Maxine profile picture

Maxine

If it's not Love, then it's the bomb that will bring us together.

About Me

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Yes, I am part of the MySpace madness. Love it or hate it, here I am.
A slideshow of a recent trip to Sussex... June 2007
I love images. I collect and create images of all kinds... old, retro, new... of objects, places or people. Moments in time, snap shots of life... whatever I like the look of. I love to create my own images using all different mediums. My favourite being the camera. I love to capture life visually. In the slideshow are some photo-realism snap shots, taken by myself. (Recently Updated!)
Hellooo.... This is Me...
I am a creative funky lady who likes old things... photogrpahy, tazzin' about onmy old Lambretta, music, films, art, writing, smiling and laughing with my family and acting mental on a Friday afternoon.
I am good natured person who tries to look on the bright side of life. As you can probably tell by a lot of my pictures, my family and I spend a lot of time down south as we have got a lot of friends down there, although I live in the good old Midlands. I have got a fascination with the West Pier in Brighton... always have and always will, until it falls into the sea. I photograph it regularly during it's steady deteriation.
I graduated as a Primary Teacher in 2003 and, after teaching at a local Primary School for two years (which I hated), I have side stepped into teaching Art to 'gifted and talented' kids who are nominated by local schools (much better). I work part time in inner city schools (around Brum) and also dabble in making my own art and traditional stained glass windows from home as a small business, in my Little Red Glass Sudio.
I am also a mother of three lovely children (soon to be 4... YIKES!) who are great fun to be around. My kids are Jools who is 11yrs, Lily who is 2.5 yrs and Little Mia, the smiliest member of the family, who is 1 year old at present (June 2007).
I live with my yummy man Christopher in a town called Walsall in the West Midlands where the ley lines are strong. We have both left the area to live in other parts of the country in our younger years, but were pulled back to the good old Wasss.
When I am not too busy at home with family life I like being creative, going to gigs, dancing (whether it be at a club or in my front room), drawing and painting, visiting friends around the country, writing about life and documenting life visually with my camera. I have been nick named 'Camera Slag' in the past, due to me taking my camera everywhere with me. I often wish I had a camera in my eye that could snap an image at anytime... visual life just blows me away and I can get very exited just about looking at stuff... may sound crazy to some but it's inspiring to me.
I recently had a splendifirous weekend in Brighton. I caught up with old friends, made some new ones and laughed so much my sides hurt. It was a weekend of sleep deprivation, talking to strangers in off beat bars, running through the streets giggling, visiting old haunts, revelling in music, dancing without a care, amazing conversations, smliling and more laughing, shivering on the sea front until early morning sun light slowly graced the indigent archaic friend that is The West Pier. Enjoy!

My Interests



Interests in life... hmm.. Old things, New things, Good conversation, Listening to people, People Watching, Dancing to groovy music, Listening to music, Singing to my music in my car (where no-one can hear me), Lambetta's, Socialising, Loving my man (soppy I know, but I can't help it), Having fun with my kids, Inspiring pupils within my Art group, Looking at Art, Making Art, Collecting Images, Creating glass windows, Photography, Photo-Realism, Making pictures, Taking pictures, Using my Picture/Video phone, Making Videos, Writing (even though I am the worlds worst speller)... Gardening (blimey, did I say that, I must be getting old).
Gasp... up for air and... brrreeaath....
I like Messing around on my computer, Smoking the odd cone and guzzling a bit of Vino.

Check out the slide show of some of my favourite snap shots of family and friends...

This is a portrait of my son, Julian, that I painted. It's a large painting, painted in acrylics. The painting is part of a tryptic called 'The Cotterie Tryptic'. I will be adding more images of my artwork soon.

I'd like to meet:

Creative interesting (nice) people. Old faces... New faces... and smiley faces.

Music:



Love 60's/70's, 60's garage, psychedelic groovy stuff, Northern Soul and Funk, Some Jazz (not the snoopy music type though), A bit of Folk... Lots of Indie, Some loud stuff, and a bit of Rock.
I love to go to clubs and dance.. dance to soul and funk... alternative/indie, rock and 60's/70's soulful tunes. And if I haven't got the time or oportunity to go and dance at a club, then the front room will do!

Here's a slideshow of me and my son Jools when we were in Manchester last Christmas (Dec 06). We went to see Morrissey play at the GMex centre. It was Jools's 2nd gig of the year... he loved it. He's a right little music freak and my new gigging buddy by the looks of it. We had a great time in Manchester... it's a great city. Enjoy the pics. They're only taken with my picture phone, but haven't turned out too bad. ..

Movies:


Shane Meadow's films... Old films... Films with great imagery... Films that touch me. Not that keen on gor or slashers... don't see the point... but I love gohsty scary films.
Other stuff... Betty Blue, Roman Holiday, The Graduate, Withnail and I (Yes I know it's everybody's favourite, but I can't stop liking it because it has become mega popular), Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver, To Sir with Love, Clockwork Orange, Girl On A Motorcycle, A Taste of Honey, The Knack, Alfie (the original one), The Italian job (also orig), Up the Junction, Blow Up, Brighton Rock, Quadrophenia, Made in Britain, The Hairdresser's Husband, Amelie, Nuts in May, Trainspotting, The wicker Man, Planet Of The Apes, 24 Hour Party People, Billy Elliot, Donnie Darko... so many many more.
Lots of kids stuff like Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away and The Iron Giant. The Wizard of Oz was the first film I can remember seeing as a kid and being totally freaked out by the witch... She has got to be the most scary witch ever!!

Television:

I love Natural History and stuff about the Earth, Planets, Space and Time.
I've gotta have me 'Stenders!! Sad I know.
I have to be honest a say I am a sucker for reality TV although I am slightly embarrassed to admit it.
I like Lost... ermm, what else... don't watch much telly at the moment. I tend to get sucked into watching episodes of US TV that my man, Chris, downloads onto his PC. While I am tapping away at my Mac, my eyes stray and I find myself watching stuff I wouldn't normally choose to watch... it's entertaining enough though, so I am not complaining.

Books:

Art books and magazines. Photography & Photo journalism books, Books about old things... Books with loads of groovy pictures in, Music magazines and the Sundays papers.

Heroes:

Music wise it has to be: George Harrison, John Lennon, Neil Young, Arthur Lee, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Ronnie Laine, Steve Marriott, Morrissey, Dave Grohl, Ian Brown, Harriett Wheeler and John Lydon. Its a bit of a mixed bag, but it works for me. I could go on forever.
Art and Design influences: Peter Blake, Peter Max, Lichtenstein, Freda Khalo, Rene Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Anthony Gormley, Escher, Gustav Klimt, Bridget Reilly and many more.
General: Michael Caine, Robery Lindsay, Audrey Hepburn, Twiggy, Ewan Mcgregor..erm.. gonna have to stop there for now.
People I know: My Nan Rene..., Lovely Lainey, Tekka the king of Bees', Christof Lammy, Emma K, Tracey J... School Buddy Sarah Mac... The lovely Jenny McKeating, who has been a fantastic friend recently and not forgetting my old mukka Christabelle AKA pob... and her tribe of little people.
I feel like I am writing a Thank You speech... I have so many heros/influences... I will have to come back to this bit later when I've had a think otherwise I'll be woffling on forever... (probably already have).
This is Me and Caroline (Cozmic Caz) on the cover of the VFM programme for the I.O.W 2001.
Have a peek at this website, it's funny... You upload a full face picture of yourself, it then scans your face and matches you with look-a-likes celebrities. Most of mine are Japaneese... mad!! Funny thing is, when I was a teenager... I took some acid (as you do...) and I turned into a Jananeese lady in the mirror... freaky!
http://www.myheritage.com

My Blog

The Power of the Dead?

I haven't done a blog in a while. I still love writing. I have just been so busy with other stuff going on that I don't seem to have as much time to sit in front of the computer late at night. I st...
Posted by Maxine on Mon, 03 Sep 2007 05:35:00 PST

'This Is England'... in the 80's

Last week I watched the South Bank Show. It featured Shane Meadows, an independent film maker from Staffordshire. The programme focussed mainly on his newest film 'This Is England', which is a rites...
Posted by Maxine on Wed, 16 May 2007 04:46:00 PST

I'll Have A Pint Of Strongest!

Have you ever thought about the way other people influence your life? The people you encounter through life are part of what helps you to shape your opinions, views and reasoning about life. They ha...
Posted by Maxine on Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:16:00 PST

The Photo-me-booth

If you know me or have read some snippets on my page or the odd blog of mine, you will probably know that I am visually obsessed. I love art, pictures and photographs, and the 'photo-me-booth' has to...
Posted by Maxine on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:59:00 PST

Lambretta SX150 joins the family!

Not my usual type of blog, but....Look what I bought today!!!Needs a bit of TLC. It is 41 years old...and it has been in old Italian woman's shed for a long long time.1966 Lambretta SX150... original...
Posted by Maxine on Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:28:00 PST

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

In this Blog I would like to discuss the idea of Karma. I enjoy writing what regularly floats through my mind. Most of my writing is light-hearted and often includes a bit of humour. However, I mus...
Posted by Maxine on Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:01:00 PST

Quadrophenia... RIP All Things Mod (well, maybe not all things)!

I just felt compelled to write.I had been doing a bit of channel flicking.. as you do when you've got more than the bog standard amount of channels. Usually I never actually get to watch anything. I...
Posted by Maxine on Thu, 11 Jan 2007 05:52:00 PST

The In-Laws Christmas Gripe

In-laws can be trying at the best of times, and Christmas is one of those times when you're exposed to a full on in-law dose. Arggghhh!!! Why can't my in-laws be semi at grip with the real world...?T...
Posted by Maxine on Thu, 04 Jan 2007 04:32:00 PST

Old Friends Reunited

Today I smiled so much that the laughter lines on my face were a bit more noticeable by the end of the day.I went to meet an old friend in Birmingham city centre. Now meeting up with old friends can ...
Posted by Maxine on Sun, 17 Dec 2006 03:40:00 PST

Walsall: What is it about Walsall?

What Is It About Walsall?Walsall is a medieval town, in the heart of the West Midlands. It is quite hilly with the highest point, Church Hill, standing 511 feet above sea level. A church has stood on...
Posted by Maxine on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 06:36:00 PST