disorganized collection

Ah. These things you save being an artist.

I have a whole collection of "white walls" that I cut away in the good old days before digital cameras. The photos were of my art pieces and I was amused by how the surrounding white walls "changed" depending on the dominant colour of the art piece. So I saved what I cut away. I planned to - one day - make a white wall patch work style.

This disorganized collection of white walls went to the garbage today. Camilla on the other hand has her organized collections. She even started an organized collection pool. I could pretend and try to participate - but my collections are utterly disorganized...

sketchbook page

more from my children's book project.

teddy bear

Some years ago I worked on an interactive teddy bear in a wheel chair. (Poor guy - the only thing he wanted was to be able to move around and have a functional sexual life. But something went wrong during the operation and he ended up in a wheelchair - angry and bitter.)

But robots and programming is not anything for me. The sketches, drawing, photos and everything around turned out much more interesting than the final "art piece".

Japanese with wig

When my father Johannes got a bit older his father gave him this little Japanese doll with different coiffures. It was bought in Japan. It's interesting that they gave a boy this kind of toy, back then. You can see it's been played with.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger. I especially like the little teeth!

my shop is open!

My new website has actually been up and running for almost two months now, but I didn't want to make it "official" until I got the shop open.

WELCOME!

balancing toy

My father's second toy was this little wooden man balancing on his chair. No matter how much you lean him and change the arms' position he'll keep swirling around and never fall off.

The third toy?
It was the same kind of toy, but in brass and ornamented. That was the toy Johannes was supposed to play with when they had guests and only then. But it was not as good at balancing as the wooden one. Johannes preferred the wooden toy.

My half siblings have the brass toy, so you will just have to imagine that one!

little elephant

My father, Johannes, was born in Dhanora, India 1912. His parents were missionaries; the father Swedish of poor origins, the mother German from a wealthy family. Johannes' first languages was hindi and his first toy was this little elephant.

Johannes had only three toys as a little boy. He kept them all his life. I will show you the second one tomorrow.

toy week

We got these little clowns to entertain our son from someone who was cleaning out her mother's old stuff. But of course we don't let the son play with them. Checking on internet the other day we found out that they were sold with their original box (we have that) for 150-170 British pounds each. As we had suspected.

So they are collector's items. Not toys.

As we are about to move I look at many old things these days: useless mass produced toys and old toys with stories ... and collector's items. This week I'll share pictures of the second kind of toy.

drawing day

Yesterday was drawing day. I made some quick sketches of people enjoying the sun, but that was all. Did you draw?

Or you could make a drawing a day.
Lauren Nassef
More people with the same idea: drawing of the day and Lisa at the end of a year of drawings.

National day and new citizens

Yesterday was Sweden's National Day and the new Swedish citizens in Göteborg were invited to Slottskogen (the big central park) to get some gifts and eat a buffet. As I had a new Swedish citizen in my family I could go also.

The gifts?
A book about old Göteborg, a year ticket to the Amusement park, tickets to the Symphonic Orchestra and to the Garden exhibit and a year ticket to the museums. A nice and cultural gift!

Food?
After more then an hour waiting in line and realizing it would take more than two more hours we decided it wasn't worth it. It was an Italian buffe (?!) I actually think they were trying to teach the new citizens to wait in line and to be grateful they got something from generous Sweden.

Ok, I got a bit grumpy. Probably just bad organization.

boy and bird

another of my sketches for my potential children's book.

portrait sketches

Last Friday, after dinner, we were 7 people throwing a portrait party. We posed 5 minutes each. These two watercolours are mine of Elisabeth and Susanne. I should do this more often - it's great fun and an excellent exercise.

The 12th of June the BP Portait Award 2008 will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Lately the winners have been too photo realistic for my taste.

sun setting and twilight

The light this time of the year is so special at the evening and night. First the strong warm sunshine reaches deep into the rooms - the sun is setting slowly. Then it's just below the horizon giving a very light sky, but no sunlight on anything. Finally the sun sets, but stays for a long time close enough to the horizon to produce a beautiful turquoise sky. It's like one of Magritte's unreal paintings.

Last date to apply to Grafik i Väst is 8th of June.

like somewhere else

Back home after spending four days in the countryside with a bunch of wonderful people. The sun has been shining so strong that we thought we were in Provence. So we ate accordingly.

the other side

Today I invited Camilla for a picnic lunch in the harbour. It was sunny like every day this May and my lovely company had brought an Italian cake for dessert.

a lot of different things happen in Russia.

mouse or man?

woman.

the knife

In my kitchen drawer: A butter knife in stainless steel and more than 100 years old. But that is not all - it has a special story:

In the end of the 19th century, before studying to become a midwife, Nanny (my father's aunt) worked in Stockholm as a maid. The family was posh and the husband had a short temper. A butter knife that didn’t keep the butter especially irritated him – the butter just slid off the knife. He told Nanny he didn’t want to see that knife ever again.

But one morning she forgot and served their Sunday breakfast at the porch – with that knife for the butter. It was winter, but the porch had glassed windows and the snow reflected nicely the morning sun. The father in the house stretched for the butter reading his morning paper. The butter slid off the knife in his lap.
- Didn’t I say I never ever wanted to see this **** knife again? he screamed and threw it through the window breaking the glass.

After cleaning up the mess Nanny went out in the garden and picked up the butter knife from the snow. She kept it for herself. And the weird thing is that the knife always kept the butter after that day. Was it the impact when hitting the window? Was it the cold snow? Was it the curse?

ink

...you know when someone takes your picture and you make a weird expression - or blink...

Lately I've been drawing more than normally. 7 of June is drawing day. Will you participate? I don't know if I will; it's a Saturday and I try not to work on weekends... A lot of fun things are going on where you can participate - face your pockets is something that made me smile. Found through mansuetude.

Dear President Hu Jintao

Gothenburg, May 22 2008

Dear President Hu Jintao,
With the Olympics approaching I have a splendid idea for an inauguration out of the ordinary. China has four things that would make this project possible:

1. A LOT of people
2. the know-how when coordinating things like military parades and meticulous inaugurations
3. nowadays: technique!
4. the experience of ordering people around

I understand you’re getting curious – what is this great project?

Mao seen from outer space!

The Chinese wall can be seen from the moon already so you know you can do it. Order the Chinese out with a GPS in their hand taking their position in the big Mao drawing. At Night you turn all electricity off and make them hold torches. Isn’t it a great idea?

If you’re interested in the idea I have some more sketches to show and possible alternative ways of making it come true.

Yours truly,
Alexandra Hedberg

masked and with cape

enamel triptych Masked

enamel triptych with Cape

I finished these two triptychs last week (both Zorros on the left were the final additions). I would have loved to go and see the exhibit Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy at Metropolitan.

2008 is the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and the European Commission therefore launches the competition Cultures on my street.

Wide Open

a little night sketching gave me this creature who perfectly illustrates Illustration Friday's week topic "wide".

black and white

black and white enamel (20 x 15 cm) - made last Monday, sold on Thursday. That's the way it should be!

anders kappel

visitors

Two days of Open Studio is over; sangria, tapas, shining white walls, prints and paintings, tiles and enamels. Thank you all who came!

And you who couldn't make it - there is still art left to buy; don't worry, you can drop by another day ;)

two tiles

I made these two tiles on Monday. I'll have them for sale on my Open Studio on Friday and Saturday. You are very welcome!
Smedjegatan 5 (Gotenburg), entrance 5, top floor.
Friday 16:30-18:30
Saturday 13:00-15:00

Otherwise I'm just seeing white white white these days - I'm painting all the walls in the studio WHITE!

mickey jackson

if Friday was a day of total flow with the enamels - Monday was not: the tourniquet that opens and closes the enamel oven just died. Luckily Ingmar - the handy man at KKV - managed to borrow one from another workshop and install it with my oven. And I found out that it's only enamel screen colour that turns out nice (not the normal enamel powder) on tiles and that tiles should just be in the enamel oven once...

klara kristalova
roland persson
anna nordquist andersson

Marina's dress

This dress is hundred years old - it belonged to Marina (my maternal grandmother's mother).
Marina was 155 cm, I'm 171 cm.
She had dark hair, I'm blond.
She was a circus princess and a ballet dancer, I'm an artist.

I can actually wear the dress - but I avoid to breathe heavily or move fast.

enamel on tiles

Next Friday and Saturday I'm going to have Open Studio (Friday 16:30-18:30, Saturday 13:00-15:00). Part of my preparations for next week is to finish some enamels as complement to the ones I made in November last year. I spent a day of total flow at KKV today (yes, yes!) working on them. I also screenprinted with enamel colour on tiles. As it is much cheaper I felt free to experiment more.

I see

I see,
said the blind man.
But he couldn't see a thing.

It's like hearing; it doesn't necessary mean you listen. Yesterday Camilla had a post about noticing things. It made me think a little bit extra. I love noticing little weird or beautiful things - they make me happy.

Good art is very often about noticing.
linnea jörpeland
may bente aronsen
jenny nolstam

moving on

In two months I will have moved out of my apartment and emptied my studio. We're going to move to London to give it a go in our careers. We = my love and me (and the son has to come along of course). Suddenly I see everything in my home and everyday life - that has been so familiar - with different eyes; already becoming nostalgic.

Do we have a place to live in London?
Do we have a job in London?
No. We're taking a leap without knowing where we'll land.
Scary and exciting.

painting on the floor

Today I painted with the children at my son's preschool again. It got a bit wild.

my circus blood

Yesterday we went to see the circus:

the lady with the fantastic Siamese cat balancing on a ball on a rope
- and children watching in the audience.

the clowns with buckets of paint
- and the lady with the well trained beautiful black horses.
and much more.

My circus blood?
My maternal grandmother's mother Marina (Irene's mother - see this post) run aways from home (in Austria) at age 16 - joining the circus. Marina become the circus princess dancing and posing on top of horses and elephants. Until one day an elephant dropped her in an unfortunate way. She scraped up her thigh so badly that they had to transplant skin from her buttocks to repair it. She could no longer be a circus princess as she couldn't show her naked legs anymore (because of the scars). Marina joined the ballet in Leipzig in Germany instead - a ballet dancer could wear tights.

Yes - it's true.

the incredible hulk

I watched the The Incredible Hulk TV-series in the early 80's.

Zorro

I could not resist - of course - to work a bit on my own art these days in Lidköping. I did a bit of drawing at night and printed at my lunch break just using paper stencils and open screenframe - the simplest ways of working with screenprinting. I liked the limitations; I had to work with cutout silhouettes instead of lines. But somehow the lines got even more important.

visiting the past

I'm back home from Lidköping where I spent three days teaching. It's a beautiful small town. It was so calm, so quiet. I had no internet access, didn't watch any TV, ate dinner by myself in a restaurant. All these things made me feel like I was visiting the past - Sweden in the past and myself in the past.

My three (!) students were highly motivated and talented. I enjoyed teaching them. When I came home last night it felt like more time had passed than it really had - something common with time travel. All the leaves had popped open like champagne bubbles and the world looked different.