flow and directing it where I wanted it to go.
It’s fast… it’s fluid… it’s free and wow… you just gotta love working in watercolour!
Willow charcoal of course… adds another dimension. It’s a style I have been working on for a couple of years now especially in figure and life work.
The pics were taken on my humble little Panasonic Lumix and assembled as a slideshow in iPhoto. I purposely kept the photos edgy and a bit blurred by movement with [perhaps] some “debatable” degree of success!
And of course… iPhoto is no precise science but that’s about the extent of my techie expertise at this time. I am however willing to learn. Note to self: Get Final Cut Pro… there has GOT to be a better way! [Grin]
By the time the three paintings were done… the music had weaved it’s incredible magic into them all.
Consequently… what you hear and see here is the end product of an [unintended] creative collaboration between paint and music. It was entirely unintentional of course.
Daniel could not have known that his music would so happily “belong”to these paintings that afternoon in December when he brought this music to life! He was afterall on his own creative tangent … and the paintings did not [as yet] exist! But somehow… still… the paintings and the music seemed strangely made for each other!
Enjoy the clip! Let me know what you think… leave a comment here!
“Dance like no one is watching.
Sing like no one is listening.
Love like you’ve never been hurt
and live like it’s heaven on Earth.”
— Mark Twain
To this end… I have recently been doing my utmost. But you know what? Lately I am learning that it’s often a case of “easier said than done”.
Let me tell you… people DO notice when you fall over on the dance floor. They DO hear you when you sing out of tune… even in the shower. You WILL get hurt along the way. And LIFE… you can be sure… often bears absolutely NO resemblance to heaven on earth!
Really sorry to break it to you Mr. Twain (((chuckles)))
But you know… despite the obvious risks… life CAN be a whole lot of fun. Even if you do sometimes get injured in the process.
Finally… after all these years… I am dancing again. And it is so much fun!
After the first couple of classes… with burgeoning confidence… I decided it was about time to invest in a good pair of dancing shoes. Why?
1. To keep me motivated.
2. So I could try to achieve some of the fancy footwork demanded of a budding ballroom dancer [chuckles] on a slick and slippery dance floor without sliding over and hurting myself trying to attempt any/or all of the above in stilettos, sandals or joggers.
and lastly… [but not "leastly"]
3. Because I found a lovely pair of gold Pasodoble’s that I simply couldn’t resist.
You know… boys and their toys… girls and their shoes… [grin]
Besides… my thinking has always been that you should always arm yourself with the appropriate tools for the job in order to achieve the best results. [That's why we artists buy good brushes right?] Okay… it sounded like a plan. And so it was.
I bought the shoes.
Can’t tell you how pleased as punch I was with my purchase as I twirled around the floor… my beautiful new shoes carrying me hither and thither across the floor. But then… just when I was getting the hang of a step… and attempting to execute the perfect turn… those beautiful shoes all of a sudden got a mind of their own… went their separate ways… and I crashed down with an almighty wallop in an inglorious heap on the floor.
Fortunately I went straight down… crashing on one knee first then landing flat on my you know what… and not the alternative… [ie] flat on my back with my legs out from under me. A girl I guess… can be grateful for some such small mercies.
Oooo… ouch… now that hurt! In fact… everything hurt as I sat there in a crumpled heap shocked and unable to get up. [The last time I felt like that was a few years ago after hurtling down the driveway with my son on the back of the billy cart - read the story here]
Finally after what seemed like an age… and would have been less than a split second… someone [have not a clue who] hauled me to my feet and with the music still playing the dancing continued. Now that’s what I call professionalism (((chuckles))) And heck… what stamina. I quite surprised myself. Grin.
Later however… much later… my knee came up a beauty. A huge bruise the likes of which I had not seen since my days on the vigoro pitch in primary school. And my back hurt. But only just a tad. Ahem. Okay then… maybe just a tad more than a tad. At the end of the night I limped sheepishly to the door… my pride tucked neatly in my pocket…. got home… took some magnesium and lay down perfectly flat for the next eight hours (((chuckles))) Next day… all good. And so far… so good.
As for the shoes… well… they will live to dance another day. I took them straight into Theo’s Shoe Shop from whence they came and had the man rough up the soles on whatever the machine is that they “rough up” soles of shoes with there. I made sure that those beautiful shoes were going to stick like glue to the dance floor from that day on.
Click here to see “Turning over a New Leaf 1 – Jan 08″
Another year has come and gone… and for me… the one just past enjoys an especial significance. In many ways it was the year of learning lessons the hard way. And those lessons continued right up until [and beyond] the stroke of midnight on New Year Eve.
The last lesson of the year was a hard but necessary one. I won’t go into detail… but I can now honestly say I have emerged into the new year with newfound wisdom and understanding… and a deeply profound respect for myself. Nothing is ever for nothing as they say.
For me there is now no looking back… except to acknowledge the life journey that has brought me to here and has made me [so far] who I am… and to express my deep appreciation for the people who have walked the path with me and encouraged throughout… especially over the past few months as I have struggled to gain equilibrium in all things. They have helped to weave the rich blanket of love joy wisdom and optimism that now surrounds and fortifies me… and I shall be ever grateful to them for that. I am so very blessed.
I found this version of Auld Lang Syne and instantly loved it. It brought back so many enchanted memories of my strong Celtic upbringing under the influence of my Mother’s large extended family. My grandfather… a lovingly belligerent Scotsman [who danced the highland fling, poured whisky and butter into his bagpipes to prime the bag and who year after year swallowed the threepences my Grandmother lovingly mixed into the Christmas pudding] would regale the family with copious long winded recitations of Robbie Burns.
My Grandmother for her part had just enough of the Irish in her to make her a truly unique remarkable and entirely lovable human being. She had a saying for everything.
One of her particular favourites… brought out when our friends may have let us down… was
“May your real friends have champagne and your sham friends have real pain”
although just secretly between you and me… I doubt she would have been capable of inflicting pain on anyone… save for the pain of too many helpings of her homemade strawberry icecream… or too many servings of mulberry pie… the berries for which my uncle would be dispatched to scale the backyard tree.
One day my Grandfather…noticing the ruckus high up in the tree… came out firing his 22 into the branches expecting a snake to drop out. Alas…my Uncle… who survived the assault shaken but unscathed… did not entirely escape the wrath of my Grandfather for hurling expletives from the tree followed by “It’s ME you silly old buggar… it’s ME!”
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE … let’s make it a great one!
an oldie but a goodie
ahhh… I love this place… [insanely hot here at the moment tho]
One last coffee – for now – at the Port Bookshop
Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman
Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman
Cartoon Pen & Watercolour 
