Dear Yogis

My latest painting (unfinished).  For those who don’t recognise the face (or the wild hair), it is the French writer Collette.  You might have seen her younger self  portrayed by Kiera Knightly in the film “Collette”.  She looks an impressive person, and I am sure that she was.

I was very disappointed when i learned that in Victoria LGBTIQ+ people can marry, but gay women cannot legally assemble in a single sex space.  In contrast to the Laird and Peel Hotels in Victoria which have been granted single sex exemptions.  I am not a lesbian (at the moment) however in response to this discrimination and to bring it to your attention, I have decided to paint a series of women – George Sand, Collette, Gertrude Stein and of course Fran Lebowitz.

Do you remember the days in the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s when there was a thriving and very colourful lesbian community in Victoria (especially in Melbourne). However, we have witnessed the demise of our culture and lesbian space since the early 1990s; either made extinct or subsumed under the mantle of “queer”. Many interesting groups have been banned from gathering, or even performing on the streets – not just gay women.  Why are we so afraid?  This is in part because of the rise of mainstream LGBTIQ+ and also because of diversity and inclusion laws which currently make it illegal for lesbians to hold public female-only functions without applying for an exemption with the Human Rights Commission.  For goodness sake, they are not exactly terrorists, or have I missed something!

In the early 2000s, lesbians applied for exemptions in order to run lesbian-only events. These were not successful.  The process became very stressful and expensive, and so they gave up.  It was easier to go underground and become invisible and organise events through a closed network just as the gay and lesbian community used to do pre-1970s.   So for the past twenty odd years, the lesbian community in Victoria has existed underground.

Mainstream LGBTIQ+ organisations and Government have force-teamed them with people of the opposite-sex. There was no consultation or negotiation in this process. Lesbians are not able to legally come together, as a minority group, to socialise and have their own culture and events. This is in contrast to gay men with The Laird and Peel Hotels in Victoria being granted ongoing single-sex exemptions,  trans-only events, which are widespread.  Google it – add your voice to the theirs to get this stupid law overturned (or at least modified).  Whatever they call it,  it is discrimination….

I thought we had grown up enough to deal with difference, to allow people to lawfully co-exist peacefully. It seems I was wrong.

YOGA CLASSES AND STUDIO TIMES…..  CLASSES STARTED MONDAY THE 8TH JANUARY.  

TAROT AND GITA READINGS – BY APPOINTMENT. Email me:  yogafirst2@bigpond.com

ZOOM GITA Our first for the year…Monday  evening at 6.30pm.    Although there is no charge, if you can, I would appreciate a small donation (or a big one!).  To donate go to the web site www.yogabeautiful.com.au and click on PAY VIA PAY PAL

Windarring Yoga –  Tues. 1pm a joint class –  Kyneton and Gisborne combined.

STUDIO YOGA WOODEND: Monday Hatha 1pm (full) Mon. 2.15, Wednesday Restorative 1pm  TEACHER TRAINING Sunday 21st January at 2.30

LITTLE STUDIO/GALLERY:  Opening PREVIEW Friday the 9th February at 5.30 – all my students (and friends) welcome.  I will have my newest series showing there in the original with prints and cards.  Especially a series on waxed tea bags of the Dalai Lama. The large paintings of Collette and Krishna will both be finished and available at this time also.

THE YOGA LUNCHEON: Will update as soon as we have a date for the next one.

SEE YOU IN THE STUDIO and in the gallery.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

Thank you to those students who have visited me in the last week – I still have a few more morning teas to negotiate – I feel like my friend Annie who always had a diary bulging with teaching and social times….  She did plant her tulips in pots, did a bit of weeding, and reading and watched “the young and the Restless” on telly hoping at some point to understand it!  She didn’t have time to craft or paint although she supported the arts and frequently purchased from shops and exhibitions.  

Every Monday Wednesday and Friday (unless I “forget”) I have been writing to you (it takes time) – with virtually no response, apart from people emailing me asking dates and times I had reported on that  day i.e. obviously they don’t go near the newsletter or blog.  It is easier to ask me rather than having to actually read – that also goes for people who haven’t tried researching google when they have an art or yoga query.  One of my wonderful Windarring yogis recently volunteered to do the Christmas reading in Church.  Because she hadn’t done much “big reading”, I had to divide the lesson into sentences rather than paragraphs, then she was able to both read it and cope well.

It reminds me of the newspapers that were on offer when I was much younger.  There was the Age, the Herald Sun, the Truth and the Independent.  You could tell who the readership of each was by the column size.  The Independent had articles – two columns, half page and was serious reading, factual with books reviews, court reporting and politics. The Sun had 6 columns and a “page 3 girls” – a bare breasted female. The Age had 4 columns and a large tabloid size, designed for “intellectuals” – but hard to read on the train because of the size.  The Truth had 8 columns, and larger type face for people who had less experience reading. It rarely told the truth, and was like the American “Enquirer’ and contained sensational stories.

If a newspaper was to start up today (hard copy) it would have to have sensational headlines, pictures, and lots of columns because of the lack of attention span. I see piles of newspapers as I go shopping at Coles and IGA.  I think those still on offer are attention grabbers, rather than purchased to read (other than the Financial Review, which people carry but don’t read).   Apparently science has compared the attention span of teenagers and goldfish, and the goldfish won.

“I believe you can’t teach love of writing, of stories…This is not teachable although loving, reading parents does help. In the same way you cannot teach people to be talented. It’s like trying to teach people to be taller. I’m sorry, there’s nothing you can do about it.” 

 

YOGA CLASSES AND STUDIO TIMES…..  CLASSES STARTED MONDAY THE 8TH JANUARY.  

TAROT AND GITA READINGS – BY APPOINTMENT. Email me:  yogafirst2@bigpond.com

ZOOM GITA Our first for the year…Monday  evening at 6.30pm.    Although there is no charge, if you can, I would appreciate a small donation (or a big one!).  To donate go to the web site www.yogabeautiful.com.au and click on PAY VIA PAY PAL

Windarring Yoga –  Tues. 1pm a joint class –  Kyneton and Gisborne combined.

STUDIO YOGA WOODEND: Monday Hatha 1pm (full) Mon. 2.15, Wednesday Restorative 1pm  TEACHER TRAINING Sunday 21st January at 2.30

LITTLE STUDIO/GALLERY:  Opening PREVIEW Friday the 9th February at 5.30 – all my students welcome.  I will have my newest series showing there in the original with prints and cards.  Especially a series on the Dalai Lama, and Tensin Palmo who is an amazing joyful creature whom you may remember from her  book “A Cave in the Snow”.

THE YOGA LUNCHEON: Will update as soon as we have a date for the next one.

SEE YOU IN THE STUDIO and in the gallery.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

Dear Students/Yogis,

I have been working in the large for some time with Krishna and Buddha emerging, as well as angels (they are all “angels”,  as are you).  I find myself reverting to the miniature for a series of collage in miniature on Tea bags of the Dalai Lama, Tensin Palmo and Thitch Nat Hanh – and if I get time, John Lennon, even Bob Dylan.  I am not sure how much i will be able to get done before the opening – but at least i have a clear focus.

 

YOGA CLASSES AND STUDIO TIMES…..  CLASSES STARTED MONDAY THE 8TH JANUARY.  

TAROT AND GITA READINGS – BY APPOINTMENT. Email me:  yogafirst2@bigpond.com

ZOOM GITA Our first for the year…Monday (8th January)  evening at 6.30pm.    Although there is no charge, if you can, I would appreciate a small donation (or a big one!).  To donate go to the web site www.yogabeautiful.com.au and click on PAY VIA PAY PAL

Windarring Yoga –  Tues. 1pm a joint class –  Kyneton and Gisborne combined.

STUDIO YOGA WOODEND: Monday Hatha 1pm (full) Mon. 2.15, Wednesday Restorative 1pm  TEACHER TRAINING Sunday 21st January at 2.30

LITTLE STUDIO/GALLERY:  Opening PREVIEW Friday the 9th February at 5.30 – all my students welcome.  I will have my newest series showing there in the original with prints and cards.  Especially a series on the Dalai Lama, and Tensin Palmo who is an amazing joyful creature whom you may remember from her  book “A Cave in the Snow”.

THE YOGA LUNCHEON: Will update as soon as we have a date for the next one.

SEE YOU IN THE STUDIO and in the gallery.

NAMASTE – JAHNE