pedagogical mural project II

The kids came up with several very different and really good suggestions per class, but unfortunately we could only choose a few of them for execution. This one wasn't chosen.

Last week we used an overhead projector to make masks to help us paint the murals (because of several practical reasons we couldn't use the projectors to sketch directly on the walls)

and then we cut out the masks

Tomorrow is the DAY: we will paint the 5 murals. Cross your fingers!

pedagogical mural project

detail

On Tuesday I will paint the 5 murals together with the schoolchildren. This was how I worked with them to come up with the suggestions.

The limitations for this project was as always time and money. We could just get ONE day to paint the murals, and as the budget was limited the materials had to be kind of cheap and I could just get 5 occasions per school-class to help them develop the ideas. (in addition they got 2 times with their art teacher).

So I gave the kids some limitations:
- figurative based on cut out silhouettes from magazines and newspaper (this way everyone would have a fair chance; the idea was the main thing). Then they could add other elements to bind the scenes together.
- the choice of 4 out of 7 subtle colour-tones for the silhouettes.
- the white wall should not be covered but be the base of the images.
- work in groups of 2-3 kids (initially everyone had to work this way individually before teaming up)

prints in the post

These are the screen prints I made for the project and travelling exhibition Of Fishes and Birds. As you can see I decided to be a bit more light-hearted than I normally am in my own art (commissioned art being something different).

The top one is to be in the harmonica book which is the main object in this collaboration. The other two prints are to be exhibited alongside with the book (together with the other artists' prints, of course!) in those exhibition venues where we will have more space. My prints are right now in the post and should arrive to Kitty Kilian in the Netherlands by Wednesday (according to the post office). The first exhibition is to be in August.

nurse Ratched

I made this portrait of nurse Ratched from One flew over the cuckoo's nest for Paul Paper's latest project Postcards to Alphaville.

more photos from my exhibition

Haven't you had the chance to see my exhibition yet? Don't worry; you have until the 30th of May: Göteborgs Konstförening, Södra Vägen 2, Gothenburg.

The other day I got a review in the paper: my portraits were compared to scary clowns and the critic came to think of the work of Paul McCarthy. I liked the review!

The Jealous Curator has been jealous of me

Sharea

David Stiernholm and Navid Modiri inaugurated Sharea

So last Friday I went to Sharea (share + area) to spend a day in the atmosphere of giving and receiving...

Interesting, but not in the way intended. Social media (twitter of course!) was very present and everyone took photos with their phones all the time. The idea is good - everyone comes and shares something they can do - and get to take part of what the others are sharing. The "fun thing" though, was that no one was interested in what the others could teach/show them... Almost everyone just wanted to show what they could do, or interested in how they could market themselves better and be more visible (the age of facebook!). I saw people who just showed up for the lecture they were to give (but they had to see the one before and after as well, to be able to prepare and to not be totally impolite)

... so everyone had to chase people to get spectators. Aprox 160 people were participating and there were 5 rooms for lectures/workshops... but many had just 5-7 spectators... I stayed at some really boring unprepared lectures just because I felt sorry for the person and didn't want to leave in the middle! There were some interesting lectures/workshops though, but unfortunately everyone had gotten their time reduced to 15 minutes instead of the 30 minutes initially promised which meant that it was over just when it started to get interesting.

I think the idea of sharea is good, but that it should be with a more specific theme or a targeted group - and longer time per person and breaks in between! And a proper audience would be good - maybe invite some people to just be spectators?

Good lectures/workshops I attended:

Carl Johan Engberg, who has a film productions company named Stavfel, had a really interesting presentation. Luckily the guy supposed to lecture before him didn't show up - so Carl Johan got 30 minutes for his presentation!

Idriz Zogaj, a memory pro, had a workshops on how you can improve your memory buy using visual or crazy associations and all your senses - or through constructing a story.

Bente Wikmar, an artist, showed a film about an orphanage in Thailand for children with Aids. She has been going there every year for the last 10 years to help out. And what did I do then? I had originally prepared for a 30 min workshops (but had now only 15 minutes) where everyone was supposed to make a separate drawing following certain rules. Every paper had marks and instructions to afterwards fit together like a puzzle and make a large drawing. Unfortunately 5 minutes for sketching didn't give the best of results, but it was evident that the idea worked.

a part of our large drawing

a weekend off

Friday night: no work.
Saturday day and night: no work.
Sunday: no work.

...Ahhh ...

what is this?

I'm preparing something for tomorrow...

Tomorrow I'll take part in Sharea at Världskulturmuséet; sharea means share + area. It's a format for inspiration inspired by file-sharing and everyone bringing something for everyone to share. They day will be filled with lectures, discussions, workshops and creativity.

here you can read an interview (only in Swedish, unfortunately) with Navid Modiri who invited me to participate, here you can read the program.

On Monday I'll let you in on what I was preparing for - and how the day was...

so 80's

the colours, the pose, the way the girl wears her hat

....it wasn't intentionally

chez camilla

Today I got a much needed mini-break from all the ongoing projects and deadlines hanging over me; coffee with Camilla and Morran at their place. Camilla is working hard on a set of new paintings (bigger format than before!) and I got a sneak peak .. and so do you (she hasn't even posted photos of these paintings on her own blog)!

Now it is possible to order the new catalogue from the (Swedish) National Public Art Council; their Public Art projects 2009.

[anyone wondering about my Art as Business series? Unfortunately (which is actually good!) I'm far too busy right now to get the time for any serious writing. You'll have to be patient with me...]

grey for quiet and calm

I'm not dead yet, but I think I will anyway rest a bit tonight ...

yesterday

"You will get plenty of time for resting once you're dead"

That's one of the sayings from my father's part of the family from Småland. Småland is a part of Sweden where people are known to be hard working ... and careful with money. (Ingvar Kamprad, who is the man behind IKEA, is from Småland)

Yesterday I worked on my Fishes and Birds prints all day and then I started teaching my screen printing course at 17:00. When I left KKV at 21:00 there was that special smell of evening in spring - and I felt very tired and alive. The course goes on all weekend; I'll see if I manage to get any photos to post here of me in action teaching. One of my students tried to take photos today, but she said I just got all blurry because I didn't stay still!

In the left bottom corner you can see part of the sketch I made for the print

The first part of the bird has been printed

time for a decision

The first two days of this week I spent in my studio sketching and cutting papers like crazy to finally decide what I will make for the Fishes and Birds project. One print should be for the harmonica book which is the main idea for the travelling exhibition, but we should also preferably complement the book with more prints (under the same theme) - for those galleries where we will get more space. As a start we have already three booked exhibitions in the Netherlands for the project.

And - YES, I came to a decision and I will now make 3 screen prints!

my exhibition

photo: Hector Mora

Thank you everyone who came to the opening of my exhibition! (I didn't manage to take any photos of the opening myself ... too busy talking to people!)

- update:On demand I will take some photos of my exhibition next week to post here. I'll also ask around for photos from the opening!

shadow ship

It's been more than a month since his pirat party, but I love getting that shadow on the wall every day at dinner time - so it stays!

Soon it's Saturday - and the opening of my exhibition...

count down

Today I hang my exhibition in the small Gallery at Göteborgs Konstförening. Harpa Arnadottir from Iceland, who is exhibiting in the Large Gallery, has an art totally different from mine; subtle, abstract and very light in colour. I think our exhibitions contrast in an interesting way.

Göteborgs Konstförening
Södra vägen 2, Göteborg
8-30 May 2010

The Opening is at 12:00-16:00 on Saturday. You are all very welcome!

book-release party

photo Hector Mora (thanks, love!)

Last night I went to a book-release party. Åsa Lantz had just released her latest book "Vart tog den söta lilla Flickan vägen" (≈where did the sweet little girl go) - and we were a bunch of friends and acquaintances celebrating the occasion with food, talk and a lot of wine.

I'm so looking forward to take a night off after the opening of my exhibition (Saturday); with a nice cup of tea and Åsa's book. I have a feeling this book is going to be really really good...

paper cuts for mural

Part of a larger image I made today to show the schoolchildren how you can think (took me almost an hour)

It's been almost 5 weeks since I worked with the schoolchildren (age 15) on the longer mural project. But tomorrow it's time again. The tricky things with this project is that we have so very little time; I have 5 lessons (1 hour each lesson) per school class to help them develop ideas, make sketches and prepare for painting the mural. (They are supposed to work without me as well, but just twice) And then just ONE day to execute the murals together with some of the children in FOUR different places in their school.

So the big challenges for me is to manage to help them achieve something good and something that won't take too much time to execute (and that they'll manage to work on without my constant help - I can not divide into four!).

My idea: We cut out human figures from newspapers and magazines as bases for coloured silhouettes (in a limited number of colours) which can be used in any creative way to make larger images. They first worked individually to get the idea and will now work in groups of 3 on a suggestion in scale 1:5.

The question: will they manage to come up with a finished suggestion in just 3 hours (3 lessons)? 3 hours is not very much time, is it?

They didn't finish the individual suggestions in 2 hours...

Art as Business: evaluation II

the kitchen window at KKV, artist run collective workshops, where I've done too much voluntary work.

Last week I felt it was time for me to start asking what I had done and what I had achieved when it comes to my Art as Business tasks. I then took a look at Public Art and Galleries, today I continue with Time Management...

Time management: Yes and No

• Cluster. YES. I’ve been a good girl.
• Using my calendar. YES, better than ever. For both deadlines and planning. For every night but Saturday I’ve scheduled tasks to do.
• Liberate more time. NO, I’ve worked more than ever (see above). Today I took a look in the back mirror (that is ical, my calendar on the computer). I could very easily see that the problem has not been that I’ve not been disciplined; I’ve worked hard and I’ve met deadlines without any problems. No – I have absolutely done too many different things.
• Long term planning. NO, more or less nothing.

Conclusion
As I have not managed to liberate more time, I have not been able to do any long term planning or taken any time off (much needed). My problem is not about discipline, it is not about planning – it is about over committing. I don’t seem to be able to evaluate how much time things will take – I just think “I can do that” or “that would be fun”. I am a bit aware of the problem though and actually withdraw from two group exhibitions and an art talk in April. (what was I thinking first saying yes? Besides those things would probably not even have generated money).

Recommendation to self

• Face it - you are not a superhero with control over time(I might have other powers though!)
  
• Fewer art projects
• Limit the voluntary work to 2-3 hours a week (In autumn I wrote 1 hour, but that was totally unrealistic)
• Only commit to voluntary work that could lead somewhere or be acknowledged (I’ve spend years doing things no one seems to have noticed. Someone else will have to take over – I’ve done my part). And these commitments altogether should be realistic for the scheduled 2-3 hours/week.

I'm not feeling well today, so this post will be a bit shorter than I originally planned. I will continue next week with evaluating teaching art and how I am doing when it comes to reaching my main goals (should I change strategies?).