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A real heart beats no matter what your mood, it may sometimes feel light like skipping a beat or heavy like it is made of concrete and in those times of sorrow (whatever the reason for it) the heart aches, like a wound so deep and swells like it is pushing against your ribs to escape. It burns your lungs and creates a knot in your throat that will not go down even as the breathe is forced passed it.

I have recently been inspired by Saint Valentine and been working on a series of hearts both real and love hearts. The heart symbolises the emotions of love and affection, heartache, lovesickness, a broken heart, a caged heart. The barbs of the barbed wire indicating caution, regret, hurt, abandonment and history so go easy and handle with the utmost care.

Love hurts, in many, many ways both good and not so good but I never regret giving or receiving it.

Poetry By Joan -
I once saw love like wings, that had me soar above the clouds,
I now know love is roots held strong and firm in the ground.
My love you gave me wings that had me soar above the clouds,
Now we have roots that grow strong and firm in the ground.

Checkout my collection of Hearts Love Valentine Kiss Wall Art and products via the link these works are a tribute to love and all of it's joys and sorrows. We love to live and live to love, it makes us whole and content but can also be a demon riding us to destruction.

https://joan-stratton.pixels.com/collections/hearts+love+valentine+kiss

I love having fun with my art, both the very new work and some of my older pieces, with ideas I have stored away for a rainy day! So today is the day that this pair of echidnas that were originally drawn for my Grow With Joe - Children's Books, where created anew with an idea I have always had on the back burner to add flowers to their spikes and do a series of works based on that idea.

Welcome to my wonderland of springtime echidnas :))

A springtime female echidna whose spikes are adored with the slender long green leaves from a Red Flowering Gum Nut Corymbia Ficifolia which is a popular Australian native flowering eucalyptus gum tree. She has set her look off with a field wildflower, a yellow Australia daisy. Her shadow is subtle and her constant companion in the daylight but hopefully by night fall she will not be alone.

When along comes her match a male echidna, adorned with a mass of hot pink / red pinwheel flowers also from the Australian native flowering eucalyptus gum tree, Corymbia Ficifolia.

You can checkout the full collection in my animal gallery or through the search field by typing in echidna via the following link.

https://joan-stratton.pixels.com/collections/animals

The Art Of Obsession - please click on the link for the Blog page or use the following link :)

http://ourartsmagazine.com/blog/2020/08/09/the-art-of-obsession/

Waterfront Cobh Cork Ireland - Cobh was the gateway to the new world and was last point of call for RMS Titanic. It was also the birth place of my paternal grandparents who came over to Australia from Ireland in the 1920s. I visited their beautiful city in 2012, to see the place they often talked about.

It's quite sad to know that they never returned and never saw any of their family members again. Australia was so far away and travel was so expensive.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be a 19 or 20 year old, to pack a suitcase and say goodbye to your family and friends, jump on a ship (by yourself) bound for a country you have never seen before, all the while knowing you may never return and possibly never see them again. I know the sense of adventure must have been wonderful but the realisation must have taken some courage!

I've always loved to travel and see somewhere new, somewhere different. As a young woman of 20 I travel by myself and went to work for a mining company on Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea, away from home and family but I knew could always return.

Depressed but Not Lost I Am Here!!

Depression and anxiety may be part of what you are, but it is not who you are.

I went through an extremely tough time from 2013-15 where I suffered from stress and anxiety which was the result of personal workplace bullying and intimidation. I suppose I was a whistle blower, who had highlighted the suspect workings and breaches of laws, policies and procedures in my workplace.

I had thought that because I had accumulated a years worth of evidence and that I was an honest, reliable, truthful person who had spent 29 years with the Company, that the workplace systems would come out in my favour. I was blind to the fact that the systems and the Company Values where but mere words on paper, there to protect the Company and not the people who worked there.

I spent about 8-10 months going through their systems and appealing. During that time the bullying and intimation got worse, I was ostracized, treated like a leaper, not spoken with or communicated with, I was stopped from attending meetings, not advised of works/plans/changes/outcomes, my staff were given work without my knowledge and advised not to discuss with me, my budget and yearly plans where changed without my knowledge, I was prevented from doing my job to the best of my ability because I was not included, my role and responsibilities were changed without my knowledge. I would throw up before going to work, throw up at work, my blood pressure was sky high.

I WAS a high performing, functioning, director who was highly capable, inclusive, fair, firm and reliable. I fell apart when it became personal and I crumbed after 12 months of continued abuse when I received an anonymous email with just one word on it - QUIT.

I was a broken, mess for quite some time and still don't believe I am back to the person I once was.

My Art saved me from going under.

I tell myself - Be strong, stay strong, control it so it doesn't control you :)

We hide behind masks we make for ourselves;
to protect ourselves, to protect others, to scare others, to keep people at a distance, to bring them closer, to make them love, to make them hate, for confidence, for fear, to challenge, to hide. Whatever the reason we take this mask and wear it; sometimes with confidence and sometimes with pain.

This mask a freckles and flowers where the essence of beauty is seen and judged by all.

Our green eyed monster may come out when we are threatened, discontent or resentful of beauty, intelligence, talent, achievements, independence, wealth, or position. Keep that monster under wraps because envy will suck the life out of you.

Some find beauty threatening and fear what they see as it makes them uncomfortable, they judge themselves and can be harsh but they forget that there is beauty in everything, just a different type of beauty! Like freckles! You just have to look for it, sometimes it hides in the most obscure places :)

Springtime paddocks of wild daisies, looking to the sun.

As children in the 60's we would lay stretch out in the sun drenched paddocks, to feel it's kiss on our skin. We'd make daisy chains to hang about our necks, arms, ankles and over our ears... And hold competitions to see who could make the longest daisy chain.

We'd spend all day out in the paddocks playing, running through the tall grass, jumping, riding horses, playing chasey, collecting mushrooms... until we'd hear Mum call us for dinner.