Piggy market

This little piggy Teresa made her own costume round at my house for the jumping the fence float. She made it all the way to Taiwan as I found out later she was in a magazine over there. This photo is from the Mardi Gras magazine. I hired a photographer but something went wrong with sorting out copy's of photos with everyone. Contact William if you want photos.


Mardi Gras Sydney 2000 Lambsy lesso's and the woolly woofters jumping the fence float. Photo taken by William Smith. I am an ozzie kelpy dog in this one, spent months making the costumes and ended up with a full farm yard with farmer family and truck. Marilyn did the make up. Kath kelped with props, and everyone helped decorate the float. Lyn helped sort it all out and it was for a counseling hot line.

I just did a weener bit of research on the net to find out more about swine flu. First check was surgical masks, sold out completely and be a week before they can be imported.

The pharmaceutical industry due to the global economic change of thought, has a depletion in sales. So share holders are a bit annoyed, so what might they do.

Create a big porky lie, to sell loads of vaccines and disposable plastic stuff.

This is not the first time we had this sort global consumer shift. Everyone fell for the 1999-2000 invisible bug. Which I made a survival suit for and bought a couple bottles of water with the few dollars I had, but other people spent thousands on bottled water and many other things.

So the pharmaceutical company's have just won over tourism and travel industry.

Personally I don't really like the idea of being vaccinated against swine flu by being given a bit of swine flu.

I am sure the pharmaceutical company's now want to burn me at the stake, like they have always done to Women, who said there hair growing lotions, didn't work. Back in the old days.

I wish they would stop all these health scares as people begin to believe they have it and then get it, from believing they got it.

All this money on plastic disposable masks etc, could have been spent on other more important causes.

List of scares in the last few years, foot and mouth, mad cow disease, 1999-2000, Tb from poor little badgers, bird flu. Seal flu.

Majority are to do with mass factory farming. The way of solving this is to stop eating meat.

Strange I just over heard someone saying that keeping a pig in there backyard as a sign of poverty and dirty living conditions. I would say living next to an enormous factory farm, dirty living conditions. Norfolk I am sure has lots of factory farms so were living in dirty unethical living conditions.

The site I linked is 2005 old news, new news is Norfolk pig farmers have won recent awards for keeping there pigs happy. Well thats a blissing.

Unfortunate that mass panic has started happening and some countrys are slaughtering all there pigs and some are moving there piggys out to the countryside away from citys.

A good place to put a pig is back is in the woods, where they are happy. Pigs would make a good pesticide and fertilizer if they lived on friut farms and ate windfall fruit before it rots. They dont like a lot of sun.

Found a webby with abandoned pig food processing farm photos. Great photos.

Boooby Bread

I am up all night again, painting illustrations and made some bread. A winning shaped bread or does it get the Booby prize. I am thinking now do I go all the way and find a really big oven and bake a full lady and gent.

Pigs can fly as we are finding out the pig flu that is actually a human, pig and onion strain of flu. Has Spread globally and does stem from a pig farm that breeds billions of pigs a year, an American company that also does not deal with the pig manure problem. The locals have complained about the fly's for years from the pig manure poo lagoons.

So yet again this mass farming has backfired on its self. When is the world going to wake up to being a vegetarian and giving up on this piggery.

In Norwich every house hold is allowed to have a few pigs in there back yard. Which I discovered on the deeds to my parents house. It was not long ago when people had pigs in there back yard. Even Dennis the Menace had a pig called Rasher in the Beano comic.

Pigs are really handy for eating all your vegetable and poo waste, but they still like to eat a lot and need insects and things to forage on all year. My garden would love a pig, it has lots of trees and weeds or old fashioned edible foods. But sadly a lot of peoples gardens are lawned and concrete slabbed and potted up with inedible plants or houses have extended into the garden. The outside use to be more important then the inside of the house.

My friend Rebecca and her family in Ireland are successfully having a few free range pigs a year in there wild garden and they have plenty of hams and salami.

Organic free range farming should be top of the list on the governments new system of getting teenagers jobs.

Anyway the pig strain is still unknown of how it spreads, so maybe we can't wash are hands of this one.

If you need a fancy washable mask to wear for piggy plague. Just send me a message.

County council in Norwich has decided to have a nature conservation around it which they think might come from not mowing the lawn all summer. Very strange thinking, it might need quite a lot more then unmowed lawn. Like removing the lawn and planting wild native seeds and hundred years of no human activity.

Turtle pencil holder

As an artist I will use all these pencils in one night and sharpen them again. I like Hb pencils, but in the end it doesn't matter what thickness the lead is. The hand, mood, brain does all the work to make the picture turn out. Pencils are nearly one pound each in price. Its an expensive business this art business. A computer programme that would have all the drawing tools would cost me thousands.

I made a whole family of these turtles they carry all my materials on the table.

Turtles are paper mache.

day 2 illustrating with two hours sleep. About to have another coffee. My work has been seen in China this week. Does it mean I can officially call myself an International Artist and not a local one.

The hospital has gone into emergency pig stations. Hold ya breath. Pigs are genetically 96 percent human. Humans have been murdering piggys for a long time the last few decades they have been locked up in confined conditions for breeding to eat. Pig revenge is on its way. Or is it because the whole world feeds pigs, the same product pig meal with a strange idea of a balanced diet. When they are more refined then that they like truffles and fresh organic vegetables and cheese and wine in France. In Ireland they like parachute mushrooms, watercress, shamrock and woodland fairies.

The Chippalatas

I was flicking through someones Norwich festival guide, snubbing my nose at all the seriously and boring theatre and music on a whole snobby personal perception of I would much rather see a show with local people in and people I know. When low and behold I came across the Chipolata's that are performing at the theatre Royal in Norwich.  I made costumes for them at Bradford festival and then bumped into them again in Sydney and at Woodford festival. There the Best British Talent around and they can entertain the whole family of all ages. Roll up roll up get your family tickets. 

I even have the Chipolatas CD and use to sing along to it with my housemates. If you want a good laugh to start off your summer of giggles, the chips are it.

Hi Chipolatas, come over for a knees up and backward summersault vault in the air, when you get here. Great to see you guys again.

Snot Pie

This lovely pie I invented when I was a naughty teenager to feed my cousins who were also naughty teenagers, one of them was dating a young male chef and he was coming over to meet the family. Its packed full of green vegetables and has a spinach pastry and cheesey sauce dribbling out.  The pie worked a treat my cousin married the chef, he loved the pie.

I made the pie a again for the new generation of cousins and they weren't so impressed.

Letting your kids muck around in the kitchen is the only way there going to eat there greens. 

There is masses of kids cook books out there, handed down family recipes are the best and if your from Norfolk, you have funded Delia Smith's Norwich city football club, by having every copy of Delia's cook books, over the last 4 decades. Delia has got an even newer cookbook out to give the club and extra boost. 

There is also a lovely old Brownies cookbook at on line book sellers. 

This breads got lip

Big lips bread coated with paprika spice. Today on line I discovered the artist who designs the google logos gets paid $300,000 a month. Can Dennis Hwang the google logo designer make a loaf of bread at the same time as illustrating the words google?

Maybe I should make a special Norfolk day Google logo and send it to Dennis.

Swamped blog #BlogNor09

We caught the last one. By Eloise O'Hare 2007

Blogging Norfolk and I got put on the Map, I didn't realise I had to name a place to be put on the map. I thought as I am living in Norwich, I would be put on in the Norwich area. I got pinned to the map out in a swamp between Great Yarmouth and Burgh Castle. It took me hours too find me out there in the deep dark cyberspace. But now pleased I found myself and really pleased I am near a castle and the Norfolk broads and the sea, maybe I should move there.

While looking for me, I found lots of other bloggers and discovered bloggers that I already know in person, but didn't know they were secret bloggers too.

I think the general feeling of going on blogging Norfolk is that we have been outed of the blogging closet. The other great thing is seeing everyones side of Norfolk and seeing we go a lot in common as well as living in the same area and seeing so many great things that are happening. 

 

Emergency! Crayfish and sewage Norfolk!

Shit Cleaning Products by Eloise O'Hare 2007





Animal rights activists. By Eloise O'Hare 2007

Emergency news alert to everyone living Norfolk. Please switch to using ecover products or ecoballs for washing and cleaning your house. The normal chemical products and washing powders are effecting all the waterways and killing off all nature. Norfolk is the only place in the world with English crayfish and there habitat the waterways is getting clogged up by all the shit we put down the drain. If we use eco-products maybe there could be a chance of reusing are sewage to put on the land as fertiliser.

If the waterways is effected by are cleaning products imagine what the sea is like.

This is a real emergency please switch today. If you live in the countryside please build a composting toilet too. As more people move to Norfolk or come here over the summer the sewage farms are not able to cope, so please help by doing something. It is up to the individual to make this change don't wait for the government, there not likely to do anything about it as there not a green party there a pre-historic party from another planet, that is only concerned about there own pocket linings.

You can get green ecover products from your local greeny type shops.

Also beware of all the chemical sprays such of perfume, underarm stuff, creams, shampoo's that you put on your body they also get washed down the drain when you have a shower, bath. Have you checked out what is in them, things like bits of plastic, not a nice thing to put on your body never mind killing off halve the planet with them. I am begging you on behalf of all the animals in Norfolk. 

Foxy lady #blognor09

The hunt is on for the foxy lady. Hunting is band in Norfolk, so they hunt foxy ladys in fur coats instead to keep the tradition going.

Over the hill jogging bloggers in Norfolk #blognor09

Over the hill jogging bloggers in Norfolk, escaped from the naturist camp site.

Nearly all the nude models we had at Yarmouth art college were retired naturists. There body's showed what they had been through in life, like an open book.

Barbie Weather #blognor09

There is always a few vegetarians at a barbie or more. Here is the answer to all your problems, marinated tofu and veges kebabs with peanut satay sauce and rice or bread

Buy hard tofu from a greeny grocer shop. cut into cubes put on stick with random big cube veges and whole mushrooms. Marinate over night in fresh grated ginger, garlic, chili sauce, dash of sesame sauce, oil, tamari. 

Fry onions, chili, garlic in pan, then cool and mix in a blender with peanuts and coconut milk or yogurt and a dash of water to make smooth. 

Put the vege and the barbie the next day till slightly charred and reheat the peanut sauce and make some rice or toast some pitta bread.

Linconshire sausages are also great for the barbie and just a slab of tofu.

My old favourite is potatoes in the ashes of the fire and once cooked a spaghetti squash whole and then cut it in halve after cooked and eat with a fork. In Oz I have a friend who can bake cakes on a barbie. So its up to the imagination and practise.

Another favourite is witches teeth a corn on the cob on the barbie.

I am working on my vego cook book, just need more time and hands to illustrate. 

Composting Norfolk #blognor09

Van Gogh's composting toilet. 

I have come across a few composting toilets, they come in all sorts of different types, but most people go for outside toilet with a view. The compost can be composted a 2nd time mixed in normal vege waste. Always take a spade camping and bury your compostable waste or take it home with you in a little bag. Like a doggy doo bag.

International Collaboration. #blognor09

Norwich pole dancers.

Working table

Over the last few years I have watched all the businesses in Norfolk and the UK move out to India as there only way of saving there business. Norwich Union was one of them they use to be a huge employer in Norwich. People left school and either went to college or got a job at Norwich union.

Since I have been living back in Norwich after being in OZ for nearly a decade. I have struggled to get anything happening. I even designed ideas to fit in with the local community. Like my plastic bottle green house in schools. You would think that would be perfect for schools it teaches carpentry, reusing, and growing veges all in one. When I got in contact with all the schools after doing a Neat business course,  there was not the enthusiasm that I imagined. They said we only get funding for digital things like DVDs.

So the government has complete control over what the teachers teach. So the chance of a kid in a rural farming area growing a tomato is very slim. So the infrastructure in this country is completely set up to fail. 

As a desperate measure to find work in Norfolk I went on line, to search outside Norfolk and to find the like minded enthusiastic people.

I searched the whole planet all over. Starting with a websites, I have 3 at the moment and 10 I helped with the design and layout of writers and artists sites.

Then I went on Facebook, joined over a hundred groups. Then my friend Rebecca in Ireland started her sustainable living blog and I got hooked on the idea of having one. 

Then I started my own art related groups on Facebook. 

Then Anand found me on my cartoonist group. Anand lives in Mumbai India and has a animation porthole website called animation xpress. He knows all the animation studios and has been to Norwich for an Animation conference. He is also a journalist and writer and has joined forces with me to collaborate on a children's book.

The story I like a lot it sparked my imagination straight away. After absorbing the information and exchanging messages with Anand. I then draw lots of sketches and made up 3 paintings for the story and emailed them off to Mumbai.

I am trying very hard to get the pictures to be the best. The book is set in Indonesia so I have drummed up the imagination for being there. 

The illustrations have been accepted as brilliant, so this week I painted another page and have weeks a head of me to carry on painting. 

I wish I had a grant to do art all day I haven't seen a check since last year. I seem to work very hard yet no one wants to pay me in the UK. So I have joined the large boat of businesses moving to India, where they seem to be very on the ball, enthusiastic, embrace and use talented people. 

Ireland had the same problem in the 1970's of talent leaving the island. Francis Bacon, Samuel Beckett, to potters, traditional artists etc. The government acted on this straight away and let all artists be tax free. Then art and the music scene boomed, there was one year at my school that had six bands including U2 . When U2 started earning large sums of cash the first thing they did was repair Dublin, starting with a theatre at the school which was built.

So the best way Norfolk and the UK could start getting things going would be to support the talent instead of letting them rot in the gutter. A tax break would make no difference as artists don't earn anything. But grants  and management teams would be a good idea, to get the potential earnings working.

Or a basic government salary.

Maybe this country has come to a standstill because of all the rules and regulations, which fill up peoples in/out trays.  A sample of this is if I want to borrow a ladder, I need insurance, a letter of permission, public liability. A car with a roof rack, traffic permit to park. Health and safety certificate and a police check and a certificate course in how to go up and down a ladder, ow and someone to hold the ladder at the bottom.

I don't remember all these show stoppers in the first 2 and halve decades of my life. 

In the old days you just got up the ladder did the job and came down again. Falling off the ladder is down to pure circumstance and all the show stoppers listed cant stop or help fate.

When I was teaching stilt walking in Little Snoring a little boy said to me, my mum said I am going to fall of these stilts today, it was affirmed by his Mum that is what he is going to do. So I showed him how to fall safely. So he could fall off his stilts over and over again, like his Mum wanted him to. 

The same applies to everything, the news is constant failings. More jobs going to go this week. etc. then the I told ya so afterwards.

All I want is a life that I can get on with and not have boulders put in the way or hoops to jump through.

Best get back to painting, all this writing is eternal. Will keep you posted on my Mumbai/Norwich collaboration.

I 

Twitter twitcher Norfolk #blognor09

The healthy bird is twittering to the unhealthy bird letting the unhealthy bird know where the nearest organic farm is located. An organic worm and small insect detox diet.

The a constant flight of twittering from 3am in the morning outside my window in the trees.

Once the organic farms in Norfolk multiply so does are range of wildlife and birds. All the more nature to paint pretty pictures of.

I just made a cause page on facebook for Auntie Janie's, Chauncy Maples hospital ship renovation on Lake Malawi in Africa. Robert built her website for the charity to help fund raise for the cause. 

Eco Norwich #BlogNor09

My first attempt on making normal bread look like fruit, experimenting with different herbs and spices. Kiwi turned out well with dried parsley coating, oranges and Mandarins were spot on with a turmeric coating. Just need to work on the banana and going to use blended spinach for the apples next time and make the bread have the fruit flavors adding zest. 

Norwich is so green that people can grow plants from the tips of there fingers. Its all greening off this week. Its the Queens birthday today and Prince Charles her son and heir as brought out a book called Harmony, the Prince says were all loosing touch with nature.  Well I am looking forward to having a greener future when Charles becomes King. Maybe he should be King now, to speed things up a bit. 

Sandringham gardens should be open for the summer, they grow a lot of produce at Sandringham and are turning organic with a percentage of organic produce.

Norwich has several organic shops, the Green Grocers, the Greenhouse trust shop, Anna's farm shop, Rainbow and the main city markets, where stall holders are out right through the winter selling vegetables, when it is freezing.

The Veg shop on Gloucester street, Fred & Yarham veg shop is my nearest veg shop and they have plants and small trees. I have a big blueberry bush now, which can grow up to 6 ft. They also have paper bags and fish.

There is also a new little coffee shop on the corner across the road, so you could if smart, give a list of veges you want to the veg shop and butchers and bakers then go and have a coffee at the cafe and pick it all up when you have read the paper.

There is also quite a few organic delivery services in Norwich. 

I like fresh herbs so I always have a kitchen garden on the window ledges of Rosemary, oregano, sage, coriander, mint and chives. I would like my wild strawberry's to spread this year so I have composted around them and live in hope. 

End of summer I get baskets of windfalls from my Mum and its apple pie season. With flour from Letheringsett flour water mill. 

Last summer I went on a big bike ride with friends out to find the oldest tree in the Uk a Hawthorn at Heffal. Instead we found buckets of blackberries and Lotus car factory. At the moment I got wind that there is a wind energy fast car being made there by a team of experts.

Ecotricity are on to it, the power company that reinvests in green energy and matches the bill with other power company's. Norfolk is a good spot for windmills being flat and coastal.

This summer I plan to go out walking in Norfolk and take with me a book I have just been lent by a friend called "Free for All" a wild plants as a source of food book. I will then have ago at cooking with nature.

Wild oats for breakfast!

Outside there changing the street lamps one would hope there going to make them solar. I wonder if a sensor system would work. a light switch for pedestrians to turn on the street lights when walking home in the dark or as you walk past the light or drive past the next light gets turned on. Just ideas.

I ride my bike everywhere and take it on the train. I have two bikes an inner city posing bike with big basket and a country rides one with gears.

I could rabble on all day about all the Eco things in Norfolk. I got my green party posters this week from my local green councilor. They want to go for sending one of our green councilors to Europe so voting Green is a good idea this year.

All Norfolk needs now is lots of funding to start up more Eco enterprises, that could create more jobs. I have lists of ideas if your stuck for one.

Must get back to making my art money to send off to Denmark. That's another story will tell you later.

Keep reading my blog today I have put out a new blog page every hour as a Norfolk Spring special show and tell. 

   

Finding the shelve within book by Jane Smith

If you have read my previous blobbys, you will have discovered that I have built and designed and painted and upholstered my own wacky functional furniture to make my studio, come dining room, breakfast bar, kitchen, sitting room like a ship or the inside of the yellow submarine.

After I organized my inner space, which was once turmoil, my outside space started to work. My first visitor to my new order gave me a job as furniture designer for the new decked out with art children's ward at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for the arts project. The work has been challenging drawing proper plan drawings up for Acre Joinery to make up into reality. 

Now my inside world and outside work world is sorted, what more would I need to be a normal human being. The world outside our world, the spiritual world.

While I was working day and night struggling at time to get the drawings perfect, so all the furniture and toys can be built by the joiners and plans read by everyone and a model from the plans. There was someone looking over me, making sure everything goes right. I managed to drum up out of the spiritual world the Goddess of shelves called Jane Smith. Goddess Jane made contact with me through the modern day contact port to everyone facebook. She made friends with me and I realised we had a lot in common. She had answers to all my questions of kipple. (Kipple is the dark matter of our physical realm. In other words unsorted junk and turmoil.

Then one of Jane's Devotees Larry Buttrose asked me to join her fan club and ran a competition to win Jane's book Finding the shelve within. So I gave it go and answered the questions and sent them over to her Temple (cave in Australia). 

After the weekend I had an email saying I had won her book and autographed by Jane Smith.

A week later the book came vira snail mail and I read it from cover to cover, loving every bit of the book, the illustrations photos are state of the art and the words are all wisdom to my ears.

Now I am spiritually enlightened by home improvements having read Jane's book. I feel I want to reach out to other people who suffer from clutter and turmoil. The book sits on my mantle piece and completely blends with my whole interior. I plan to make a little bag for the book to take it out to show people. 

Do you need help with decluttering unwanted junk mail and directory's all in one go. Stop Junk Mail has all the answers.

Do you need blissare functional shelves designed by me and blissed by Goddess Jane Smith, just get in contact. 

  

Blogging Norfolk 2009

Wow! I am truly honoured to be accepted as a writer by the BBC and the Writers centre Norwich and the arts council for this unbelievable amazing collaboration to put Norfolk bloggers on the map. I can feel an enormous overwhelment that is going to bring on writers block. Its like being watched by your boss suddenly I have forgotten what to write about.

This reminds me of an idea had for a public sculpture I want to put in Norfolk, because there are so many writers hidden away in the woods, writing away through the night alone, night after night. Then when they finish there book there brought out into the daylight to meet the public in a book shop and sign there name over and over and again on the inside cover.

So getting out is hard for a writer as the pen and solitude keeps them in there own imaginary world. but occasionally they stumble across writers block on able to drum up a few words or tap into the imagination.

My idea for a Norfolk public sculpture would be a writers block "big white concrete block". Writers then can come out and sit on the writers block for reflection and inspiration and write a few words on the block, to get them back into writing again.

I better write about whats been happening in Norfolk today. I been listening to future radio all day. The fringe festival was mentioned with all the acts, performances, bands, shows happening. Quite a lot is going on St Gregory's art centre in Pottergate.

Also Art on the railings is on again this year at St.Peter mancroft church. Come along and buy some art, become a collector of local artists work. Collecting art work is going to become a national thing this year. As in you don't have to go to London to collect artist work, you can collect it from an artist here in Norwich, added bonus there is one right here on line with her paintings for sale have a browse through my past pages or look at my website.

I have decided today I am going to Indonesia this year to help Kath Ellis build something huge from bamboo, it is a voluntary job for a month creating an arts festival. All I need is my fare and food and my rent paid for here, plus take 5 other Norfolk artists with me. Fundraising starts from today, any painting sales go towards getting there in October.

I have hundreds more pictures at home if a buyer wants to see more then whats on line.

All day I have been painting an illustration for a collaboration in Mumbai India. It was one of those pictures where I impressed myself and patted myself on my sore hunch back.

Tomorrow I will go out to the front pavement to photograph the illustration, where I usually draw a crowd. The neighbours come up behind me when I am just in focus to take the picture.

They are all fascinated with my artwork and want to know why I am doing each picture.

The making of an artist

I almost forgot I am suppose to be writing about the making of me. I am making tons of art, but it is all piling up on shelves and waiting to hear from gallery's that would want to exhibit. The back log, is now getting disturbing the shelves are full, the house is subsiding down the side of a cut out cliff chalk mine, we are now going to go into a third form of stabilizing the shelves, 2ND form of tying a washing line round the sink basin stand to stop them leaning over the bed, is not good enough, were now going to redesign the shelves so they become new walls, which will give the perception that the house is straight and not subsiding. Soon I will head down to London to flog my art, under the hammer of beady eyes.

Blobbing Norfolk

I treat my blob, like an open book with no brief or formula or label or time, chapters and so on. So that it leaves it open for anything to be written or any pictures put on it. I have had one spell checker in Oz called Zio, who checked me words while I was living in Oz, and being a cook, the general public always told me I spelt things wrong on the black board, for me to put right. Robert was my editor for quite a while, but got to busy with more important work. So for quite a while I been writing with out help so please excuse my bad grammar, spelling, English, opinions and do comment, if you spot something spelt wrung, etc.

Crikey! So the BBC are going to put Norfolk blobs on the Map for blogging Norfolk 2009.

 I don't know what the locals are going to say about this, we all know that people living outside Norfolk doesn't know exactly where Norfolk is and were all happy with that. It isn't a discrimitrary thing, its stems far back when trading stopped happening on the waterways and then the only way out of here to trade with other people elsewhere was on a little road. So spreading ya wings can only happen if you have wings and feathers. Norfolk is like an isolated island with in an island. To get a touring band here we have to beg and bribe them to play here. Its just that little bit far off the beaten track that makes us a little bit out of touch.  

Hamlet the film

A new film hot off the editing press, staring local stars Tom Calver and Mick Hardy and me. Special costume by me. Music by my old friend Kath Ellis and her band Hubris.

This weekend were out and about making a documentary of an amazing shared house.

Rachel Anderson new books

My Auntie Rachel Anderson has several new books on her website.  The latest books are a trip down memory lane the 1950's, life in London for a couple of teenager girls and widow Mum

and a big family that had been brought up in a life of Bohemia and uncertainty.

Bloom of Youth (Hodder, 2009)

Grandmother's Footsteps (Hodder, 2009)

Stronger than Mountains, (Hodder, 2009)

If you were in London at that time you would have met these two Teenagers. And of course a great insight into the Fiftys London for everyone who wasnt there but wished they were.

 

The army

The army are coming back to from Iraq, ha ray for the Iraq's who have less foreign occupationers to have to put up with. I wish Iraq peace and happiness and hope.

I am not going to wave a flag and go and meet the army and go well done. I don't think it is a good idea to boost there egos as it will only strengthen there believe that what they did was right.

Also there minds will be completely sycopathic. They will have come back from slaughtering 10s of 1000's people. 

The first thing there going to do on arrival is get really drunk and go clubbing in our peaceful county. A few drinks will trigger all  there bad memory's then they will become emotional and either cry or start a fight.   

One would hope they get counseling and have some sort of rehabilitation for what they have been through so that they can fit back into society and lead a normal peaceful life with out recurring nightmares and mental health problems.

There are plenty of great jobs to create after being in the army. My Granddad made films and organised a big Festival of Britain, my other Grandad started the Edinburgh festival. There skills at running large theatres of war were put to better use. 

One of my best friends in the UK, when she came out of the RAF, she went to art school and then got a job at the best animation studios and now makes her own award winning pottery.

So hand out the peace flowers this week all round to army and give them hope of a great happy future. 

Easter day

White fluffy Bunny. Painted in batic on canvas
Easter egg Hunt!

Chocolate egg on the lawn.

Today is a day of peace,  its Easter day. This is the day Jesus must of woken up from being in a coma for 3 days or something like that I have no idea what the actually dates and times are. He was lucky to have survived foreign occupation of the Romans and a whole heap of torture from them. 2000 years on have we learnt peace from Jesus making Roman brutality know to the world for 2000 years through his well published book called the Bible and cults that all worship him and recite the book and try and live by his preachings of peace.

This week we morn the death of an innocent bystander newspaper seller on his way home from work who was killed by Police brutality at a peaceful protest march in London. From the footage that has now come forward. Everyone in the crowd at the peaceful protest cared about the man and wanted to help him, apart from the attackers who armed and wearing protective clothing, trained to kill and were all so suppose to protect the general population. They gave no help to the man and lied to cover up what they had done. Due to mobile phones having camera and videos there is nowhere for these men to hide or lie. Every angle of the fatal blow is covered by the world press which is everyone. 

When I live in the UK, any reports about the police are always negative and they are portrayed as very dangerous people, they put telephone books on people and bash them so they have no evidence of being bashed as the book stops the bruising. Also just bash away with out the telephone book. 

Even more deep rooted in the police force is creating crime. They create it very early on, when a lad is about to become a teenager and does a naughty things that teenagers would do, this is the start of being in the police system. This kid will grow up to be in and out of jail, weather he does anything bad or not he will be the one the police decide is going to be the one they can pin any crime to.

As you can imagine there is a lot of people who don't want a police record. Like politicians kids etc.

Kids are kids and even a politicians kid will do something that might involve the law, but this would have to be covered up, so the kid wont get a record, so he can go to Uni and become a upper middle class free citizen. So who gets the blame, the kid that had nothing to do with the crime but already has a record. 

If you have ever watched the film the Shaw shank redemption, in this film the lead has just entered the prison and gets to talk to an inmate and the he tells the inmate I am innocent. The inmate says were all innocent in here.

Right now in British prisons there is over crowding. Is this due to the upper middle classes behaving even more bad then usual, during the boom time when they were drinking more champagne.

Do we really need the same police system we have always had here or should some changes be made.

What are they useful for. Car accidents, they are useful for that, so the traffic cops can stay. 

Giving directions to people in town. Stopping traffic or directing traffic.

As for protests, festivals, patrolling streets, do they need to be there. This week the local police were on the local radio with there own show with music and there police stuff they mentioned that it is a good idea to report a bike if stolen because every now again they raid a bike thief and there is only a hand full of bike thief's in Norfolk and they know them very well.

Right so they know that Barry is going to go into town everyday and steal a bike.

Barry can also strip a bike down and rebuild it. Barry knows all about bikes.

If Barry is so skilled at fixing and building bikes. Why don't we give Barry a bike repair shop and pay Barry to fix our bikes, instead of him being a criminal, he could be very useful citizen.

If we did that there would be no use for bike police, lawyers, prisons, judges. 

So if you have just woken up and thought what am I doing in the police bruit force, hand in your notice and take up a creative healing pursuit. Like pottery or gardening or chocolate egg making.

This is just my opinion, I am sure everyone has different opinions as were all different.

Must get back to painting pretty pictures.

Best British Artist 2009

Today I am waiting for a call from Tracy Emin. Tracy is judging the Best British Artist competition that I entered one hour before the deadline a few weeks ago. But spent quite a while trying to think of what might make me the Best British Artist and making the work of course too. 

Well I have a fair bit of competition 25,000 other struggling artists decided to enter. I worked out that would be 75 artists in Norwich. Which would be about right as I have seen about 75 around the traps.  That also makes 1 in 2000 people in the UK are working artists. In order for me to make a living I would need all of those 1999 people to commission me to paint them or anything or buy my work over a 5 year period in order to make a living as an artist. 

So how do I let 1999 people know that I am available as an artist. Well I would have to let the whole country know to get that many people interested. How do I let the whole country know that I am an artist, well I enter the Best British artist competition. How do I win the competition you might ask. Do I enter a painting of a budgie or do I accidentally unintentionally create a piece of work that relates to the world and peoples hearts and minds and causes a scandal by breaking all the laws of tradition and preconceived ideas.

When I get the call unfortunately I wont be able to let you know, I have won! because I have to play by the rules and not reveal anything till you watch the TV series on BBC 2 after the summer.

Shame really because it would have been nice to document the process on my blog. 

more unline arty groups

"A. arty women Puppeteers" is a group I set up on facebook. It now has 25 very enthusiastic female makers and puppeteers. They leave amazing photos and messages. I wont got into a lenghty history of how I got into puppets.

Another group I set up is "Women cartoonists", I still haven't got around to putting the A. arty which I was hoping would put the group at the top of groups page. 

This one has 28 members so far and from looking at the membership there is only a few women there but it has attracted people looking for cartoonists, so that's only a good thing and one of those people has contacted me for a collaboration of a childrens book. 

I set this group up because of difficulty I have of entering the world of political cartooning. I managed to get published in VN magazine in Holland, for a while but they have now cut there cartoonists which helped sell there magazine. The nice thing about cartoons is if your completely unable to read or write you can still work out a cartoon. 25 percent of the UK adults is illiterate. So there is still a market for the cartoons. I started doing cartoons as a way of putting my humour on paper and illustrating the things that people brush under the carpet. Anyway this is a great group to join if your a budding cartoonist or publisher.

The last group I created that has a very high membership of 79 is "Artists that draw live performances". This was out of complete curiosity as I have been drawing live performances for years and never come across anyone who does the same. The group was also inspired by sketches I had done of Jont and his unlit tour to Norwich, that put me back on the road to drawing bands after a lull period. 

Jont commissioned me to do more drawings, which I wont let on till I get the launch date of what they were for as it would ruin the surprise.

The group is made up of fans of artists that draw live performances and a few artist have uploaded there drawings, which is nice. One artist has up loaded nude drawings which I hesitate to think what sort of performance they were drawing.

Oww almost forgot I set up another group not really art related but artists worked there and the food and coffee was of the finest artistic and tasty standards. The Badde Manors Cafe group. This has 57 members and is growing. The messages are about food and service. Its not that active but it is nice to stay in contact with old staff. 

I have a few few more groups I would like to set up in the future. 

Unline art groups.

A few months ago I had a whiz wow great idea of setting up some art groups on Facebook. It was all triggered by Women's Hour radio show history line of Women that have done great things in history thing. Well there were not as many Women as I thought there would be and not all Women come forward and make a song and dance about something they have invented or done for the good of the people they are constantly doing good things and don't get the credit for it. I know about credits sometimes I have had to demand them for shows and sometimes I just let other people take the credit as they seem to get some sort of enjoyment out of it. My Dad always says before you sign the deal make sure you get in the credits. Why do extras and cleaners never get on film credits. From experience of being an film extra you can be there for the whole time the actors are there of even longer. If I make a block buster film I am certainly going to put the extras and the cleaners on the credits and all the people who never get on the credits.

Back to the groups  The first group I set up was "A. arty women in Illustration", I thought this one would attract female illustrators and people that are looking for female illustrators. Well so far the group has 8 people in it. Well I thought there would be more then 8 female illustrators in the world but maybe there all shy. 

Next group I set up was "A. arty women furniture designer/makers" this has 10 women in the group and 8 of them are in the illustration group too. So why isn't there more female carpenters out there. Well from my experience it all starts at school where boys do carpentry and girls do domestic chore class. Well school really gears you up for the real world. I am nearly 40 and had no marriage offers and all that good schooling that trained me up for domestic chores has gone to waste. But I have had a million situations where a power drill has come in handy.

I was a curious maker kid as a kid I would make things whether I had knowledge about the tools or not. I remember sneaking into the shed and using the electric power drill by trial and error. luckily no damage, to myself. The school play aged 15, the teacher says put up your hands to all those who want to build the set. My hand was up and the teacher began to crack a sweat. He then yelled at the boys come on, it will go towards your carpentry certificate. A few reluctant lads put there hands up. The teacher then pulled me to one side and said girls don't do carpentry. I said I do, why should it make any difference. So he arranged for me to go into the carpentry class to build the set with the lads. The teacher there was also worried about a girl in the class. I felt like I was in a strangers house. 

I remember telling the lads how to countersink the nuts in the wood and wondered why they were there when they had no interest in being there.

So  then I did carpentry at art school as that's what artists use to learn at art school as part of there training. Then in Australia I did a carpentry for women course, which was the first ever course for women. They segregated us from the boys because we might disrupt there training, by the power of distraction. 

To be fair I didn't mind a women only course. I made a tool box and everything in it.

Then went and built a city based on rock and roll. Well giant festivals and shows, theatre and the expo's. 

Now I got my first job as a designer of furniture, it feels kind a strange not having to saw up a bit of wood. 

So this group needs more women to come forward and to come out of the carpentry closet.

find out more about the other arty groups I have set up in the following days.

Sold Sketch

Today I was sorting out my blog and found the names of all the performers in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital band to put on my blog and realised the email from one of the performers with all the names was asking to buy this picture. 

In this drawing is the backing singers Karen, Caroline and Carole and Steve the lead singer and not sure of who the drummer is yet.

Sold.

Snakes and Sweetie bags now in an unline shop.

The new Junk Buster website is now up and running and in full swing people all over the country are opting out of all the paper in large volumes that gets delivered to the door. This service was designed and set up by my Robert for love not for money. Love of trees, rainforest's, animals, Eco systems and making people happy. The problem of large volumes of unwanted paper has bewildered people for over 3 decades. If you added up all the paper that comes through your door for over 3 decades that is several rainforest's and a lot of trees.

Robert decided to have an Eco shop attached to the site to sell peoples Eco goods so far he is selling Stop junk mail stickers for your door and envelope re-use gummed labels. Also he has set up a separate shop for my Eco goods.  The door snakes and plastic bag holders. 

17 trillion under there beds

I have been busy illustrating a children's book and entering art competitions and figuring out the children's ward furniture and making art money, helping with website design, trying to stay in a   system, baking cakes, cooking meals, washing and doing my rubbish jobs. In the middle of this intense hive of creativity and G-force whirlwind life. I get other creative unique ideas that come out that a triggered by a sequence of things and old thoughts.

 So the question that ponders peoples minds is what happened to all the cash in the world in one day, last year. 

Well my thoughts are that all the baby boomers (post war baby's) all retired a week before they started there pottery class. 

The baby boomers all held managerial and top job positions in company's. In there working life's they have climbed the ladder and controlled how the whole work life and money system works. They were all due very large pension pay outs. They have never done anything but there jobs so have little interest in anything. They are bored with all there toys like cars, houses, gadgets and investing on the stock market. They took out all there cash and lump sum pension and took it home in a suitcase and put it under there beds. Then went and sat and watched the television and forgot they put it there. 

The way the world works is changing all the time anyway and I imagine that the cars going out of business is like the end of the horse and cart. There will be something else to replace it and hopefully this time it will be safer and not polluting.