the best way to clean your mind

looking at books

365 by Jesper Waldersten

really liked  the handwritten title - screen printed in white

linside it had this contrast of "dirty looking matt paper" with handwritten text and shiny photos of the art

here I liked the details; the photo printed on the border and the spotty cover I've been thinking a lot about how books look lately - the overall design and little details. The book fair today was great for looking. Soon I'll make my own book. I'm excited about it ... And then I had a shrimp sandwich with Camilla. You can not only work and work - can you?

Gold?

Today I made some test prints with silver and gold screen printing inks. But as always with metallic colours on paper it's hard to really get it to look like gold and silver ... And then the result depends a lot on the paper. I'll make a screen printing demonstration in two weeks and they want to screen print in silver, but I'm advising against it - it can become such a disappointment (I have no control over the paper as they are bringing it)

Tomorrow I'll go to the book fair here in Gothenburg. Camilla will be there and I hope to see a lot of good books!

an independent course in art for public spaces (in Swedish only) at HDK (the design school)

more slicing

smaller work

"Shuffle" approx  36 x 41 cm I've managed to work in a bit smaller format these days (my trick is to paint on several at the same time - so it feels like a big one).

concentrated work in the studio

other artists' studios: Helsinki studios (link via Fine little Day)

more focus

Today in the studio I made myself this Focus-hat. It's great for concentration and stops all wandering thoughts and those wild creative impulses that could lure you to leave the set path. I also make this hat to order.

cut 'n play

and when I turned left ...

... there was a girl with long dark hair and a camera. (I'm blond)

split

But I am not split. I'm just focus focus

focus focus focus

I'm focusing on finishing some art pieces these three weeks. Then it's time for photographing for my book ... I'm aiming for printing it in the beginning of October!
(not, not , not to think about anything else, not even the fun course "illustrated children books" I started taking last week)

back in the studio again

the sprout in my zink had died in my absence ...

playful plant experiment

same same but different; 

same colours on white and dark background

different grey tones in layers

(for my collection of pedagogical print examples - and maybe something else?)

more from my students' exhibition

Diana Noriega Astrid Linnea Andersson

Salla Johanna Kirjalainen

Josef Jägnefält

Hannele Fernström

Jacob Nyberg

Exhibition X

Friday night we had the opening - and the only 3 hours out-door exhibition - presenting the results from the summer course I've been teaching ("Big format screen printing and its spatial possibilities"). Below some glimpses from the exhibition and the fantastic weather conditions. We had sun, we had rainbows, we had glittering heavy rain in sun light, we had sun set sun coloring the exhibition in warm yellow, we had dramatic spotlights created by the sun ... (we had a roof ...) on the left (white paper) work by Anna-Lotta Ahlmén, on the right (fabric) by Emilia Persdotter

the setting sun working as a spotlight on part of Josef Jägnefelt's art piece

in the warm light from the setting sun (Emilia Persdotter)

in sun set and rain; work by Jacob Nyberg (details) Tomorrow I'll show you some more photos from the Exhibition

a little experiment

in the dark room before exposure. (I had picked a lot of wild flowers and weed on my way to KKV)

Today - before we test hanged my student's exhibition - I managed to get the time to prepare a screen printing frame for a playful print experiment. Hopefully I'll get the time to test print it tomorrow before lunch. Then we have the exhibition - and it will be great!

Welcome to exhibition X

Poster by Salla and Astrid On Friday my screen printing students will present their work in an Exhibition we call X (marking the spot as it is a site specific exhibition). The exhibition will be open at 17:00-20:00, in the ruins after Älvsborgs Fästning (a fort) - if you can make it you are very welcome! (If not I'll post some photos here for you to see) ... my feet are sore and I am totally wasted. These are long and busy days for me ...

for me it's about noticing

For me photography is about noticing things. Like when teaching my screen printing course these two weeks - and noticing magic temporary side effects. Like how it looks on the plastic for fitting the prints - in the moment of cleaning...

playing with Instagram

I feel an urge to be a bit creative now and then these days, taking mini breaks from teaching.

learning by teaching

Teaching screen printing courses at a higher level is a splendid way to learn so much more about what is possible, how you can think, different materials to print on. When you only work on your own stuff you don't get this variety in thinking! (above students' works in progress).