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People are the Same Wherever You Go

March 18, 2009 · 24 comments

Cartoon Pen & Watercolour 8″ x 12″ 

Artwork & Content Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

(unauthorised use prohibited)

The Women of the World Exhibition at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour was completely wonderful. You might remember me mentioning previously that I had entered two pen and watercolour cartoons 8″ x 12″ Mothers Make the World Go Round and If Women Ruled the World.

You can click on the links (above) to see them again.

The four hour road trip down the coast to Coffs Harbour on Friday was well worth it to see those two “good friends” take their place amongst the many entries from around the world. 75 entries in total… representing artists (cartoonists in this case) from 13 different countries. Russia, Switzerland, Iran, Brazil, the Urals (and of course Australia), just to name a few.

I was surprised by the number of international artists… but I guess there are not that many women cartoonists in Australia. And the President of the Australian Cartoon Association who officially opened the show remarked on this fact… stating (rather bravely I thought in a room full of women) that around 80% of cartoonists in this country are male. Quite frankly… I was surprised the percentage wasn’t higher than that… but there you have it.

Judging by the message overwhelmingly conveyed in each and every cartoon on display… women do have a lot to say about the world in which they live and their individual experience of it. The commonly occurring themes brought home to me… that the issues women face across the planet are pretty much universal… from the Ukraine right around to the Americas.

It was fun to find myself hobnobbing with a bunch of total strangers at the Opening. Sometimes not knowing a soul can be enriching. I have been to Openings in all kinds of places but for some strange reason they are always pretty much the same. As I look around the room, I see people I swear I should know.  Everyone looks kind of familiar! LOL

When it comes down to it… people are the same wherever you go. And more to the point… artists are artists wherever you go. They don’t wear badges but you can still spot them at forty paces. They are usually the ones with their noses pressed up to the glass muttering “I wonder how that was done?”. And it’s comforting to know we have that common bond… especially when we’re rubbing shoulders with a bunch of total strangers!

Surprisingly… here in Australia it is not dangerous to drive on the wrong side of the road (grin) But taking photos whilst driving is risky business wherever in the world you are! LOL

I had intended to stay overnight but decided instead to make the four hour return journey home to the Coast that night.  I should add… I like night driving.  And to tell you the truth… it was one of the best decisions I could have made.  I had the road to myself on one of the most brilliantly clear moonlit nights imaginable.

In places the road follows the magnificent Clarence River along it’s length… and bathed in the moonlight… the river took on an almost magical quality. But that was nothing compared to the view from the top of the range behind Byron Bay.  The ocean… a silver sheet spread out across a vast horizon…. illuminated the dark night sky… and threw the valley below into a dark and peaceful stillness.

It was all rather beautiful!

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Women of the World

February 26, 2009 · 14 comments

Pen & Watercolour 8″ x 12″

Artwork & Content Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

(unauthorised use prohibited)

Well… it’s been a race against time but I have my entries packaged up and winging their way… as we speak… to the inaugural International Women of the World Exhibition at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour.

This exhibition is being held for the very first time in 2009… to celebrate International Women’s Day… and runs from 13th March to 11th April 2009.  The event is for women only… and cartoonists, illustrators and caricaturists from all over the world have been invited to submit their work.

I have submitted two cartoons.  The first is “If Women Ruled the World” and is a whimsical take on the state of the nation (aka the world) if women were to dominate it’s halls of power.  Let’s face it… we women are the only ones with our priorities right when it comes to the big issues of shopping and shoes.  I realise that this particular theme will likely get me into all sorts of political hot water but it’s just for fun (and in the words of Jane Austen)

“For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbours and laugh at them in our turn”.  She said it… not me… I’m just reporting what she said!  (((chuckles)))

Pen & Watercolour 8″x 12″

Artwork & Content Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

(unauthorised use prohibited)

The second cartoon is a re-make of my earlier cartoon “Mothers Make the World Go Round”  I think it’s an improvement on the first… and as I simply couldn’t bear to part with the original “original” I did another to send away to the exhibition.

Cartooning has… for reasons unknown… been historically (hysterically?) dominated by men… (it is a man’s world afterall girls – wink & grin)… so it’s great to see that this time the girls are going to get a guernsey of their own… and for a cause that’s close to our hearts as well.

International Women’s Day began in 1911 and remains a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

I hope you enjoy my cartoons as much as I enjoyed making them.

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The Olympics – Running on hot air

August 13, 2008 · 2 comments

 

Cartoon Pen & Watercolour

Copyright 2008 Jean Burman

The Olympics are off and running… and despite the naysayers and all the grave predictions and warnings to the contrary… the Games of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing look set to be a huge success.

So far the sky has not fallen… nor has the smog overwhelmed. The clouds weren’t tampered with… because the rain came anyway. It bucketed down… everyone got wet… and nobody gave a hoot.

So maybe… just maybe… there was no bogey man in the cupboard afterall. The internet is working… the intense security is doing it’s job… and all’s quiet in Tiananmen Square. So much hot air over nothing.

I don’t understand the media predilection for the weather… the security… the smog… the drugs… the human rights… (I could go on) over the past three days. It’s not as if they had nothing else to talk about. I’m so glad they’ve finally gotten over it and… all is as it should be… with all eyes on the athletes and the brilliant performances they have already begun to deliver!

Beijing looks amazing! The facilities are second to none. The mood from all reports is “pumping”.

I can’t help but feel we are witnessing history here. These games will change the world… or at least… the way we perceive it into the future. China is making her entrance. And she appears to be doing so with great pride and enthusiasm from her people… and what they have achieved with the staging of these Games.

Yes… it could be said that China has a way to go in some areas… but I think this “opening up” will be the first step toward a greater leap in global consciousness… what’s acceptable in the global village… and what’s not.

The world is changing. The best message heralded by these games is that we can change in a positive way… through peaceful interaction… healthy competition… engaged cooperation… and purposeful understanding.

The atheletes are already accomplishing this. We need only follow their excellent example.

Okay… what’s next? Pass me the TV guide would you? This stuff’s addictive… (grin)

PS: Hope you like the cartoon! I am planning a small Olympic series.

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The strength of a coffee…

February 15, 2008 · 41 comments

cappuccino.jpg

Coffee. The lifeblood of a nation. The lifeblood of the whole world? It does afterall… speak every language on the planet… in every city… in every country… across the globe. It is as much at home in the trattoria’s of Rome… as it is in the backstreets of Rio… or the casbahs of Morocco… or the cafes of Uzbekistan.

It knows no country.

It has no borders.

It favours no race, creed or colour.

It breeds no contempt…

and it needs no introduction.

It’s delicious wafting aroma can easily pull a crowd from 50 paces! Even those who don’t actually drink the stuff… love the allure of it’s aroma… evoking as it does a sense of the exotic. Far flung places like Africa… Brazil… and the Indian sub continent… the warm countries of the world where the culture is as steeped in mystery… as the air is “fragrant” with the scent of exotic spice.

It occurs to me that coffee has a strange kind of unifying effect on the world. It’s the one thing that we all pretty much have in common. The fact that more than half the world’s population could be indulging in a cup of coffee at any given time… on any given day… seems to me to have strange significance. Then a crazy notion hit me… “could the world’s problems be hashed out over a simple cup of coffee?”

recipes_cappuccino.jpg

Truth be known… the ritual of coffee drinking has little if anything to do with the actual drinking of COFFEE. It’s just something we do. Having a coffee gives us the excuse we need to sit down and ponder with friends and foe alike… the world and it’s doings. It’s all about communication. Coffee shops, cafes and casbahs across the globe bubble over each and every day with the voices of people sorting stuff out… sharing their problems… catching up on the gossip… hashing out deals… and (hopefully) finding solutions.

What a miracle then if it could be that simple. Imagine for just one moment… the Sunni and the Shia sitting in the dirt of a Baghdad street corner having coffee with the American. Or the Russian and the Chechen hashing things out over a coffee at the back fence. Or the Palestinian and the Israeli settling the dust of a thousand years over the one thing we probably all have in common…a coffee… the international beverage of our times! *wink*

I know it may sound trite… and I am by no means seriously suggesting that something so simple could provide a solution to the problems of “difference” between the peoples of the world!

But don’t you think… if the issues of human conflict were viewed LESS from our differences… and MORE from those human aspects we have in common… the world would be a much kinder, safer and more peaceful place.

“Sit with me awhile… hear my story… and tell me yours… in time I will understand your point of view… see the world as you do… and soon we will be friends”

So “chin chin” everyone… as we do our bit to bring about peace… one cup at a time!

_______________________________________________________________

Addendum: I wrote this before the National Sorry Day… and would just like to add that having listened to (and heard) the Apology and the Reply… (and the subsequent lop-sided fallout in the press)… it appears to me that we Australians still have a very long way to go yet… to reconcile the past and move forward into the future.

What’s missing is tolerance and understanding… on both sides.  Perhaps some sitting in the dirt over a coffee is called for! *wink*  And the words I penned just the-day-before-yesterday never resounded so loudly!

So… for what it’s worth… here they are again…

“Sit with me awhile… hear my story… and tell me yours… in time I will understand your point of view… see the world as you do… and soon we will be friends”

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(Not so) strictly speaking…

November 14, 2007 Read the full article →

Beyond blue…

October 1, 2007 Read the full article →