Flight

As my brother had some wishes for colours and details I am now trying to make the painting bear stricter. I've tried to use geometrical shapes as far as I'm able to. We'll see if he likes it. He might be stuck on my first suggestion. Sketching continues.

Until next Wednesday I'll have to write three different project suggestions for my MA-project. It's somewhat easy to come up with ideas, but rather hard to keep the feeling of inclination through a big project. Until now I am not certain what I'd like to do. Except for having the greatest time of my life. Well... Instead of writing this plan, I went to the library to get some new input. Or at least a break from thinking. I borrowed »Askungens systrar och andra sedelärande berättelser« (»The Sisters of Cinderella and Other Moralizing Stories«) by Joanna Rubin Dranger. I really liked this book. Not only is it super-nice drawn, but it has a great deal of humor in it. I like her voice. This is one of her pictures.

Other fun books that are waiting for me to be read: everything by Wittgenstein.

The hallway

Sex, violence, blood, disgust

A very special play indeed. Exciting, unexpected, well-played, very good! For those of you Stockholmers in need of a new experience, visit Tribunalen asap!

New York, here we go!

♫ I got the grant I applied for one week ago — so NY, here I come! Funny enough, I kind of knew that I had to get it this year. And another great thing is that I also got a trip to NY for my 30th birthday. I'm so much looking forward to be going there!

This Saturday I'll probably see a play at Teater Tribunalen. My friend Eva Fänge asked me so... I guess she has made the make-up for this event. Actually, when I saw the poster, I started to think of her. She has a very significant style.

PS. If any of you guys have any personal suggestions on where to see some cool illustration work, or other interesting galleries/happenings in New York in December, please do tell me!

Process pics: The Relay Race

So, I've been doing some runners today also. Really tricky to make them look good... More than many are the aquarelle paintings that I've rejected. I'm running short on time, so I had to make a fast decision concerning what to keep. What is okay anyway? It's charming that they are a bit warped. This relay race is an illustration of the shift of generations on the labour market.

The Painting Bear

This evening I started to make sketches for a logotype: »Målarbjörnen« (Or the »Painting-bear«). One of my brothers has his own bussiness in painting, and so he asked me to this particular bear for him. His name is Björn, and that's »bear« in Swedish. It's not too often that I use Illustrator, so this bear needs some more work to it, before it's done. Also, I have to try out and see how detailed it's possible to have it... I think his idea for this logo is splendid, though.

My other work is to do three cover illustrations for the Ministry of Finance. (For some Commission of Inquiry's recommendations.) Well, the job is not mine yet, but I hope to get it. This Wednesday I'll leave my sketches. The topics are huge, and not very easy to illustrate. I hardly understand the texts they've given to me either. Some of the sketches can be seen in Process and Sketches of Today.

»Sophie Calle visits Bill, Knut, Ulla & Lars-Åke«

The one-issue-zine is ready and sent to Sveg, where my friend lives. It’s filled with short stories from our common past. One great thing with having a friend since childhood, is that we're able to fill in each others memories. This zine captives a few moments we’ve shared since 1983.

Today we went to see the opening of »Sophie Calle visits Bill, Knut, Ulla & Lars-Åke« in the block of service flats »Väduren«. It’s a very interesting exhibition concept, made by Mossutställningar.
During September 2006 the work »Los Angeles«, by french artist Sophie Calle, was placed in four service flats in Stockholm. Four persons volounteered to have the art inside their homes for a week. Then they made their own works, in the spirit of Calle. To their help they engaged som upper secondary school students to perform their assignments.

In the exhibition they now show portraits of Bill, Knut, Ulla and Lars-Åke, their reflections on Calle’s art, their work in cooperation with the students, and »Los Angeles«. I really liked some of their stories. And the exhibition was fun too. Something unusual is happening!

Process & sketches of today:

Development 2006-06-18 19:24

If a text isn’t that good, if you feel that something is missing — then I think you should add the things you lack, in your illustration. Not only as a commentary; but as a thought, as something rich, as something new. »What do you think if I say this?« To a satisfactory text you add, complement, comment, or whatever you like best. In any case I want to vote for compensating poor texts while illustrating them. That’s generous. More generous than being negligent with a picture, more generous than just leaving a keen figurative commentary. That’s development!

This picture is made with this idea in mind. The text was concerning the effect that the tv-series »Baywatch« had on youngsters in the 90's. Interesting topic, but then it was badly written — without even getting close to a conclusion. It didn't add anything at all.

Monday, wazup!

I just started making a one-issue-zine for one of my friends. I'd better not write to much about it until it's done. It's also ment to be a surprise. Anyway, it's about friendship and memories from the small years. Well, that's a worn out topic, I know! Yet interesting and universal.

I've been thinking about the grande work, slowly approaching my horizon. One of my ideas, that I started thinking about earlier this summer, is still hanging in there. Don't know if I'm stuck — or if it's something to actually develop and work on. We were walking around my island, or the Stockholm island where I live. I talked about what I don't want my master project to be like. Sometimes it's easier that way, just to eliminate, to see what remains. I don't want to make posters just because a printer might sponsor me. There must be a cause for every element in my project. I don't want so sit in the exhibition lika a sorry-ass-illustrator with some well-done-pictures, that no one seem to care about. I want to do something splendid, brilliant, grandiose, breath-taking. I want space. Not just to fill my ego, but to give my work some dignity. Well, then I said that I'd like to do a guide. Maybe like the books you find that gives you instructions on how to draw. Techniques and that sort of stuff. Like a similar guide but for illustrators. With tip-offs, tricks and rules. I'm crazy about rules. It's fun to make them up — and in the end no one will stop you from breaking them. So it might be something theoretical-practical. First I just have to invent my own system, in order to set the rules. And then I thought I might show some examples. Illustrated in some way. It's like buildning a new »school«. What will it teach, and how?

Some months later I got some visions while falling asleep. There will be a book. And a manifesto. The manifesto is illustrated, and so big that it won't fit into the book. Still, the two pieces are so related that they have to stick together. Symbolic in a way — big thoughts, yes, there have to be big thoughts involved, otherwise it wouldn't be a manifesto. But thoughts so big that they will increase, no matter how tight you try to keep them into the book.

It's still vague. But at least it's an idea.

By the way, this is a picture made by Margaret Kilgallen. My girl friend first introduced me to her. I still don't know that much about her, but she seem grande, indeed.

»Motion«

In this video, Super Mario-like Beverlee Falagara is showing off her skills as a very energetic, talented dancer. Video is filmed and mixed by me in Stockholm, Sweden 2004.

The forest — a sketch

Me and Bodil were working together in the De Geuzen workshop. I made this picture out of photos I found, to visualize some thoughts I had on »integrity«. I kind of like it, eventhough the Photoshop tricks I used are rather bad.

Athens, crappy old town...

...yet so beautiful, inspiring and thrilling. We were there some weeks ago, for vacation and adventures. We did the classicals — like visiting the ancient sites, the Acropolis museum, climbing hill Lykavittos, hanging around Syntagma and strolling around in Plaka, travelling to Meteora and Delphi. The museum of Cycladic Arts was something we missed out, unfortunately. These pictures are taken after the street vendors in Pagkrati had left their bussiness.

Delphi, Attica

Delphi, maybe the nicest place on earth. We were there, paying our tribute to the city. Well, I didn't of course, for students the entrance to the archeological sites is always free. Uphill, there's an antique stadion. No one is running there these days, of course.

1. Nation Branding 2. Fluffy Fluff & Scrubby Frizz 3. Creativity

Illustrations for Slicker, a zine about handicraft and adjacent subject areas, in collaboration with Johanna L. I was asked, on a short notice, to make three illustrations for an article by Zandra Ahl. After discussing with Johanna, we decided to make a workshop, to see what pictures we could create together.

We read the text and mark words and expressions we want the other person to illustrate. Ten words/expressions each, and 30 minutes to illustrate. Among the words we marked: frizzy scrubby hair, nonconformist clergyman style, real money, folkhemmet, Färgfabriken, »best« etc.

We present the pictures we've made and dicuss the sense of them. We come to the conclusion that in the case with this certain article, it's okay to illustrate rather direct, without to many similes. Some of the pictures we've made are pretty ready, and we agree on a way to make the images together. I will use a thin fountain pen, and Johanna will use a fat felt marker to draw the »fluff«. Or you might call it the »essence« which in this case is no essence. It's rather more bull shit.

I make the depictive elements of the pictures, and Johanna fill them in with the felt marker. The first example, that we call »Nation Branding«, is Richard Florida blowing up the image of Sweden. I think it shows that he's American, on the muscular arms, and the required white T-shirt.

The second picture, that alludes to the frizzy scrubby hair style and the fluffy talk at Florida's lecture, we call »Fluffy Fluff & Scrubby Frizz«.



The last picture, »Creativity«, hints at the myth of the artist, or the vague talk about creativity. Like a mysterious, glowing power some people possess. During castle-in-the-air-lectures it's really suitable to speak in completely abstract terms to mislead the audience…

2006-09-20 13:27

A thought: to draw one's inner pictures is like trying to draw a dream you've had. You have to try until it looks like the things you have seen. Some people maybe have like a square checked pattern inside the head, like the one you use to copy and transfer pictures easily. They might get a clear picture idea and just carry it out directly. Myself, I get once in a while clear pictures that are hard to see. They are turbid and vague. If I draw them long enough they appear, maybe in a surprising way. »I didn't know that this is how it was going to be.« It leaves scope for chance, and chance, coincidence and occasions supply the picture with something new. A picture idea that I get will look completely different, if i try to draw it several times with, say, a months interval. There's a big difference between drawing with intuition and drawing with technique. Both ways of course has their purpose, and you might perhaps control both.