Happy New Year!

(my great grandmother in 1904. I've written about her before here)

working, working ...

(my children's book)

fishes

sinking

Merry Christmas!

work in progress; children's book

I actually decided to go for another script than originally intended (that other project needs more time, and will be saved for later) - and made it easier for myself that way. Hard is not always best

(if anyone wonders; I didn't get any heavenly revelation for my public commission the other day ... but it might still come)

three parallel creative projects

I thought I would now just concentrate on two things - my children's book and my upcoming exhibition - but NO. I've now been asked to sketch for a public commission - which I'm very happy about  - YES! With deadline in the end of January (ooops!) It will be a true challenge for me to concentrate on three parallel creative projects. I'm trying to imagine that I'm entering specific rooms for each project and then closing out the other two. I feel I need three months to finish all of them, but have just like one and a half (and I can't skip Christmas) - so I have to be super effective and plan the time really well ... and pray for help from above with an instant superb idea for that public commission when I visit the premises on Tuesday. So until all is done this blog will just be images of work in progress without much text...

continuing: process leading to light signs

So - I had decided I should try to recreate that wrapping, framing, golden effect - but in a more solid way. After some thoughts I decided glass should be the material - I had the knowledge (i e some knowledge) and the access to kilns at the Artists' Collective Workshops.

First I ran a test with small pieces of glass that I already had - and I managed to get perfect curves (how the kiln is programmed to achieve the result you are after). YES! Ok, a little bubble, but that was ok. And the wrinkles I tried to achieve got a little bit too obvious. But - just a test!

Spray painted in gold - got very excited about how it looked. So nice and shiny!

tried it with a photo of Heidi Klum

... and then I tried it out with some cut out faces I already had.

I was very happy about it!

... and then it was time for a one month Christmas break in Colombia ... and another month of administration and course preparation. ..and ... but in March this year I continued the tests

... to be continued ...

retake; process leading to light signs

So here we go again - back to my account of the long process that started more than a year ago (read first part of the process and second part):

November 2011  As I mentioned before I decided to keep the transparent plastic as a mask - instead of a paper one originally intended - as static electricity kept it in place.

When I spray painted I then got this unexpected effect - the plastic curled and created like a frame!

I liked this a lot; it became more iconic, but at the same time kind of trashy

fake, plastic, baroque

I had to take the plastic away though. (In this room and with that light it was still ok, but not as good as with the plastic on)

-

Back in the studio - boring. boring boring boring - Maybe I should try to recreate that wrapping, that plastic golden frame, following the shapes? Maybe I should go for more instead of less? I had started to paint watercolour on canvas to get away from the frame and the "picture on the wall"-feeling - but maybe the solution should be not to have the frame as a necessity, but to use it as a central part of the art piece - to make a statement with it? To use it to support what I was trying to say with the painting? - But how could I recreate it in a lasting way? (this was still november 2012)

I'm still around ...

November blogging was all time low for me - only comparable to vacation month July - but I can assure you I haven't been on vacation ... It's been Pecha Kucha presentation, cultural entrepreneur seminar, completing my art book, two screen printing workshops (long weekends), guest teaching screen printing a week in Lidköping, writing children's book scripts and sketching characters,  attending lectures and workshops in children's books - and working on my art... Probably something more I've done too, that I can't remember right now.  But December should "only" be dedicated to illustrating my children's book (script ready!) and working with my art/preparing for my upcoming exhibition (opening February 9) at Galleri Jeanette Ölund in Borås. So book that date and spread the word - it will be my best exhibition ever and I want the opening to be super crowded!