Christmas Story 2010 read at The Authors Mouth

Eddie Cheeseburger was in despair and his live in squeeze Griselda Gherkin was hurt and angry.

'Grisie doll,I am so sorry, honestly it was just a one night stand with Fairy Lights---we were both pissed and she is such a flirt'.

'Oh and you couldn't turn her down---oh --p--l--ease. Fairy Lights flirts with everyone but they don't all sleep with her. Wellhere is some news for you,I'm off to spend Christmas with Tosser Turkey, he always asks me and this year I'm sitting at his table'.

BANG the door slammed shut, the only sound was the ticking of the big clock in the hall.
I've got to think of something quickly---I don't want to lose my gorgeous Gerkin Gal. That old reprobate Big-Mac owes me a favour, where's my cel phone?

'Hi Big mac I need your help my sweet little Gherkin Gal has run off with Tosser Turkey and I don't know how to win her back.

'Eddie get agrip, clean up the house,make it smell good---a few flowers in a vase. She'll be back around January 1. Tosser only mixes with the rest of us once a year, she'll be back, but be ready, freshen up your buns and no onions.

Summer

Well poetry at Borders went well and I was asked if I would do it again so it must have gone OK. There I sat between three dedicated writers promoting their fiction,I felt like a bit of a fraud but it has brought me back to the keyboard again. Tricky though to make the old gray matter move a muscle or two, especially when I live by this glorious beach and a somewhat fragile summer is stirring. As you know most of my time is spent in the art room working with my hands and all exciting bits of life are tied up in the process of making, being creative and looking forwards to moments that I can spend with my grandchild.
Actual exciting personal experiences are for the young, I can only live through memory and observation now. Change in all things is inevitable and it can be sad to see some of the good things I remember on the wain or are no more. Some of the replacements of the good old stuff for me is very disappointing but of course because of the rythms of life,in a short time they will be the memories of another generation.

My Abstract Painting

Not been here for a while now, it is just my secret place for words but recently my paintings are letting go of people they are becoming more abstract and I am rather pleased about this as I am going through a process of letting go.(Time of life? Maybe!) A relief really, some of the works are more appealing to me than others, some are peaceful and some are loud and over the top. There are so many opinions about Art and what it should and should not be, all about form and balance and colour, but when it comes to the making--- the exciting thing is anything can happen and sometimes it's like jumping off a cliff. You just don't know what it will look like when one layer goes on top of another, until you absolutely saturate your surface. Maybe it will be magnificent or just maybe the whole bloody thing will be a complete mess. These two images go from the sublime to the rediculous but I have to confess to be the maker and accept ownership of both of these pieces my work.

Oh No! (not summer again)

The heat can be a mixed blessing, by the end of a cold dreary winter the body is aching for sunshine and at 60 something I mean aching. Then one day in January the hotness and insects biting, tell me we are in the midst of summer. One or two itchy burnings appear around the ankles and then before I know it my whole body is a seething mess of large red welts burning and itching and suddenly I am yearning for a cold winters day, I am dreaming of walking through the snow and slush of an elegant London Street wearing a thick woolen coat and hat. Here I am trapped by the sparkling sea under a perfect blue sky with the sleepy village along side and me the sleepy zombie on the antihystamine pills.

WHO AM I

I am very excited this week as on Saturday February 13th I am part of Art Day in Mairangi Bay. I will be painting in the main street with others and then at midday I will submit this painting for auction.

'Who Am I' is a question that must be asked, in fact it raises many questions, where did this image come from along with so many others. Some strange threads that have been handed to me from those that lived before me. Creativity is a mysterious force to be reckoned with. It rises and falls and in the aggressive moments it thrusts forward from some ambiguous pathway, daring me to step outside my comfort zone and dare to be different and stand out from the crowd. My crazy creative force pushes me to the edge, beyond the realms of reality sometimes vivid and colourful and sometimes dull and sombre but as I work my head is filled with thoughts, emotions and a need to place and balance colour, shape and form. Although this painting does not solve the answer to the question it at least leaves a clue for the future of who or what I am.

The Foyer of The Bruce Mason Theatre. My babies are there until 29th jan 2010.

Words at last

One of those blue sky hot days is drawing to a close as the sun goes down over the grey green sea. It began with a stroll down to the village where I joined "The Cafe Society" for breakfast, not done as often since being retired. I then boarded a bus to town to have a look at "Flight of Fantasy"(show of paintings by my friend Caroline and I) which will only be there until Jan 29th. The bus was trembling with excited and thunderously noisy teenagers. Elderly passengers were smiling out of the corner of their mouths, probably remembering like me those crazy heady days of our own youth when our energy was high and we could make as much noise as a banshee and dance until dawn. These kids were on there way to the BIG DAY OUTand as I left the bus I wished the stressed out driver the best of luck.
How guilty I feel living this privilidged lifestyle whilst others far away struggle against natural disasters and lay crushed, broken,dead, hungry after a devistating earthquake. My mind also wanders to my friends and family on the other side of the globe where they have had to cope with unusual ammounts of snow, ice and freezing temperatures.
Here I am still here in my mid 60's and writing a blog, this is a strange place where I seem to speak to an empty screen and yet maybe it encompasses the whole world,maybe anyone will press a button and read my innermost thoughts that just pop out of my very own subconscious, gosh how magical is that? Quite a miracle really, you see when you live at the bottom of the world and your family have flown away to far off lands you can become quite cloistraphobic living with thoughts and feelings with no place to put them and so I have found coping skills by painting thoughts upon a canvas and now I have this wonderful pristine box on my screen where I can punch in words.