snow and more sunshine

No much to report about here; but I can share some links ...

little people

contemporary art daily

oh, morning sun

Even though summer might feel very far away right now, it will come sooner than you think. And I'm happy to again teach a summer course in big-format screen print at the design school (HDK). I'll be back with more information about the course when it's made public (don't tell anyone I told you ...).

on request: more sketchbook pages

just checking that my studio is still there ...

Today I biked to the studio to water my plants and check that my studio is still there. And of course it was! I also checked my ongoing project that I just left in the middle when I travelled to Colombia - and it actually looked as promising as I remembered. Sometimes you return to see it wasn't as good as you thought - but not this time! But art will have to wait for now - I'm still spending my days at home planning the year, but above all preparing my Art as Business Course for Camp Pikaland. I'm aiming to make this course into something that can help artists or illustrators getting an overall structure to everything that has to be done, to help them prioritize, evaluate and plan. And really see it through and reach their goals... I don't want to make a course that is just a list of everything you could and should do.

The class starts the 7th of February, but you can also sign up later as it is a self-study class.

a visit to Camilla's studio

Friday I paid a visit to Camilla's studio and had a coffee. She's renting this studio from artist Pecka Söderberg for a year while he's away traveling. There's a very special light and the colours of the surroundings - inside and outside - are like from one of Camilla's paintings. Like the one in the second photo; the chair has the same colour as the shadow on Camilla's hand, the background in the painting is like the yellow brick wall and the woman's dress is like the concrete floor.

sketchbook pages

and Ace Camp is offering a workshops with Camilla Engman again.

more grey: sketchbook material

Before going to Colombia I managed to finish my sketchbook for the sketchbook project. This was a fun little creative exercise for me, a playful intimate game on the theme "Grey side of Life". (and a healthy contrast for me who is nowadays just aiming for monumental).

I decided on some basic limitations to sparkle my fantasy (as this always is a good way for me to get playful):
- to just use (mostly) grey left overs and materials from my studio (ink and colour tests, small parts of discarded big drawings) ...
- use whatever I could distinguish on the paper, what I could see with my fantasy (hey, that looks like an elephant), cut it out and just add as little as possible. And no censoring - what showed up showed up.

(I'll share some more sketches tomorrow)

There's an interview with me over at Pikaland. Soon my Art as Business e-course will be starting at Camp Pikaland!

grey Gothenburg

It's nice to be home, but it sure feels kind of grey. I've missed my studio, but creative time will have to wait yet some time. Paperwork and  planning ...

summing up 2011

Now when I'm back home I fell ready to start the new year!
But what is starting afresh without summing up 2011?

separate exhibition in Lysekil Konsthall

... and separate exhibition in Nemeshallen

I worked on a mural project together with schoolchildren. See the results here and here in addition to my normal screen printing workshops for artists and my guest teaching for pattern design students I taught a summer course in big format screen printing and it's spatial possibilities at the School of Design and Crafts, (Here you can see the results in the exhibition)

I worked hard in spring on my public commission (in form cut aluminum) In August I mounted it. The schoolchildren named the 7,5 x 22 m art piece "Snow white talks to the Phantom while Batman is disturbing and the Wolf is howling" In May I spent a week painting in the Watercolour Museum's guest studio and got some peace and quite. In August I went to Gerlesborg and spent a week taking a concrete casting course in 2011 I managed to get more studio time just working on my own art than any other year! [wonder what I achieved in 2010? -  read summing up 2010]

Bye Bye Bogotà

Right now we are on our way back home to Sweden (this is a scheduled post). Visiting Colombia for the first time and meeting almost everyone in the big Colombian family has been something special. Counting Colombia I've been to 23 countries, but it's a big difference between just seeing a country as a tourist (from the outside) and seeing it (from the inside) with the help of those living there. 

This last month here in Colombia I've been thinking a lot about how I want to live my life, what I value most - and what I want with my art. Now I'm ready to start 2012!

more Oscar Muños

video; portrait (self portrait) drawing changing and disappearing as the water disappears from the sink. (I believe the drawing was made out of carbon powder)

Oscar Muños

It's not that often when visiting an exhibition that I feel happy, excited and "this is so good" - and all at the same time. But that's how I felt when I saw Oscar Muños' retrospective exhibition at Museo del Arte del Banco de la republica here in Bogotà! Oscar Muños is one of Colomia's most important contemporary artists and I felt an immediate connection with his art. Muños works with photography, video/video installations and objects with a strong tie to art history's long tradition of depicting as well as with the process of transformation, destruction and reconfiguration. His imagery is mostly based on portraiture (photography and drawing). There is both something elusive and something everlasting in his art. The concept of time seems to be essential. And the act of depicting and the concept of representing.

carbon in water

here you can see the border of the image above; the carbon is floating on water in a box. It's very elusive.

video; Muños is painting a portrait (self portrait I belive) over and over again. But as it is painted only with water on concrete it disappears as the water dries ... and he paints it again and again.

videoinstallation. can't really explain it. it has to been seen in real life. Great though!

Bogotà from the car

the outskirts of Bogotà; a typical roadside restaurant

another place for eating;  they are barbecuing big pieces of meat and corn

I grew up without a car and I don't have a car in Sweden nowadays either. I've never in my life spent as much time in a car as now in Bogotà. According to my Colombian family it's not safe to take photos on the street ... so I've been documenting the street life through the car window. (But you have to hide the camera when stopping for a red light or they might smash the window and steal your camera. They stole my mother in law's handbag that way...)

gold and ceramics

Museo del Oro, Bogotà; fantastic pre-colonial Indian art.

It's like I'm on "pause" - when the rest of the worlds is still turning. But I think my brain is secretly working on something.

death, torture and art

In Cartagena we paid a visit to el MUSEO HISTÓRICO DE CARTAGENA CASA DE LA INQUISICIÓN. It was the first time my six year old son became aware of human cruelty --... as we had to explain him the instruments of torture and what an execution was. And why (can it be explained?). The museum also exhibited some emerging artists who used the possibilities of the building in a great way.

Violeta Ospina, videoinstallation

Didn't get the name here unfortunately

Juan Raúl  Hoyos

Liliana Sanchèz