all good things

my studio... how lucky i am to have a studio! the mere thought makes me smile deliciously big, even though it has been months now... may the delight never wear off on me.


after writing yesterday's post, i loved getting this card in the mail from lovely lisa marie:

Fear less, hope more,
eat less, chew more,
whine less, breathe more,
talk less, say more,
love more, and all
good things
will be yours
~ swedish proverb

i'm feeling gutsy and ballsy and very NORTH today.
i'm saying with passion: you CAN do it. i DIG what you are doing.
i feel deepness in my core when i see others walking their talk.
and that's all i really want to say about that. just that:
YOU CAN.


surf delights:
:: my gorgeous friend emelisa is running her creative workshops in the hinterland of brisbane... if you're up that way, check it out! she is a beautiful soul indeedy, with a heart soaked message to share
:: an earthy and groovy magazine for 8-12 year olds
:: the awesome art of sand fantasy
:: loving ali edwards' new blog design
:: watercolour journalling is yummy!
:: the writing of james
:: collage art - drink it up :)

the morning walk

i stay up last night reading letters to a young artist. some bits i need now, others don't strike me but i know i'll need them later. i take note of the three important things: morning pages, walking and holding your gold ~ creating your art instead of speaking about it. in the steaming night, i try to get to sleep but ideas flood me. i find myself searching out my asian~silk journal in the darkness, drawing blindly, not wanting to wake my beloved by turning on the light. in the morning i find that i have drawn all over written pages. it makes me laugh.

i wake and see chris off, before writing my three morning pages. my mind feels clearer for it. i feel all ajumbo with ideas, so i take the second piece of advice - walk. i walk down to the park near our house, the park that is barely a skip from our front door, and yet i have only rode through it before. i am mesmerised by the lattice shadows in the lane. i sit beneath a tree, flies and grasshoppers akimbo, and stream out the ideas on to the page. i watch as an indian myna bird chases a grasshopper. it is good to be out under the sky, journal in hand.



this morning i felt uncomfortable. and i laughed out loud: because i realised that is was good to feel uncomfortable. i laughed out loud because i am breaking out of an old mould, and transitioning into a new shape that is fitting me better.

less tv
more connecting
no meat
more nutrition
no reality shows
more reading
less procrastinating
more creating
without fear
and all in love.

Studio Friday: Playtime!

Studio Friday's theme this week is Playtime. The remarkable Tine charged us with the task of using two fingers from our non dominant hand to dab in paint and walk along the page.

Mine began as this ~ it ended up looking like japanese mountains. I then got my paintbrush out and made it into a journal entry. There's so much to say...

Donna tells me - get organised. It will make you even more creative. Paint the backgrounds, then let them come to you. So I do, and it works...
Reading Julia Cameron's "Letters to a young artist" ~ and it is profound. Everyone must go through this. Stop talking about creating - just put the hours in and create. No matter if it's "good" or "bad" - it's all necessary.

what makes me happy...

~ going on an adventure on saturday morning, and finding these gorgeous pillows on super sale. nothing smells like happy like an adventure and hyper hippy pillows.

~ long conversations on the phone with delicious donna. she shines lightbulbs into my soul even when i am feeling stuck. she ordered me off the phone with: now get into that studio, clean it up, put james taylor on, and paint!
and it worked. eighteen backgrounds painted, eight finito. *insert shining smile of an artist*

~ julia cameron's "letters to a young artist." i began reading it last night, and it is straight up remarkable. she says: stop talking about creating art. just CREATE. stop worrying if it is good or bad. put the time in.
between this book, donna, and swirlygirl's post about committing to studio time, i feel renewed with a passion of just getting in there, and getting filthy with paint.

i feel like i don't have to worry anymore about the end result. that the mere act of creation, of painting and discovering is action enough. donna asked me if i liked what i had created today. i said: i'm not sure. but i know i'm on the right path, so i'm gunna keep on following it.




~ all these things, combined with getting rid of our tv, doing dream projects makes me feel like i am flowering inside.

I feel like seeds and shoots are growing inside me... that my inner life and my belly are filling with ideas and projects and clearer desires. explore, navigate, discover, journey.

~ treating myself well. finding out, and revelling in what makes me happy.

~ buying candles from dusk, to illuminate our re~creation room at night. candlelight feels so much better than the loom of the tv.

~ the most scrumptious angel ecard on the planet {via the delicious and wonderful delia}

~ an email from my schoolfriend sonia, finishing with:
"Miss your sunshine and gentle summer rain..."

~ watching the sunset from the front porch



"I hunger for your sleek laugh and your hands the color of a furious harvest. I want to eat the sunbeams flaring in your beauty."
~ Pablo Neruda

moment

i see a photo of a bird, and it makes my heart happy.

as we walked to work, i reached into a tree to gather smooth green nuts with sweet cupping hats. paris told me it was an acorn. i had never known an acorn before.

i gathered a leaf. paris wasn't sure what it was, but i held it. in the lifts i turned to a workmate, getting him to touch the smooth acorns. he told me the leaf was from a pin oak tree, and that they were common in cities as they were resistant to pollution. in autumn, they will turn a vivid red.

it is so damn nice to know this. to have botany lessons in the morning. to name and love these beautiful things that line my street. i've been making everyone touch the acorns all day. i keep being reminded of jeff pitcher's article about recognising trees and logos. i want to know more trees and less logos.

i talk to my lover in the park, by the gandhi statue, by the serpent goddess statue, in the forest under the trees. and i feel our spirits shine through, and we speak gently. we walk side by side, his presence by my shoulder, his spirit knowing mine.

i eat tofu laksa with him and adam and dave in the city tonight. it's good just to laugh and talk, and drink bubble tea for the very first time.

Consulting the Oracle

From journal page today:

I said out loud in my mind - why don't they see me like others see me?
And a voice inside me answered:
Because they do not have the sight.

The voice was real, it was low and comforting, and rose from above my right shoulder.
So I asked:
Is everything okay?
She replied with certainty:
Everything is okay. It's better than that. It is wonderfully, splendidly divine.

...
Just finished watching What the Bleep Do We Know? for the first time.
My mind is doing somersaults and cartwheels and long loving leaps into the arms of the mysterious, beautiful universe.

Change your mind and change your life.

And watch this movie if you haven't already.


: Life is limitless :

love,
Leonie


"Is it possible that we're so conditioned to our daily lives, so
conditioned to the way we create our lives, that we buy the idea
that we have no control at all?

We've been conditioned to believe that the external world is more
real than the internal world. This new model of science says just the opposite.

It says what's happening within us will create what's happening outside of us."

~ Dr. Joseph Dispenza

Guest Poster: Adam

Adam is doing a special guest poster night tonight. I asked him to think of the most inspiring thing of his day to post. He wandered off to consider this, and started watching Buena Vista Social Club. Presently, he walks back into the Re-Creation Room, laughing hysterically with a bloodied tissue stuck up his nose.

"Okay Leonie, I've got what I want to post.

I said to Chris:
Oh man! I just picked my nose so hard it started bleeding.

And all he said was:
Oh, we have lots of tissues here you know."

And whilst this isn't particularly inspiring by Leonie standards, Adam thinks it is. And that's all that really matters, doesn't it?

"I feel we are all islands - in a common sea."
~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

the impossibles

tree on the quest

I take adam for a bikeride this morning, intending for it to be a fifteen minute cruise down to the little lake near our house. But we get there, and he is unimpressed.

Leeeeooooniiiiiieeeeeeeeee, I want to go to the big lake.

No way Adam, it's 30 kms away.

I don't care! We can do it! Let's do it Leonie!

N O! There is no way I can do it!

YES! Just do it! We can do it!

I submit. I think to myself - what would spontaneous Leonie do?
"Fine. You crazy military freak."



I felt like I was at boot camp. He'd keep insisting:

You can do it! You can do it!

So we rode. And we rode. And we rode.
And we rode further than I ever, ever, ever have before.

I keep thinking: there is no way I can do this.

But as the road unfolds, and the wheels swallow the metres,
a confidence in me grows. Maybe I can do this. Perhaps indeed. Yes I can!

At the half way point we turn back - not for me - but to Save Adam's Ass.
We sit by the road for a little while and I think:
I never would have thought I could have come this far.
I thought it was impossible.



I calculated it when we straggled back home {Adam got a flat tire 500 metres from home!} - today we rode over 30 kilometres.

Here's to the crazies, to the misfits, to the ones who seek outside the box.
To the ones who don't take no for an answer.
and to all those who are doing the impossible things.

blessings,
leonie

on a warm sunday afternoon...

my american penpal adam is back visiting us again. the dog is overjoyed at the prospect of having another person to simultaneously annoy/amuse/leap all over.
we are lounging in our re~creation room. soft music, golden liquid, books, talking. we decide to learn all about norfolk island and pitcairn island on wikipedia.
later, we will eat pizza and camp out in the tv space to watch what the bleep do we know.
we will sail. we will paint. occasionally we will debate the finer points of when a skeptic meets a hippy.

it's funny you know - having known adam for ten years, he is the second longest standing friend i have. and yet our friendship has been founded on the small things: the monthly emails, his thin papered letters in blue writing accompanied with his poems and writing and the passport sized school photo of him {of which i still see when i look at him}. we used to talk about school, muse on what we would do when we were old.

and here he is. on my red couch, looking over his benjamin franklin book, my lover on the beanbag, charlie running from one to the other, and licking from adam's empty beer bottle.

it amuses me this.
this instant adulthood, and the friends that last.

Move your sofa

Change swills and swirls around us like a gentle hurricane,
taking away the deadwood and leaving us to create a new life.

Yesterday we took deep breaths, gripped each others hands and turned off our pay TV subscription. For too long, it has been a bad habit for us. It swallowed up hours of every day ~ hours where we could have been drawing, writing, playing music, learning, connecting, sharing with each other. We want to create our own lives - not just watch someone else's rendition of it. TV has been our smoking - our stinky bad habit we didn't want to acknowledge or let anyone else know about. The thing is - we aren't tv kinda people. We weren't as children and somewhere along the line we fell into it. No more.

We moved our house around dramatically to force us into our new lifestyle. Our tv is now in a shrug of the kitchen/dining area where it isn't comfortable to watch. The lounge room has been changed into a dreamy recreation room with a couch, beanbag, purple bookcase, our two computers and chris' menagerie of musical instruments: 2 acoustics, one electric guitar, a djembe drum, a chinese drum, a ukelele, a wooden recorder, a didjeridoo, an electric piano and a peruvian flute.

Last night was both wonderful and a little bit scary. We sat facing each other: what to do now?
It makes me feel both sad, and hysterically amused at the fact that we have the room of our dreams, and are trying to figure out how to use it.

So we filled the bookcase with Chris' CDs. I laughed as we walked out of our room to see the tv in the corner, blank and without attention: ha ha! We BANISHED YOU! I taunt. We held hands as we crept into the hallway to bring armloads of books from the studio into our new room. We listened to albums the whole way through. I beat madly on the djembe to a Ben Harper song, and danced to Yothu Yindi. We rescued old drawing manuals and sketched for a little while. And then I read outloud, with Chris' arms around my neck. I turned to this page in the amazing Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life book by Julia Cameron:

" 'Move your sofa and change your life!'
- Karen Kingston
When we change our living space, we change our lives...
Today I seek a spiritual alignment in my domestic space. I discard all that distracts me. Today, I put my life in order. I emphasise serenity and beauty in my surroundings. I allow increased cleanliness to prioritise my thinking. I create an environment that knows my highest goals and aspirations."

What a serendipitously, sublime and spot-on affirmation to turn to.

And the flowers? What of the pink lilies adorning my house?
The wonderful book Living Out Loud by Keri Smith inspired me to buy a bunch of flowers - for the very first time for myself. There is a calendar in the book to fill in - and one of the activities for the month is Buy Yourself Flowers day. I am so deeply appreciative of me for taking the leaps and moving the sofa that I chose pink lilies.

I know it will take some time to adjust to this new tv-less, book-filled and lily-filled life of ours. There is joy, breathlessness and a tiny piece of fear in these large steps - the ones when you first take the leap and wonder if your wings will take flight.

waiting to be discovered.

i want to write more letters in the afternoon, with the white light streaming through the windows, the dog next to my beanbag, the blue of my studio ambient.

i want to play ball with charlie more often, the sunset reflecting in his golden fur, his expectant face and the way he runs and makes me laugh.

i want to walk up the stairs to work {all 13 sets of them} and feel like i can climb to a temple in india.

i want to be conscious - of my hands, my eyes, my belly, my heart. when they aren't feeling right, and when they are flooding over with love.

i want to wake up every damn morning and feel GLAD.

i want more candlelight dinners with my lover, and more of these deep conversations, where i fall in love with him over and over again.

i want more balance.

i want creative satisfaction.

i want to live with an inherent knowing of my divine preciousness.

i want to have red shoes.

i want to be present for more sunrises and sunsets.

i want to reside in my temple gracefully.

i want to have pen ink on my hands, and paint under my nails when i fall asleep.

i want to travel this year. i yearn for it with an aching that threatens to spill over. i want to be out of my world and in someone else's. i want to be saturated with colours and smells.

i want my eyes to see beautiful things everyday.

i want to go for more walks.

and in the winter months, i want my beloved to wake me like he used to, when we first moved here, and take me for drives in the dawn just to watch the mist rolling and the glow of dawn, and take photos just like these...

i want to remember that excitement, that dreaminess where anything was possible and everything was new, just waiting to be discovered.

the art of gently moving

send love notes to your friends with penguins
~ from my groovy bus friend james


this morning i was talking to my darling about changing our lifestyle ~
less tv and movies, more activity, art, deep conversation, walking and reading.

at lunch, i take him to the physiotherapist ~ he had muscle spasms in the back on the weekend and has been out of action for a few days, coked out on valium {which by the way, is nowhere near as amusing as i thought it would be}.
after digging knuckledeep into his back, she decreed:
less television.
more gentle moving.

and it makes me laugh ~ that we thought it was a choice,
and his body has now made the decision for us.

so we are learning this.
this art of gently moving.
changing our house, life and routine.
our bodies are our temple, and we are just moving in.

a day in words

he calls me to come to the door
we do, and little charlie stands at our feet.
we look out, and smell the scent
of our garden drinking in the rain.

i caught the bus today, after driving a car for a year.
so many little moments you miss when flashing by.
the sweet crush of leaves scenting the morning air.
the reassuring thud of my feet as i run.
the sole pink flower in the garden across the street from the bus stop.

the sun at lunch is warm in the park,
i lean back and grin.
we talk about soup and spirituality and anarchy,
then we all laugh,
because it doesn't really matter.

in the afternoon, waiting to go home,
a whole dandelion wafts in the breeze
a thousand wishes dancing in the sun.
the burnt umber of cigarette smoke is in the air,
and even that smells real.
a man walks by in a suit and cowboy boots,
i converse with a long lost bus stop friend, and we share mints.

we eat two minute noodles,
on our green couch by the windows,
overlooking the grey sweeping clouds.
we talk, and laugh,
then sit in the twilight together.

List of things to do this life

Six months ago, I published this list on my blog. It's time to rehash my list - mark off those already done, and add to it. As in life, the list changes, grows, transforms.


Leonie's beginning list of THINGS TO DO

1. Have a midnight picnic
2. Paint my nails bright purple
3. Have a bicycle with streamers on the handlebars
4. Have henna painted on the palms of my hands

Indeedy, I have! Most scrumptious!



5. Read tea leaves
6. Learn how to say "thank you" in six languages.

Swahili ~ 'asante!'
Hawaiian ~ 'Mahalo!'
Japanese ~ 'doomo arigatoo gozaimasu'
German ~ 'danke schon'
Spanish ~ 'munchas gracias'
Malaysian ~ 'terima kasih'

{with asante to Trish and my multilingual colleagues}

7. Play Bingo in a Bingo hall.
8. Scuba dive
9. Handglide



I have, I have, I have!
While on Christmas holidays, Chris and I went to Hamilton Island for the day. {All the benefits of having your hometown so close to the Whitsunday Islands!}
We rented a golf buggy and spent the day hooning around the island, swimming in the resort pools and discovering little treasures. One of them was the Wireflyer ~ it is like handgliding on a flying fox.

I saw the sign from afar but thought to myself ~ oh, it will be too expensive. At the last moment, I spun my little buggy wheels into their parking lot. Sieze ze momente!

I'm so glad I took the leap {both metaphorically and literally!} It was cheap enough to do it, and it was FABULOUS!


Leonie: handglider extraordinaire

I squealed with delight the whole way down... then back up again... and down again. Sweeping into the great green valley overlooking the ocean was dreamlike.




good to be back in the nest of his arms after flying the valley

10. Wear a lot of bangles on my wrists so I can make music when I *sashay*

A dozen of deep and turquoise blue bangles adorn my wrists now.
They play their own tune when I walk and dance. And sometimes, just sometimes, I send one on its way, on its own journey, adorning the wrists of those who touch my day.



11. Swim with dolphins
12. Spread happy graffiti/street stickers
13. Photograph project of street art

Completed to heart's satisfaction. :)
here and here and here and here



14. Hold the hands of my beloved on a beach and say *I do* while looking intensely into his eyes
15. Begin & finish my second gratitude journal
16. Finish reading "Women who run with the Wolves"

I've started, and I think that counts... I think this one is a lifetime achievement book...

17. Read "Mists of Avalon"

Have read well over half of this book. Not sure I will finish it. Maybe I will if I decide it will serve me, but right now it serves me to say no. As SARK would say ~ giving myself permission to not finish a book. Very liberating.

18. Read a Henry Miller book
19. Finish an Anais Nin book
20. Have a book launch
21. Write silly and insightful sayings on t-shirts and wear them

In the making, and in the being. Have done, and will continue too.

22. Paint like a goddess

In the making, and in the being. Have done, and will continue too.

23. Watch "What the Bleep Do we Know"
24. Watch the Qaatsi trilogy

Booked in for March

25. Record a full length song
26. Dance on a table
27. Design my own sticker series
28. Feel truly enriched, uplifted and satisfied by my career. Touch other's lives with my work.

In the making.

29. Get published by a publishing house
30. Paint a photo frame
31. Have a big treasure chest of artsy goodies

In the process of ~ I have a large gift box that is ever growing filled with artsy goodies.

32. Make an altar

Done. It is a soft blue set of shelves filled with items that remind me of divinity.

33. Cook a creme brulee
34. Play a magical April Fool's Day trick
35. Get an eyebrow ring

Joyfully, wonderously done!



36. Rockclimb

Everywhere I go, I climb rocks.



Nonetheless, I haven't climbed a rockwall yet. I'm holding out...

37. Have bright blue hair
38. Canoe/Kayak on Lake Burley Griffin

I did go sailing, it was extreme, and it totally counts.

39. Go to a Sacred Heart Gathering at Uluru
40. Howl at full moon
41. Learn the dates for star signs off by heart
42. Get a tattoo
43. Do an art portfolio up with photos of all my works

Yes, yes oh yes oh yes!
It is gorgeous to see it manifested physically, and it's been dang useful!
Especially today. So good to just pick it up, walk out the door with it, and show it to the world saying: this is me. this is what i do. this is what makes my heart beat.

44. Learn Tibetan Buddhist meditation

Booked in to come.

45. Dance on a beach at night

Come March at the AussiePalooza, and you won't be able to keep me from it. :)

46. Have a LeoniePaLooza

Cie! Cie! The palooza of Leonie was in August. The gathering of goddesses. Check it out here and here.

47. Sleep under the stars again
48. Hike for three days
49. Eat noodles again at a streetvendor stall in SE Asia
50. Have a hammock.
51. Own a blue car
52. Add to this list
53. Change my name to Leonie Cougar Mellancamp Allan {or not}

I don't think I will. Mark that off.

54. Dress in disguise
55. Get so flexible i can bend my head to my knees
56. Work in a bookstore
57. Perform a rain dance
58. Wear a grass skirt and a coconut bra
59. Get a professional dress-ups photo taken (dressed up like another era)
60. Baptise a baby
61. Find a signature perfume scent

I'm on the quest as we speak.

62. Create a dreamboard

Twice over, and both times a beautiful experience.
You can see one here, and the other below.



63. Watch a foal being born
64. Marry myself
65. Give birth
66. Find a song that sings about a Leonie
67. Have no idea about what I'm going to be doing for a year
68. Tell a stranger they look beautiful
69. Give a spontaneous hug to someone I wouldn't usually.
70. Cut and polish a rock
71. Make a plaster cast of my breasts & belly and paint it
72. Belly dance in blue
73. See a buffalo
74. Take photos of the red dirt of the Grand Canyon against a blue blue sky.

Did this virtually.

75. Gondola. Venice.
76. Meet SARK.
77. Paint rocks
78. Paint with ochre rock dust
79. Create my own set of oracle cards
80. Delve and acknowledge the wisdom of my authentic and ancient self

This is a love story unfolding between me and my highest self.

81. Drink tea made from loose tea leaves
82. Make a necklace
83. White water raft
84. Ride a horse again

Hurrah! I got to do this one while on holidays on my parents' farm for Christmas as well!
There was some mustering to be done, so I rode out with my little sister on my sweet horse Jeremiah. It was just as I remembered it. The thing I missed most about horse riding was their smell.



My adventures so far have been richly rewarding. I'm glad I dreamt big. I'm glad I leapt.

And so I continue...
dream dreaming, adventure seeking, highest be-ing.

c e l e b r a t e good times!

you know when you have the big dreams in your heart?
the ones since childhood that you don't really talk about.
it's sacred to you ~ as sweet to your mind as tea to your lips.
you don't share it too much. you just wait it out, see what happens... but inside you know this dream is a someday not a maybe?

i had a dream that i didn't even put on my things to do this life list.
i thought it was off in the future somewhere, not right here in the present.

last week i serendipitously fell upon the webpage of a gallery i had been to before. I even wrote about finding the gallery {also serendipitously} a year ago. it is a gorgeous little blue roofed gallery in a small community a ten minutes drive from here.
i noticed last week they were looking for artists to exhibit. so i thought... wells? why not?
so i emailed them. i went out and sat in the sun drinking peppermint tea with the gallery owner today.

result?
in a couple of months i will be having my very own exhibition there for six weeks.

hello sacred, secret, special dream of mine.
so nice to be with you at last.

the sweet smell of colour...

I really, really, really dig the people that I have around me. I love how splendid they are, and how splendid I feel when I am with them.

I had a hot lunchdate with Mel today. We ate delicious thai and I told her I was still on the search for a signature scent (it's on my list of Things to Do this Life list). She asked me what I liked ~ fruity, light, sweet etc. All I could do was stare blankly at her then say: I don't know. I see smells in colours. I'm looking for a powder blue one, and I don't like pink or yellow.

The thing I love about Mel is that she giggled, grabbed me by the hand, took me to the nearest perfumery and said: now tell me what colour this is. Bottle after bottle we sprayed. I would say: oh! that's high yellow! blerk or mmmm that's kind of greenish. After a while, she GOT IT. She got the colour/scent thing! I deeply love that she knew I spoke a different {visual} language and wanted to learn it.

We went from counter to counter in fits of giggles, hands filled with those paper tab thangs. When a perfume lady tried to help us by asking what I liked, all I could giggle out is "ooooh, I just want to smell CLEAN like fabric softener."

Now we are coloursmell afficiondos! It was one of the silliest adventures I have had in a long time. I now stink like a perfumery and am smiling like a smiley smelly person. :)

Incase you were wondering, the shortlist was reduced to ~
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue {funnily enough}
Some French thing. Let's call it Err Derr Blerr. It's still on my elbow and is waay too floral {orange}.
Davidoff's Cool Water for Women


Today I am deeply grateful to scented adventures and spectacular friends...

so much beauty

"To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your life depends on it; and when the time comes, to let it go."
~ Mary Oliver

Reading loobylu this morning, I was amazed when she spoke of the turning points in her creative life being reading "the artist's way" and getting a wacom tablet.
why am i so amazed?
two days ago i got my first wacom tablet.
yesterday i began reading "the artist's way." just reading the introduction helped me shift something that helped me return my consciousness to the delights and flow of art.

yesterday in my studio, the best moments were watching washes of blue and purple paint trickle down my canvas. adding water and letting the water and paint create their own patterns. it felt so good to me, to forget about the whirrings of the mind and return to that state of wonderous delight in art.

last night, i took my sketchbook out and just doodled. followed the lines of one of my favourite cartoon illustration books, and contentedly flavoured it in leonie style. i felt so much joy at shading little dots onto cartoon girl's skirt.

this is what being an artist is all about.
when you forget what it is to be an artist, and lose yourself in the dripping paint, the spots and the flavours. the little moments where you feel so much wonder, joy and delight in what you are creating and where you are RIGHT NOW. that's when i know i am doing exactly what i was born to do. {i got warm chills when i wrote that}.

lush ~
:: the amazing swirly girl has touched my day today, just by reading her journal
:: a wonderful article on drumming
:: adventure through the lens with nahila
:: i'm making a quiet pledge to myself to try and do 52 figments. am loving this one.


"I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much - my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday."

~ Lester Burnham, "American Beauty"

Studio Friday: Uniforms

The topic over at Studio Friday this week is the Artist's Uniform.

My uniform changes with my moods.
Usually it is shorts or jeans and an old t-shirt (mostly blue or soft grey).



Sometimes I wrap a scarf around my jeans for a skort look.
The purple crocs are a steadfast favourite.



Usually I have music playing in my studio. I choose it carefully, because music imbues the painting and my emotions as I paint.



Occasionally I need to dress up in order to catch the muse goddess that is wafting in the breeze. I was wearing the turquoise skirt above, and listening to R. Carlos Nakai's "Desert Dreamer" CD when I painted the below "Desert Dancer"



And a pair of crazy socks never goes astray either...



"There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful."
~ Howard Thurma

The movie critics

Me: You have officially lost your cred as movie critic. Your last dozen movie picks have been horrendous!
Lover: But... but what about the last movie? I thought you liked that!
Me: The Girl Next Door? That was atrocious!
Lover: Really? Why?
Me: It had a crap plot and it was violent!
Lover: Well we watched that other movie last night, and it had violence in it!
Me: You mean Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous?
Lover: Yeah... that one. It had violence!

There is silence as I ponder this. He is correct, there was violence. Now what was it that made it so different to other violence.

Me: Yeah, but that's different honey. That was police brutality in Miss Congeniality. EVERYONE's desensitized to that.


:::
Excellent non-violent watching:
DIY Network Woodsculpting with Pete Ortel. Riveting viewing... I loved seeing his quirky characters emerging from wood.

National Treasures

Image care of the fantastic Picture Australia

We went to the wonderful National Library of Australia to see the National Treasures exhibition. As always, they put together a fascinating exhibition filled with many historical treasures. From Captain Cook's exploration journals, to a video of 1974's Cyclone Tracy, to 1960's flight brochures ("Apart from take off and landing, you are welcome to smoke cigarettes to your heart's content. We ask you to refrain from cigars or pipers however as their strong smells may upset other passengers") National Treasures is an eclectic collection of Australian life. I love NLA is recording it all.

My favourite pieces:

The above picture by Alfred Ducote which was used as propaganda to encourage women to emigrate to Australia to even out the gender imbalance. It features the English women turning into butterflies to fly over to Australia. Men are all along the coastline awaiting them, saying such gentlemanly things "Oh! I spot a fine one! I shall make her mine!"
It is a delightful and sensitively drawn piece with such amusing, almost absurd overtones. It made me smile large, and I just dig how those women in evening gowns have butterfly wings.

Banjo Paterson's shirt, detached collar inscribed in poetry and stubby ink pen. This man wrote iconic stories and songs in poverty. It was cool to see his tiny, broken pen held together with string. Made me remember I don't need the perfect pen or brush, I just need to create.

Eddie Mabo's handwritten speech, and felt pen drawing to indicate land rights on his island.

The diary of a POW written in incredibly miniscule writing (I couldn't read it) due to the scarcity of paper. Another diary written on a toilet roll.

A letter from Patrick White and handwritten manuscript in an exercise book. I was mesmerised by the below portrait of Patrick White by Brendan Hennessy:


Also care of Picture Australia

This exhibition made me remember my heritage and become more intimately acquainted with the iconic Aussies I dig. I was amazed at how these people used what they had to create - whether it was highlighters, an exercise book, a stubby pen or a toilet roll. Don't wait for it to be perfect - just create. Plus the cutesy kitsch drawings made me itch for my pen.

If you're a Canberran, check it out before February 13.
National Treasures is off on tour around the country after then.

blessings,
Leonie

Joy comes first

doodle, on my new Wacom graphics tablet

"What else do you have to stake? Just your misery. The only pleasure you have is talking about it. Look at people talking about their misery, how happy they become! They pay for it; the go to psychoanalysts to talk about their misery - they pay for it! Somebody listens attentively, and they are very happy.

People talk about their misery again and again. They even exaggerate, they embellish it, they make it look bigger. They make it look bigger than life-size. Why? You have nothing but your misery at stake, but people cling to the known, to the familiar. The misery is all they have known; that is their life. Nothing to lose, but so afraid to lose it.

As I see it, happiness comes first, joy comes first. A celebrating attitude comes first. Enjoy! If you cannot enjoy your work, change. Dont wait! Because all the time that you are waiting, you are waiting for Godot and Godot is never going to come. One simply waits and wastes one's life. For whom, for what are you waiting?"

Joy: The Happiness That Comes from Within
OSHO

osho gives me the loving kick up the ass i need sometimes...

Sacred Circle of the ocean

I call for you to join the sacred circle. I blow into the mouth of a conch shell, and across the oceans the sound travels. It reaches you where you are sitting right now, and you hear it not, just with your ears but with your belly. The slow, melodic call of the shell. It resounds within you.

Join the sacred circle at the message board...

2006 bloggies

"The great Western disease is, ‘I'll be happy when… When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.’ Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now."
~ Marshall Goldsmith

The 2006 bloggies awards have just been opened.
If you wanted to vote for me, I would be most grateful.

You can enter the one blog for as many categories as you choose.
If you do decide to, please include me in the category for Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog.

Deep blessings to you!


other blog entries i am loving of late ~

jen gray:: her ambition is my ambition this year
bohemian girl:: sharing on one of my favourite songs, and returning to simplicity in our spiritual journeys. something that resonates deeply with me of late.

the twirling of fire

jess


It takes courage to grow up and
become who you really are.
~ e.e. cummings





These photos were taken by me and spunky lover while on holidays. It was my dad's 50th birthday, and my sister's 25th birthday. We were having a party, and my brother's girlfriend Sandy pulled out her firetwirling wands and juggling sticks. The girl's got skiiiiiilllllls.




After she twirled and juggled (with FIRE!) for all of us, her gorgeous 6 year old son Jess picked up the wand. And I thought... if a 6 year old can do it, then surely it wouldn't be difficult for a 23 year old with questionable co-ordination to play with fire?

indeedy.

i never would have thought i would have celebrated out the end of the year
by standing in a paddock at night,
under a sky brimming with stars,
twirling fire with two new friends and my lover.




The greatest surprise is that there is anything at all -- that we are here.
David Steindl-Rast
Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer


~scrummy links~

:: 52 figments project at Swirly Girl. i'm up for it... are you?

:: i met the gorgeous girls at faerietail at the art markets. fabulous wings, horns and wreaths to accessorise your inner pixie.

:: robert genn's twice weekly newsletter on art and life
even when nothing else makes much sense around me, robert does. his newsletters have that calming effect on me.