Textile "Prints"

Some work, also done somewhere between 2003-2004.
Inspiration has been the deck of tarot-cards by Mary Hanson-Roberts, and a local tee-store that creates print from old nostalgic tv-series and similar, check it out here: Håkki. It was quite popular for a long time here in Trondheim, everyone HAD to have a Håkki tee-shirt, and I even have one myself! But then I got tired of the whole thing and made myself a tee, with the same fonts Håkki use. Fåkkit, it says (fuck it, written in "Norwegian")




"The very basic core of a mans spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun"

-Steve McLandless (or McCandless as his name really was]

"If you want something in life; reach out and grab!"



The Hanson-Roberts cards are quite cute, the motives made by pencil drawings. I bought the deck of cards in Stavanger long time ago.


Another tee, that I don't think I have anymore has the motive of the big red dragon in the comic-tale Bones. He is one of my favorite cartoon-characters.

Barcelona; Streetlife, Gaudi and Art Noveau

Last Christmas and New Year 2007 I went to Barcelona, one of the worlds coolest and prettiest cities by my opinion. And also great people that lives there! No hay problema, nunca!
The playfulness of the city is also reflected in the experimental architecture made by Gaudi. His work is found all around in Barcelona, from parks to the great cathedral "Sagrada Familia".
I didn't have a camera when I went to Barcelona, so most of the pictures in this post is from a tourist-leaflet about Gaudi's work, and some pictures from a disposable camera I ran around with, that's why they're a bit blurry...


The use of colorful tiles and with curves and lines inspired by nature, Gaudi's work is one of a kind. Cities are usually boring and depressing, but by making them more alive and "nature-like" I belive people would enjoy living there even more!

Chimneys!


Sagrada Familia, not yet finished

Casa Battló, like made out of candy

But Gaudi is of course not the ONLY big thing about Barcelona. It is a centre for street art and fashion like only the catalan can do it. People are relaxed and the vibes are definitively different from posh Madrid, or the Celtic North-West.
Under is a music video made of Manu Chao, La Rumba de Barcelona, many of the shots taken from La Rambla, the main walking street in the City, loaded with tourists, salsemen and entertainers all year around.

While in Barcelona i bought a book called "Art Noveau, a Study of Europe and America's boldest and most fashionable style" by Stephen Escritt.
I have always been a fan of Art Noveau, even though with my Scandinavian genes I should find it a bit fussy but rather opposite, it's not really maximalism, but definetively not minimalism either. It's the natural curves and playfullness of motives and colors and the so direct inspiration from nature that fascinates me.


The book is given out by the publisher Phaidon, which specializes in books about art, photography, design architecture etc.

Painting by Murcha, famous art noveau artist.

The dragonfly is a favourite motive in Art Noveau

Houses

A cozy place to live is always important. Something that feels like home.
That day when I have found a nice spot, I'll build a house.
Until then I can make some sketches.
The most important thing is the view, and the materials used.
Ocean view is preferable or at least a lake or a river.
And the house should be constructed of natural wooden panels or rocks.
A fireplace for cold nights is also on the wish-list.

My parents house, an old wooden paneled house with concrete base from the 1950, white-painted with shale on the roof.

Unfinished meditation

This is a picture I made in 2003. In the back it is written "Knowledge is power" in Norwegian.
I think I had this forced awakening when I started university and realized I had to make an effort to actually learn something...

The DNA helix

Atom-Mandala

Self-portrait?

Professor R. E. Stolevik

"Breathing Space"

I once had a professor in an introductory course at NTNU who made art out of chemical reactions.
He sold copies of his work from his office, and I bought four or five of them once, but they are still in an old apartment I rented.

More of his "paintings" here.

Rolf Groven, political painter

"Children of Abraham, 2003"

I'm a big fan of Rolf Groven.
He makes his fine art a political demonstration against unfairness in the world, it be war, pollution or just "day-to day" politics.
Many of his works has been rejected at exhibitions because of their strong, raw motives.

He has been an active painter for over 30 decades now and is still provoking the Norwegian political elite and its followers.

He does something we should see more in fine arts, using his artistic abilities to wake up the people from ignorance and dullness!




This painting is from 1971 and is inspired by the painting of Rafael with the same name; "The Sistine Madonna".
The motif is a mother and her son hit by the American napalm bombing under the Vietnam war. Groven's question was how a nation with such a strong, Christian belief could execute so much pain agains civilians in a country that had never done the USA anything! (Luckily there were a lot of people inside the USA that demonstrated against the war, but these are never the people in power, unfortunately...)

More info about Rolf Groven

Tattoos

I'm a big fan of tattoos. I got my first one when I was 15, something my mother still can't get over that I did. These days it has become more and more normal to see people with tattoos, and the prejudice is not so large anymore, it seems like it actually is becoming more of a norm to have one than not.

My tattoos:

Lines

I usually draw with pencil first, then colored pencils or water color and then finish with a black ink outline. The motifs are pretty absurd most of the times and you can interpret them however you like.

Dragons

My fascinations for dragons are enormous!
It has to be the remnants from my childhood devotion to dinosaurs. I used to collect plastic toy dinosaurs, sticker-books and pictures from National Geographics, and knew the names like Triceratops, Diplodochus, T-Rex and Iguanadon. I could tell my kinder-garden colleagues about the three time periods of the dinosaur era, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
Then in high school I started to read the sequels "Dragonlance" and the "Pern" sequels , and my own world of colorful dragons were born.
Mythical creatures, elegant, strong, magical and soaring the sky fearless and playful.

At last the sun is shining
the clouds of blue roll by
with flames from the dragon of darkness
the sunlight blinds his eyes.
-Battle of Evermore by Led Zeppelin

Boring lecture

Ever wondered how to stay awake when the professor's voice is lulling you to sleep and you wish to be anywhere but in a class room or lecture hall?
Draw!

Here are some drawings that came into existence this way.