“It is said that girls with dreams become women with vision. May we empower each other to carry out such vision – because it isn’t enough to simply talk about equality. One must believe it. And it isn’t enough to simply believe in it. One must work at it. Let us work at it. Together. Starting now.” ~ Meghan Markle.

HRH Meghan, I like the way your brain works. I like the way you turn the Royal family inside and out. It’s a right Royal Wedding y’all!

19 May 2018

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I’ve been meaning to draw her for a while now. I couldn’t find the right moment. World Mental Health Day seems like the right time because health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing. Mindfulness enhances emotional intelligence and self-awareness. Small things like kindness can make a huge difference, as does listening to others and speaking out. So please educate yourself on mental health!

I binge watched her on demand in The Handmaid’s Tale in my last recovery. Her suffering was so incredibly intense. Three weeks ago she won an Emmy as outstanding actress for her performance in the drama – it’s Elisabeth Moss as Offred. I already loved her from Top Of The Lake and Mad Men but now I love her even more.

10 October 2017

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 11 December 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“I think this is the third fag in a hand I’ve drawn recently. I don’t know why I do it since I’ve never even smoked one. Honest to God. Dad used some highly effective reverse psychology on me in those teenage years, when a girl is easily influenced, and surprisingly it worked. (I obviously can’t say the same for wine!) Bizarrely I find it quite attractive to look at on other people sometimes and I can still remember those English days of my clothes stinking of stale smoke in the morning to remind me of my night out. No delayed reaction applied for the time I spent in France – the bars would be blanketed in a thick fog of smoke hanging at eye level. Quelle horreur!

I think it’s actually a metaphor for needing to dig deeper when the going gets tough, to get my tough to get going. I’m still feeling good physically which is so, so nice but lordy lord, this week is the full blown party week and while I love a party (I’ve said this before) this time of year does send me into a spiralling meltdown (I’ve said this before). It’s looming on the horizon. One party down, four to go.

So I don’t feel bad about the hairdresser taking four hours to work some 10 years younger magic on me (no, that does not make me 19.) I need all the help I can get right now. Anyway, where was I? The Berlin chit-chat took me to another “blonde”, French actress, Mélanie Laurent, who plays kickass Shoshanna Dreyfus in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, the German war film. She is utterly formidable in her plot to take down the Nazi leaders so gimme some of those same balls please and I’ll make it to Christmas in one piece.

Today’s Sunday sesh is I Like What You Are Doing Nightriders Remix by Cassian.”

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 3 December 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“The art of communication is not the most straight forward thing. It’s hard enough to understand each other in our native language let alone in another. All those nuances and double entrendres make it a minefield for misinterpretation.

I don’t think I will ever be English-French bilingual. Fluent oui, bilingual non. My parents decided not to bring me up speaking both languages. Dad was worried it would be confusing and I would end up as master of none. For me, that approach is a big regret. My French was at its best in 2000 after four years of study and some immersion in France. When you dream in another language you know you are getting close but after a decade Down Under and only SBS exposure, I can say that my French is pretty nul. I miss it.

I would watch Julie Delpy in some youth TV drama after a day at the beach in the south of France in the summer holidays. (You can actually learn a language by watching TV alone, you know!) Later she rocked up in the English speaking film Before Sunrise with Ethan Hawke. Friends of mine loved it: the pair talk all night long until sunrise (c’est fantastique!). Julie wrote a lot of her own dialogue in English. But I didn’t really get it: all this chit-chat and no action. Quoi? Je ne comprends pas! Maybe I need to revisit 1995 to understand it better? There are 171,500 words in English and only 100,000 in French (looks like Shakespeare did a better job than Molière) so let’s keep on talking because apparently if you talk out loud to yourself you are meant to be some kind of genius.

Obviously, today’s sunny Saturday vin blanc is Foreign Language by Flight Facilities.”

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A monochrome portrait painting of Brigitte Bardot from a scene in the 1956 French film, ‘And God Created Woman’.

Meet me at the café. Cafés are a place to connect, refresh and rejeuvenate. In a world saturated by social media, cafés have become the face of real social interaction.

Exhibited at The Vines Café, Diamond Creek

December 2016

SOLD

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 29 November 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“La voilà enfin! Here she is at last! The archetype of Gallic beauty, as perceived by the French: actress, Catherine Deneuve. Her classic, flawless features and acting roles as ice-cool, aloof beauties have awarded her a reputation as the ultimate woman to aspire to. A 10 out of 10 you might say, even when not dressed up to the nines. The French say she’s truly something special and just what dreams are made of.

Her image was considered perfect enough to be used to represent Marianne, the French national symbol of liberty, from 1985-89, whose face is prominent everywhere throughout France. (Brigitte Bardot and Laetitia Casta were also models for Marianne.) Catherine Deneuve speaks fluent French, Italian, English and German and when her face was used to promote Youth Garde cosmetics she famously said, “Look closely. Next year I will be 40.” I can’t imagine what it must be like to be perceived as perfect! I’ve got plenty of physical and emotional flaws so this concept makes me want to laugh out loud. Or cry. I’m never sure which. Of course we are all flawed – no-one IS perfect – but once again we are back to those pesky ways of seeing.

So pour yourself a glass of Flawless by The Ones and drown your sorrows in your very perfect imperfection.”

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 24 November 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“The Melbourne weather is driving me crazy! We haven’t seen much of the warm stuff yet (unusual), just an extreme blast of heat at the start of the week and then straight then back to feeling like winter. I can not cope with a 38 to 16 drop in degrees. Be consistent please!

But what I mean to say is it doesn’t actually matter because after weeks and weeks and weeks of waiting, The Affair has most fabulously returned to Showtime with Season 3, and this can warm my cockles instead if the Aussie summer lets me down. I have loved this show from the very beginning. Only a couple of people I know watch it so I’m not sure who else will relate to the drama.

The story is told in chapters from the perspective of each character which is what makes it fascinating. Each situation is interpreted completely differently and this in turn helps to paint each character’s portrait. The plot also jumps about through time in an unpredictable, confusing way but slowly, slowly all the fragments come together to build a bigger picture. It’s very tense to watch!

My sixth sense had the strange notion that there would be something French in this season and mon dieu I was right! Noah (writer-murderer) has a new, slightly French cliché and quite annoying love interest called Juliette Le Gall who is played by French-Swiss actress, Irène Jacob. From the word go it’s obvious that she wants a rendezvous with him, talking all brainy about Lancelot, Guinevere and an erotic love which doesn’t involve touching. (Mais qu’est ce que c’est???!) But it sounds like she is talking his language and I just can’t wait for more chit-chat! See you next Tuesday, 8:30pm. Be there or be square.

Today’s wine to match these Thursday thoughts is Paradis by Alain Chamfort.”

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 23 November 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“I was pleasantly surprised (and fairly relieved) yesterday to discover that I’m not the only one who feels unhinged on the inside. I’ll call it the “loose canon” condition. Thanks for letting me know that I am not alone with this sentiment and that my merde has resonated in some way beyond my thoughts.

Mum used to get the French catalogue, La Redoute, which would regularly land with a massive thump on the mat. (Who buys from catalogues these days? Do they actually still exist??? I do believe t’Internet has replaced them.) It usually arrived before our summer holiday so we could all order ourselves some shiny new threads. The model who stood to me out from its pages was the beautiful Noémie Lenoir (another first name I love and another one to get trashed in English: Noémie = Gnomey?). She is of French-Réunion-Malagasy heritage and says she grew up in a Parisian “ghetto”. Photographed happily prancing around in short shorts, halter neck tops and swimming cozzies, she looked picture-postcard perfect. Those curls!!! Later on she modelled for Marks n Sparks and Next in the UK.

I thought of her after drawing Teri Moïse because she also tried to take her own life and once again I found this really sad. It shows how you can’t tell what someone is feeling inside, no matter how beautiful they are on the outside. How do people get through periods of depression or avoid potential depression? I don’t know the answer as everyone is made differently but this drawing lark has been a big help to me through all the recent highs and lows. So I say hold on to your coping mechanisms for as long as they work, if it’s only to get you through to the next day. You might even learn something you never knew about yourself along the way.

Your hump day wine this week is Something Good Can Work The Twelves Remix by Two Door Cinema Club.”

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 22 November 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I am quite high maintenance. I don’t mean materialistically – all those status symbols have never bothered me that much. Yes, nice stuff is nice to have but it can probably all wait if you don’t really need it.

I think what can’t wait is me. I need to maintain me. When you get older you develop a mix of not really caring what anyone else thinks of you and knowing yourself very well indeed. I am pretty sure I know all my strengths and weakenesses as they seem to heighten through the tough times, and it’s doubtful that these traits will ever change. It’s more a case of maintaining them.

When I was living in Rennes I saw the music video of a song by French singer, Zazie, called Ça Fait Mal et Ça Fait Rien on my little TV. She was crashing around, smashing up stuff in a fictional fight with a boyfriend. I looked at her and scarily she really reminded me of myself. I don’t smash things up but I do stomp around and I know that there’s something fierce inside that needs looking after. With the most immensely unattractive stubborn streak from my Scottish side and an inflammatory dollop of Gallic blood from my French side, I was never going to stand a chance of staying calm most of the time. But I’m trying. Every day. Does anyone else feel like this? Like Zazie says in her song: On ferait mieux de prendre la vie comme elle vient (You are better off taking life as it comes). So don’t deny it. Maintain it.

For this reason today I’m doing a row of So Demanding slammers by Bag Raiders. Keep your cool mes amis!”

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I WILL PREVIVE [The Book Of Rocks] diary extract, 19 November 2016

AND GOD CREATED FRENCH WOMAN series (2016)

“… The journey was broken halfway in Vietnam (l’Indochine), in the vibrant Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon) and magical Hoi An – a country I had always wanted to go to ever since watching the illicit 1992 film, The Lover, an adaptation of the 1984 semi-autobiographical novel, L’Amant, by Marguerite Duras and set in romantic French colonial Vietnam. Both film and book are so beautifully human and explore the story of the love affair and tempestuous undercurrents between a young French girl (Duras) with an older, wealthy Vietnamese man. There is no question of the depth and sincerity of his love, but only later does she recognise her true feelings for him. She is played by English actress, Jane March, who is absolutely effortless in her blossoming beauty.”

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