Frog and the Well Wall Art and Prints now available.

From a simple request by my sister in law to help decorate her home before it went on the market, I've now had lots of people ask if they could buy their own prints.

The answer is YES!

A4 prints are $25 + pp
A3 prints are $30 + pp

Buy up to 3 prints and get postage for $12.


Here's the link the to the gallery. Frog and the Well Print Gallery.


 

Are you comfortable?

 

My partner Andy and I were walking down a street in Fremantle recently and I was thinking about how uncomfortable I was feeling. I felt fat, sluggish and a little pissed off that I hadn’t slept well the night before.

I was whinging.

I was uncomfortable in my own skin. I wanted to run away back to somewhere where I felt more comfortable. But where? Back to the hotel room to drink more wine and eat outrageously expensive Pringles from the mini bar? I couldn’t do that, it was only 9am!

Then it hit me. Instead of wanting to run off to be ‘comfortable’ somewhere else, why don’t I just be comfortable where I am? All it takes is for me to shut the fuck up from telling myself how uncomfortable I was.

So I rested in that thought for a bit, felt the tension throughout my body especially my shoulders and then relaxed them. I brought my attention back to where I was and released the inner bitching.

Wherever I am, I have to be there. If I’m walking, I can’t be running off to somewhere else in my mind as I might get hit by a bus or I might miss some incredible piece of wisdom the universe is trying to send to me.

I have to surrender my mental desire to be somewhere apart from where I am. Sure you need to plan and be organised (to a certain degree) but if I can be comfortable where I am and learn to open up to the possibilities of what’s right in front of me, then life should be more interesting.

Be comfortable where you are. (Except if you’re about to eaten by a Lion or appear on some reality TV show, then run like the bloody wind.) But if there’s still something that doesn’t feel right even after dropping the self talk, then that’s a sign to move on or out. Then you’re listening to your inner self as opposed to your neurotic thoughts.

It’s something that I’m constantly learning to do and not always successful at, but I’m going to keep trying. It’s worth it for my own sanity.

Is talking to flowers dangerous for your mental health?

Is talking to flowers dangerous for your mental health?

Or could it be the sanity injection you need? 

There’s a shop I walk past quite often that has a white picket fence with several bushes whose flowers burst through in a joyous celebration of colour.

As I approach the bushes I get a sense of joy and I can’t help but feel the happiness of the flowers and thank them for their brilliant floweryness. (I’m a copywriter so I can make up words)

I actually thank them out aloud and I don’t care if people think I’m mad, at least it’s more interesting that watching Family Feud.

Where else are you going to feel such random joy for no reason? Sally in accounts is grumpy, Sharon in sales always wants something from you and Bernie the cleaner thinks you’re a pig because you don’t clean your mug.

But flowers just seem to enjoy life and radiate happiness. They don’t get hung up on whether their petals are the right colour or if they are too fat or skinny. They don’t panic about withering away and dying. There’s a grace to how a flower lives its life that we all can take some inspiration from.

Now imagine that the flower was some kind of mystical counsellor where you could off load all your worries and concerns to. Spill your guts in a safe way.  You can sit on the ground, crossed legged and start chatting away about all those things you can't tell anyone else, all those things that weigh down your heart and tear at your soul.

The flower won’t judge you. It won’t even feel the need fix anything or even comment. It’ll just radiate joy and love back to you, no matter what you tell it. It’ll love you regardless.

Just talking to someone, anyone, anything; even a flower, about what ails your heart is enough to make you feel lighter. It’s stops the swirling thoughts going around your head and then constricting your heart. It then releases them to the universe to do with as she will.

Talk it out, lay it out, get it out.

And a flower is a good starting point.  

 

Thank God I'm not an expert

 

 

When I realised I didn't have to be an expert, I almost cried. Well almost.

If I had cried, they would have been tears of relief and joy.

Thank God, I don’t have to be an expert.  

Suddenly a whole weight of pressure was lifted off my shoulders. I was free.

The last thing the world needs is another expert.

Instead we need explorers, adventurers, emotional daredevils, brave hearts of the soul. People that go out to the limits of their personal boundaries and report back on what they’ve discovered.

They share and enlighten.

They invite us to go on our own journey, to find out for ourselves.

They let us know that if they’ve done it, we can too.

 Experts just tell us what they think they know and we should accept it.

All over. Go back to watching TV.

 We don’t need another expert and I’m glad I don’t have to be one.

 I’ve been in advertising for 20 years and I’m no way an expert. I can help a client eliminate some of the risks of advertising but that is about it.

I can come up with kick arse campaign ideas, but I’m not an expert. Creativity is alien to experts.

 As a writer I write to explore my own self, my own weird, wonderful and often self-destructive inner self.

I write to understand.

I write to share

I write to show you that it’s perfectly safe for you to do it too.

Because if I feel something then you probably do too.

I’m not an expert. I don’t have the answers.

I’m an explorer.

But you are too.

And you can share your discoveries as well.  

Laurie Anderson sums it up well.  

 

Soul Economics

There's a part in my new book, Turning Inside Out where I talk about 'Soul Economics'

"The dreams of childhood are designed to be filtered out and we’re brought into line so that we can be productive for our society and the economy. However there’s seems to be a lack of ‘soul economics’ where we should be feeding and nourishing the soul with experiences, adventure and love.  Why is childhood the only time where imaginative play is encouraged? I feel some boardroom meetings could do with a good dose of play dough and crayon time. "

 

Celebrating 4 years of Frog and the Well

As I write this, I notice that my desk is covered in cartoon ideas for the Frog and the Well Comic and the sketches and prints out of notes flow seamlessly into the evolving manuscript for the follow up to Dying to Know- is there life after death, which has a working title of Turning inside Out – what if everything we’ve been taught is wrong?

I’m truly blessed that I have found the perfect outlet for my quirky and mildly freaky view on life and my complete lack of understanding of it. The Frog is my inner kid allowed to run free and see the world through daisy like glasses free of the idiocy of the so called ‘grown up’ world. It’s the closest I get to expressing the real me. I've realised that I don't know any of the answers to the meaning to life, but I'm on a journey to find out and Frog and the Well is an expression of some of the insights I find along the way.

 

Here's to another 4 years of Frog and the Well

The secret to writing

I found myself doing this many times. Now that I'm in the middle of abstaining from social media, I get my distraction from flowers!

I don't know

When I write or create cartoons, I am in a state of discovery. A state of “I don’t know”.

I’m learning,

I’m discovering

and you can come with me.

I am not the expert.

I’m the experiencer and the observer all in one.

I can be really me, on a voyage of discovery and share it with the world.

No trying to be right, perfect or provide answers.

Just connect, share, embrace and love. 

Act your age and you'll be dead.

Don't let middle age crush your imagination. Rebel against the mediocrity of society and it's mundane expectations.

Wear a tea towel on your head,
splash in puddles,
eat your lunch at breakfast,
question why commercial TV is so crap
and spend more time looking at bugs.

George's brain

I know some people watch mind numbing TV shows to achieve the same effect, but for me the idea of taking my brain out to let recharge in the sunshine and soak up the creative energy of flowers makes more sense. I might end up with 'daisy brain' though.

No expectations when hugging a tree

It's strange how some insights arrive in your consciousness.

 

I'd been bothered by some annoying thoughts and anxiety a few weeks back and felt the urge to go outside and walk around. To touch the earth and ground myself. I was soon drawn to a Lemon Scented Gum, which we'd planted about 7 years earlier and then hugged it (as you do) and suddenly felt all the pressure I'd put on myself drop away. I saw myself from the tree's perspective and knew what it was like to no expectation placed on me by other people and also by myself. What a liberating feeling. I thanked the tree and then came back inside to create the cartoon so I could capture the feeling.

 

Now I know why tree huggers do what they do. I thoroughly recommend it as therapy for a confused and crazy life.

 

Rebel without a fork

One day at work I found myself getting hungry at around 9.30 and decided, fuck it, I'm going to eat my lunch that I had brought in from home. Feeling like a bit of a lunch rebel, I then discovered I didn't get hungry again at lunch time and I didn't feel like snacking during the afternoon either.

It got me thinking about how conditioned we are to societal norms and arbitrary rules and systems that really don't mean much. I now find that if I eat my lunch when I feel hungry, I don't get hungry later on and don't feel like snacking. All those 'snack food' companies have just lost their market share with me by simply eating good food when I feel like it, not when 'I should be' eating.

I just love how that inspiration for a cartoon can come from anywhere!

Belief in yourself

While I've been busy promoting Dying to Know I still feel the need to create some Frog and the Well Cartoons to keep me sane and this one was inspired by my obsession with a Unicorn called Bernard.

Where does God live?

I'd woken up one morning with the strange thought running through my head: 'where do religious people think that God lives?' Seeing as I'm not religious, I asked the question of myself and thought about all the places that God or 'love' could be and what form it could take. Then I ponded over coffee about love being everywhere, in the nooks and crannies, in the dark moments of our lives, in the joyous moments and even next to the cheese in the fridge! Now hence the little series 'where does God live" was born. 

Cubicle Syndrome

There's a quick cure for those suffering cubicle syndrome. Walk outside, no matter what the weather conditions and keep walking. Walk around the block, to the coffee shop, to the park or if you feel so inclined walk to the ocean (no matter how far it is). Just a small amount of time in nature will help counteract the silly symptoms of office cubicle syndrome.  You'll know if it really works well, is when you decide you can't go back in again and go and get a job you really like.

Tackling Christmas head on

This is how I tackle Christmas. I easily get sucked into the pressure and stress of all the expectations that the media and other people place on you and I forget it's meant to be a time of joy and fun. I'm definitely not religious so I'm luckily I have no expectations that I need to for full there which is lucky as I couldn't cope with the added stress of a wrathful deity getting pissed at me for not building a nativity scene as well as do everything else!