Category Archives: My Art

The Melody That Stole Me


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“The music of the “2 Days and a Year” album tells stories of the world of daydreaming, falling snow, sunlight glimmering on the water, night skies, and not least, the value of the fragile moment,” said Jens Felder.

Imagine taking all those complexities and depths of nature, seasons, feelings and thoughts then combining it all into music. No wonder the music sounded so good. I guess that is what all artists strive for when creating something wonderful.

When I first heard Jens Felder play 2 Days and a Year,  a few weeks ago, I let this melody steal me. I wanted it to. It was a piece of music that I could go places with.  I love music and I have a large collection. hen’s is a combination of many types of music from many parts of the world. I played Jen’s music over several times, just to see if I could get tired of it. I didn’t. I don’t mean this in a negative way. Part of me wanted to play it again, but the other part kept wondering why I wanted more. I do not know how to explain it in words. I am sure every once in a while, we find something beautiful and it affects us. Life is beautiful and mysterious. I could not imagine life without music. 

Like everything we do in life, there is a story. In Jen’s story, his music is his life story.  I could not write his story better, therefore, I left my interview follow in Jen’s own words:

I am playing guitar for over 30 years now. I can’t remember the first time I had a guitar under my fingers. The feeling is still very present. When I held the guitar, I knew immediately that it was exactly what I was missing in my life. Playing music feels like a meditative experience, like “being in the moment“. The silence is expectation and excitement, and gets filled with sound. The silence returns images and echoes back, what gives me great joy and peace. My goal was and is, to communicate the emotions I experience in the music through my instrument.
My heroes were the old masters and so I studied classical music for many years.  I completed a postgraduate study with Andreas Higi at the music college in Trossingen and attended various master-classes by i.e. Frank Bungarten, Carlo Marcione and the amazing Aniello Desiderio.
The learning was followed by many solo concerts with classical programs. I was fortunate to play in chamber music ensembles with violin and vocals and also worked as a soloist with orchestras.
I now live with my family in southern Germany and work as a freelance artist and music teacher. The old masters are still my good friends, but now I play my own music. In my pieces melds classical music with elements of world music. You can hear African or Asian modes and even some nods to rock music all within the context of solo classical guitar playing. It feels like a trip around the world with the language of classical music.
As a composer, I have worked with various artists from different regions of the world, including also music for short films.
In early December, I published my first solo guitar album “2 days and a year”, available on iTunes and Amazon as a download.
The title piece “2 Days and a Year” is a story about time perception in music. I have written this piece in 2 days, but the emotional experiences have accompanied and influenced my music all year thereafter. So this piece has become the title track of my album. I’ve written a text, which describes the emotions of this time (also in the booklet of my album):

“Time is different in music. Close and friendly it is
drifting by – sometimes flying, sometimes even
standing still, but never passing. Nothing gets lost –
the first tone is not older than the last one.

All music is a child of its time, but not bound by time.
It arises from moments and lives in people. Musicians
capture that moment in time and listeners make
the music their own. These moments are present, and alive.

iTunes link to “2 days and a year” album: https://itunes.apple.com/de/album/2-days-and-a-year/id946450529?uo=4

Soundcloud link to the “2 days and a year” piece: https://soundcloud.com/jens-felger/2-days-and-a-year

 

The Giant Birdsnest


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A few days ago, I posted a story about our chickens and their laying habits.  My son found this interesting couch or bed, and it seemed an appropriate piece to post for my Cool Stuff for the week. Cool Stuff is a piece of furniture or design or even artwork that I feel is very interesting and I share it with the readers of this blog. This ‘nest’ is really a playful piece of furniture created Merav (Salush) Eitan and Gaston Zahr,  OGE CreativeGroup. You have to jump into it to enjoy it.

The Giant Birdsnest aka “Giant Birdsnest for creating new ideas” was conceived and created as a prototype for new and inspiring socializing space: a fusion of furniture and playground: A comfortable informal and sensual soft space.

The wooden nest is filled with highly comfortable egg-shaped sitting poofs which allow ergonomic sitting positions and various configurations for informal meetings and social exchange.

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The nest comes in various sizes, from a small and intimate nest for one, to 2-3 people up to a 4.50 m diameter big version which can host up to 16 people at once – the soft space is perfect, comfortable and inspiring place for resting, browsing the web, reading, relaxing, loving, talking, briefing, discussing (…)

Its powerful, yet simple concept and intriguing character needs no explanation or user manual: Ready to be used, ready for playing or working in.

Simply jump in and enjoy.

http://www.giantbirdsnest.com

Dragonflies can see it ALL


They have Super Sights

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Mating dragonflies on water. Watercolour and inks on paper. J.Leahy. 2012

Dragonflies are loved by most humans. They are very fast, roam free, and live for a short time. They make the most of their lives; something we humans are not often known for. I absolutely love the insect myself. I have done numerous studies (as in art form) on dragonflies, and in the process of researching dragonflies, found a lot of interesting information about them. They are said to be lucky omens in some cultures. I wanted to share this story from Andrew Handley about dragonflies, although, his article implies the insect is monstrous. See the YouTube video for more insight into their habits.

They’re Efficient Hunters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNbTByRGPmI

That example did serve a purpose though—dragonflies are incredibly efficient at what they do, bringing in close to 95 percent of the prey they set out to capture. For comparison, sharks, one of nature’s fiercest predators, only manage to catch about half of the prey they hunt. Lions, the shark of the land, are lucky to get their claws on a quarter of their targets. See, even lions don’t calculate to intercept—they chase, zigzagging through the savanna in response to the movement of their prey. If dragonflies were large enough to eat gazelle, lions would be starved into extinction through sheer inefficiency.When a dragonfly sets its sights on a target, it will almost always end up with a meal. 

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The dynamics of capturing an object in mid-air are staggeringly complex, so much so that it’s usually something that’s only done by animals with complex nervous systems, like seagulls, or humans. To intercept something moving with its own velocity, you have to be able to predict where it will be in the future. When researchers began studying dragonflies in 1999, they found that rather than “track” their prey—follow it through the air until they caught up with it—they would actually intercept it. In other words, dragonflies ensure a kill by flying to where their prey is going to be. That indicates that dragonflies calculate three things during a hunt: the distance of their prey, the direction it’s moving, and the speed it’s flying. In the space of milliseconds, the dragonfly calculates its angle of approach and, like a horror movie monster, it’s already waiting while the hapless fly stumbles right into its clutches.

Read more from the link below: http://listverse.com/2013/04/18/10-surprisingly-brutal-facts-about-dragonflies/

One Lovely Blog Award


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THANK YOU MILLIE THOM

Blogging is isolated and lonely. I am not writing in a newsroom where I can see writers and editors bustling in a typical newsroom I knew.  In a newsroom, I could discuss my story with an editor or another fellow writer, or work with a photographer.  In this blogger-world sometimes I feel, I am alone. I am reaching out to someone, somewhere, whom my story may appeal to. My story is like fresh bait on a hook, dropped in the middle of the deep, dark ocean.  I want the right fish to bite the hook, not any fish. So, the ‘bait’ has to be right. But how do I know if the bait is right? As writers, we don’t. Well I don’t, not 100 per cent anyway. Unless, we get feedback, research data and see some kind of recognition, we really don’t know if what we write is appreciated.

When my site-visit numbers were increasing recently, there were very few comments and ‘likes’ on each post. I have to admit, I felt doubt. I wondered why I would have many people visit my blog each day, and not interact. I would visit the few writers that “liked’ my post and be astounded by how many followers and hits they have had. I searched through their contents. What makes this blog great?, I asked myself. Some blogs were interesting and it made sense as to why they would have such an audience.  Others did not make sense at all – they were just popular. Like everything else, it really does not matter what you write and how you write it. That ‘bait’ will catch the reader that was meant for it. You have to catch your own niche market. I learnt, and told myself only to worry about my next story.

In the background, I did do some content research, adjusted my theme, and the layout. I took a course on content and UX with Open University and shortened my posts. (This post will not be one of those short ones). I kept on writing; refusing to use popular social networks to get my readers – or lure people who knew me. I covered most topics I loved and cared about. The risk was, that I could lose readers because of the varied topics. I borrowed some hints from Opinionated Man. Jason could scratch himself and blog it to get 400 “likes”. He was always true to himself. I enjoyed his narrative posts the most. I kept writing about the things I loved or believed in. It is real. So, my readership doubled in a month. And, somewhere in that increased number, someone connected with my content. My bait was taken.

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I won’t call her the right bait but a friend.

On November 2, a stranger appeared on my blog. She was wearing a China-red dress/top, armed with a natural straw hat with a black band that mysteriously and securely hid her face. I saw this picture after I received the first message from WordPress. It said: “millithom liked your post”.  I have had other “likes’ before so I paid no notice. I thought I would follow-up and view each respond when I had time in the evening. Then there was another ‘like” and another, by the same person. I immediately visited millithom’s blog and was very impressed with what she wrote. I learnt a lot from her. As an aspiring author myself, I was impressed with her book posts on writing in general and helpful advise on publishing. I was really grateful that she could relate to my post and COMMENT! On that same day, after the fourth “like”, millithom was hooked, I think. I say that with no malice. I got a notification that she started “following” me. It was the kind of ‘stalking’ that every blogger loves. The baited hook was taken by that fish. Each day since, this woman I have never seen her face except in an old photo, warmly responds to all my posts. She also writes very encouraging and heart-felt comments. For me and any writer or any blogger who is starting and ‘afraid’, we all need a millithom to put that hope into our doubting minds. I have mine. I also have L.T.Garvin, Poetheart! and Seafarrwide. There is a kind of sisterblog-hood going.

Thank you Millie Thom, blogger, author (Shadow of the Raven), with a gorgeous heart for nominating me for this award. It means a lot to me. I will continue to strive to keep the content of Tribalmystic blog interesting. Thank you Millie, my followers, and returned readers and I would appreciate any feedback to improve this blog. I also appreciate the quiet ones. Your silence and presence are both appreciated and acknowledged.

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Self-portrait. JLeahy, Acrylics & Inks on canvas. 2012.

Seven Lovely Things…

As requested by the conditions of this award, I have to tell you seven “lovely” things about me. Ahhhumm.. (I asked my sons and my colleague today) and they made some comments I shall not repeat; so I have to do this task the best I can.

1. I am a queen of surprises. (I am that confident). Even after all these years, I can still surprise my sons in their ‘older age’, family members and friends. I love the intrigue. I love mysteries. I love how happy I make them.

  1. When I was growing up, the children in my village used to call me a spirit. I was lighter skinned but had tanned from hours in the sun. I had straight hair which was blonde from swimming in the sea every day. All that time, I thought I was black. The children kept telling me, I was white. I think it is lovely to be both.

  2.  I easily make friends with strangers and people from all walks of life. I could connect and have a deep conversation with a stranger, that I had just met. It scares my children.

  3. I love nature.  The Ocean, forest, and all life forms. I believe that Earth is in danger. We should all be seriously concerned about what is happening in climate change and each make a commitment to do something about it.

  4. I am who I am because I am the thread that runs in the fabric created by my mother,  grandmother and my people.

  5. I love stories – telling and hearing.

7. I make art from anything..but I love drawing with  pencil and watercolours.

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Pencil on paper. “Meri Karim Pikinini” JLeahy. 2014

…………………………………………

Nominate other blogs I read and like:

1. Millie Thom

2. Seafarrwide

3. MyTwoSentence

  1. Poetheart! 

  2. Notes From An Alien

6. L.T.Garvin 

7. Vera Komnig

  1. Life in Russia

  2. HiMe

  3. When Women Inspire

plus more………

 

 

 

The Hat Made It! The Horse Didn’t!


Across Australia today, people celebrated the Melbourne Cup Day.

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The finished hat; all in a few hours work.
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Funny day today in the office.

After a long morning of trying to speak to clients who were mostly out for Melbourne Cup Day, my colleague and friend Celise and I went to our work party.  The atmosphere was alive. The weather behaved. The food and drinks were enjoyed and then came the moment all punters were waiting for – The Cup Race

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My friend Celise, looking stunning.

All lights went off and the large video screen in our boardroom came on, showing the horses running. The screen was linked to our office internet network and when the clock stroke the start, I looked around the dim room at the intense faces. Some sat and others stood. I had no money on anything, but it was interesting how excited and aggressive the atmosphere became and I looked back at the screen wondering if the most popular horse, I was told, a Japanese horse, would win.

The funniest thing was, the internet kept on stalling. The screen paused, then, a stop-start repetition. It drove everyone crazy. There was more screaming at the streaming than the actual race. The race in our boardroom took longer than the usual time. Finally, the horse everyone thought would win, did not. It was over. One colleague bravely took this breaking moment to ask if everyone knew how much damage horses endured in these races. No-one heard her. The faces were pre-occupied. Some were busy calculating how much they won and others, how much they lost. All in all, it was a fun day, especially in our hats.

 

Australia Stops for Melbourne Cup Tomorrow


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2013 Melbourne Cup race

The Emirates Melbourne Cup is on tomorrow, November 4th. While the main race will be in Flemington, Melbourne, many Australians will celebrate nation-wide. It is not a public holiday in Queensland, but it might as well be.

For the race, I am making a hat, badly. I  know it is not my best work because I have made better hats in the past. I know I left it too late and I don’t have all the right materials.

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The Cup day is tomorrow and the office will have a party. I am not a big gambler, nor a horse race lover, far from it. I did not know our office wanted to party. But, it makes sense because most people in this country will take up to three days off work to gamble and party for Melbourne Cup.

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I don’t have any fancy hats. And, I don’t need one. The ladies in my office made a pack to wear hats so I wanted to make one for fun.

So far my sons had various pointers and suggestions on how to improve the hat before going off to bed and leaving me with the task. I have found various pieces of craft material at home. I am about to re-create a 10-year-old straw hat into something…yeah ‘something’ I don’t even know. The good thing about it is that if the ‘hat’ fails, I can dump it in my compost and recycle the  bits and pieces. It is all organic.

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Pictured here, I found some hand-made re-cycled paper I had for a different project, and thought I could use it. I sewed the paper onto the orange hat and the paper was not opaque enough so I needed to paint the hat white. I was on a mission. The can of white paint was in my art workshop and without thinking or smelling the paint, I took a brush and painted the hat . Once finished, I could not wash the brush nor my hands, and I realised I had used the oil-based house paint. Worst of all my son told me,  we did not have any mineral turpentine left to clean off the oil paint. Sounds great doesn’t it?

With his help, I used a combination of Antiseptic Dettol and nail polish remover to rid the paint on my finger tips so I could type this blog post. Don’t try to use that Dettol combination to clean your hands, it is not nice. I guess I won’t be needing that nail polish tomorrow either; I have white-painted nails.

To make the slow-drying oil paint dry faster, I have been blow drying the hat for two hours. I am hopeful; I will wear that hat tomorrow. Thank you universe for challenging my creativity but the hat will happen, regardless.

I hope I have made you readers smile tonight with this silly story and my pathetic hat-making effort. If you are following The Melbourne Cup tomorrow – have fun and win. My friend won a few thousand dollars on a $3 bet, so I know it can be a day for anyone. I am just going to finish my hat.

Red Lionfish: A “Super-Invader” or Super Supper?


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Google Image: A most beautiful and most invasive creature.

Red Lionfish: A “Super-Invader” for Supper?

In the world of art-practice this creature is one of the most photographed, filmed, painted and generally studied for its beautiful, delicate and visually exotic body. When you look at a lionfish, it is so luminous, graceful and breath-taking that it is hard to imagine such a creature could be so harmful to humans and other species.

The Red lionfish has been named an invasive species, taking over the smaller fish and other crustaceans in the Atlantic ocean. Scientists reported that lionfish were invading the Atlantic Ocean at an increased rate they  were worried that the consequences could be grave. A year ago (October 21, 2013) UPI released a report that this native of the tropical waters of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, was not only venomous but it was also a fast-reproducing fish that had no known predators. The lionfish can produce 30,000 to 40,000 eggs every few days. They are aggressive eaters that will eat almost anything and the lionfish can destroy 90 percent of a reef. 

If you found this story disturbing, read the next part.

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Photo: Grace Beahm

In an article written for the Coastal Heritage magazine Editor John H. Tibbetts wrote; a group of strategist made up of fishermen, divers, chefs, educators, conservationists and scientists have come up with a solution to rid the lionfish in Bahamas, Mexico, Cayman Islands and Florida Keys.

The strategy is simple: the only way to get rid of the invasive species they said was to harvest and eat it.

To read more:

https://www.academia.edu/5962273/Red_Lionfish_A_Super-Invader_for_Supper

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Blog/2013/10/21/Lionfish-invasion-is-threatening-the-Atlantic-Ocean/9321382363683/

 

Owls: The Silent Aerodynamic Hunters


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My art: A study of snowy owl in ink and wash.
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My Art – Owl. Acrylic on canvas.

 

Above are two  of many artwork I created, purely because I love owls and I find them very interesting.

Growing up in my culture, owls have been linked to death. If you hear an owl consistently calling or crying then, death is near. This was the belief. An owl crying or calling is quite rare but when it does happen, it is quite scary.

Unusual visitors

In some Brisbane (Australia) suburbs and out where we live, there are a few species of owls. The most common one is the Frogmouth. My family and I have had several occurrences with owl visits that I find very interesting and hard to understand. Once we had three owls come into our garden and sit for three days in the same spot. There was another incident where two large owls appeared at the front of our house and sat on a very low dead tree. They must have arrived before we woke up. At first, we thought they were part of the branches of the dried tree trunk. These two sat in the same position for almost a week. I went up very close to them one day and the taller of the two opened its eyes and glared at me – so I left. I hope to find their photos that I took that day and post it here in the future. Despite my cultural learning and spiritual beliefs about these birds, I find them especially interesting because of how quiet and often secretive they are. Sometimes, you don’t know they are there. They can camouflage very well.

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Snowy owl picture from http://www.sodahead.com

Many owl species have developed specialized plumage to effectively eliminate the aerodynamic noise from their wings — allowing them to hunt and capture their prey in silence. Almost a year ago, a research group started working to solve the mystery of exactly how owls achieve this acoustic stealth — work that may one day help bring “silent owl technology” to the design of aircraft, wind turbines, and submarines. I found this small clip on reddit.com. Click the link below to see the wing action.

http://i.minus.com/iOdEkaHhIXl2b.gif

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To read more: 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131124093515.htm

Unspoilt treasures of Papua New Guinea. An underwater short film.


 

 

OceanShutter.com presents an Underwater Short Film.
Please Like, Share and Comment!
The Rolling in the Deep series takes us to Papua New Guinea. One of the last unspoiled diving destinations left on earth.
I hope you enjoy it!
All Underwater Video Copyright © Dustin Adamson/Oceanshutter.com. All Rights Reserved

The Colours of Coleus


 

 

Coleus Canina (pictured above) is one of the most colourful tropical plants with almost every colour you can think of. It is my mother’s favourite plant. I grew up with in Lae, Papua New Guinea (PNG) seeing Coleus growing on the side of our house, along the main road at our village, in our food garden or in the cemetery. Everybody  grew some kind of Coleus plant.  They are gorgeous. We used Coleus to decorate ourselves when we danced. Sometimes, our people just stuck a small branch of the plant in their hair or hung in on their bags for decoration because it is pretty.

I knew the plant had a distinct smell, but I did not know, in Australia, Coleus was planted to repel animals such as cats and dogs from gardens.  Perhaps it is a myth? This attractive perennial herb is actually an aromatic member of the Mint family. They’re native to southern Asia and eastern Africa, and they attract butterflies and bees. 

In early 1990s, I was engaged by Peace Corp and the Conservation Melanesian to run some entrepreneur workshop and training for crafts people in the Crater Mountains in Eastern Highlands Province, PNG. I had volunteered to teach the artisans and spend some time learning about their art and the way of living. It was here that I discovered something new about the Coleus plant. Certain types of the plant had strong pigmentation. Women were using the leaves to rub into flax fibres as they twisted the fibres into ropes for making (bilum) bags as pictured below. As they twisted the ropes and rubbed with Coleus leaf, the rope would instantly turn from its natural colour into deep purple, blue and even black.  I was amazed.

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Dark blue, almost black dye from Coleus plant rubbed into the fibre on this bilum by the Herowana (Crater Mountains) women in PNG.

 

Years later, while living here in Brisbane (Australia) and experimenting with using natural dyes and pigments in my painting, I remembered the Coleus. I had already used coffee, tea, turmeric, beetroot, some grass seeds so it was a refreshing addition to my natural pigments. I had made a trip to the local Bunnings and started growing the Blackberry Waffle, pictured below which gives the strongest colour dye.  I made good artistic use out of the plant all summer but unfortunately I lost the Coleus plants in winter. Spring is here so it is warming up and I will start again. That is why I am making this post. Below is an artwork, “Paradise Birds” I created from using a mixture of watercolour and natural pigments from my garden. The pink and purple background in the painting is the pigment/juice from the Coleus plant. 

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The Blackberry Waffle Coleus – the pigment king.
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My Art – I painted this mixed media called Paradise Birds with Coleus ‘Blackberry Waffles’ – it is the pink and purple background. I also used the blue seeds from grass and turmeric for the gold and yellow bird heads. This work is on paper.