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Unemployed and Chinabound, Perhaps

I can`t find any work in Christchurch, so I may go to China. At least, I`ve been investigating all of my options. I like teaching online and did it for a while in Brazil, but the bandwidth was just too slow there. Here in New Zealand it is much faster, and more reliable, so an online teaching business is a possibility, for sure. So, I start working online next week, for 14 dollars an hour, which is not enough to pay the bills. It is enough in Brazil, but not in good ole New Zealand where real estate prices have gone through the roof.  My fish and chips radar says, 2 pieces of fish and chips has tripled in cost over the past 4 years, Mmmm so, I am also looking for remote places around NZ that have good broadband, so I can set-up a wee teaching studio. Otherwise, it`s not really viable, and I will have to move to China, or elsewhere in South East Asia,

I started a Plein Air Painting group today - check it out.  The objective of the group is to share knowledge, and reflect, have fun, talk, and meet so we can build a community of outdoor painters.  So, if you`re a Kiwi painter reading this, please join.

While setting up the group page I discovered this great little video by Canadian artist, Angie McIntosh, all about plein-air painting in China. It`s fascinating, paint-outs appear to be a very popular pastime there!





So, I`ve sent a note to the author asking for any tips. Actually, I have had 8 job offers from China over the past week,  and haven`t accepted any.

Because I don`t have a degree, many schools are simply not interested in employing me. And the pay scale drops if they are, so the offers I have are less than a person who has absolutely no experience teaching, yet, has a degree.  Absurd. Not all schools. But most. I might describe it as academic imperialism, but it`s the same the world over. I have been teaching for 9 years in Brazil, am bilingual, multicultural, and qualified as a chef, but it means zilch, nothing, de-nada to an employer. And I still have a student debt swinging around my neck, from the culinary diploma I completed ten years ago (payscales in Brazil don`t allow one to pay back a debt in New Zealand), mmm talk about getting fleeced at both ends. Not complaining though. Life is elitist, and the academics don`t like it if you`re self taught. You`re a rebel, someone unable to follow instructions. Like Paulo Freire perhaps, or Colin McCahon - all rebel teachers, labelled and ridiculed teachers fighting the system. There is a long history of it. A pity. It stops creativity. It makes education become a production line of frustration. For me, yes, and of course for the students. They become a number, a repeater, a regurgitator, and rather than thinking, solving, discovering stuff for themselves, or in a group, they learn to play follow the leader.

Well, that`s not a creative solution, is it?


Off to do some plein-air painting today, breathe the fresh air, walk, and whistle to the birds.

Join me on a Worldwide Paint-Out Event

All plein-air painters in New Zealand please join me on the worldwide paint-out being arranged by IPAP (International Plein Air Painters).

Click on the image, and leave me a note or comment so we can keep in touch. Or visit my facebook page here.

Hit By a Truck

Hit By A Truck

At 7.30am this morning,
cold, ice and frost,
over the road I went, stepping purposefully to avoid a slip,
studying the early morning light,

and then, while standing at the road island at Strowan Road and Rossall Streets,
I remember thinking of painting the railway line,
looking up toward the light,
with shades of violet over blue,

when a heavy scraping sound snapped me out of my dream,
and I looked up,
to see the face of a truck gliding right at me,
a foot or two away from my chest,

I thought, god, this could be it, the end,
my numbers up, I`m gonna die,
shit, I`m bloody annoyed,
as my paint box and easel crash with me to the ground,
but, I`m alive, yes sirree,  and I got up to walk away,

staggered a bit,
and slumped to the ground again,
whizzing, cloudy, spatial loss and feeling very bloody off,
moments later I awoke, opened my eyes,
to a cherry face,

a beauty steering down at me from above, blond hair and a generous smile,
and another woman, gently feeling my chest,
I`m a doctor she said,
and I thought,
oh my god, save the lord, for this is heaven.

Painting in Hagley Park

I find it difficult capturing the winter light late in the day. I sat down in the leaves for a while, looking up at the sprawling branches, the sky, taking it all in, remembering Abstraction in Art and Nature, then painted, stopped, and painted again. Twas a bit chilly. Joggers passed by, housewives and prams too, as did golfers in the distance.