Agnes Martin and Richard Tuttle

If you live near the coast, like I do, and you like to go for a walk, you can either go into the woods or you can go out by the sea.

In the woods you will walk on a narrow path, see the footprints of animals on the snow, admire the beauty of dry, wrinkly flowers against the sparkling white ground - in short: all the small, humble signs of life so easily passed by. By the sea you can gaze at the horizon, the vastness of the ocean, the small ripples forever repeating themselves on the water, the sameness all over and the feeling of awe by it. It struck me today, when I chose to walk in the woods, that this choice relates to Richard Tuttle (artist, living), while the sea-choice relates to Agnes Martin (artist, dead). It was quite obvious when I began to think about it.

See for yourself:

Richard Tuttle: Section IV, Extension E (17,8x13,7x11,4 cm)

Agnes Martin

Martin and Tuttle were close friends since the mid 1960s, and even though their work is very different, not only regarding scale  (ex: Agnes Martin's paintings were typically huge; 180x180 cm, Tuttle's work is small), it's as if they are two sides of the same coin. Like going for a walk when you live by the coast.

Some glimpses from the new neighborhood. Today; beautiful weather, walk in the woods. Tested my up until recently unused macro-lens. I also practiced using the manual settings instead of the auto. My favorite image is that of the empty nutshell, I like it's questioning/ terrified expression. Last image; the habitat of our six-year old.

Anorakk

A present from Gry. It fits well, and looks cool! I hope her head doesn't grow much bigger, though:) 

Thinking about life, death, art and

... TIME, obviously. Note the central position of the wrist-watch. Not to forget SPACE. (I'm in my workspace, as a matter of fact). 


Recently I have offered my hand-drawn pictures as gifts to friends at various occasions. (Nicely framed too.) It has taken some effort to overcome the feeling of embarrassment associated with this act. I am not an apt drawer. I'm a doodler. So how can I be so shameless as to push my doodles on to people like this? I have no real answer. Shamelessness and narcissism, has it come to this with me too? For the time being, I see it as playing. I'm playing when I'm drawing, playing like a child plays, almost mindless, without a definite aim or ambition, but totally immersed in the act and totally serious. It is as simple and difficult as that. So even though my drawn gifts are not accomplished, not skillfully executed, more based on intuition than on concept, I suppose I must feel they are good enough to be given away. I am shameless, in deed.   

This is serious business....

Goodbye Oslo II

In the series Goodbye Oslo, part II:

From above: My former workplace in the city, Oslo seen from Sinsenkrysset, our bathroom view, Tveten gård old farm buildings.

Oslo goodbye

Above: Oslo (Aker brygge, view from Tveten gård, view footpath along Akerselva) 

Below: Rødal, Portør - my new neighbourhood.

We move in a few weeks..

Long overdue projects finally finished

Spring is coming up, but you never know with the weather. Yesterday we had snow. Good thing I managed to finish some of my long overdue knittingprojects before summer.. I had almost forgot the pleasure of knitting for children! It's so quick! Anna has about 20 cardigans size 6 months, but so few for her present size. Once I finish my ongoing white-garter-stripes cardigan for myself, I will take up knitting for my girl..

almost nothing, but still enough

A few snapshots from around here, of nearly nothing, except perhaps a taste of spring. Last one is the reflection of sunlight in our bathroom mirror. I think the geometric effect is partly due to spots and uneven surface on the mirror, but I'm not sure. My son and I thought it looked quite spooky, we examined the phenonomen with his looking glass.

the start-again hat

I promised to post about knitting, and here it is: A new hat. In lack of a better name, I call it the start-again hat, because casting-on is the main design element of this hat.

Kunstformen der Natur

From the top: ernst haeckl,chris hipkiss , kiki smith , sam messenger , ernst haeckl.


Kunstformen der natur refers to Ernst Haeckl, German scientist (1834 - 1919), and his fantastic illustrations of animals and sea creatures.

(next post will be on knitting, promise..)

other people's art

In my iPhoto I have stored a considerable amount of photos of other people's art. It can be anything I come across, that tickles my interest, some are pieces made of famous artists, some quite unknown (at least to me). They all have someting that I find interesting and inspiring. I thought maybe I should start sharing them with you. I will try to remember to give up the sources from where I found them, but - I don't always remember.

These are drawings by a woman called Pearl Blauvelt (found via Mieke Willems blog), who lived in New York and who left behind 800 drawings, found after her death. She was self-taught, unskilled artist, she drew things she saw in magazines, in shops and in her immediate surroundings. When the building she had lived in was to be renovated, her drawings were found in an old wooden box. Some of them are now part of MOMAs collection in New York. Quite fascinating. See Raw vision for more.

the girl

She is a year and a half now, my little girl. She is as adorable and beautiful as she looks. But her birth almost took me away from this world. I thought I had recovered from it, or that I would shortly, but now I'm not so sure. We did the drawing together. I scribbled along, without really thinking of what I was drawing. And then came these faces and this little girl. As a girl, I used to draw a lot. And what I mostly drew was; girls. I liked this one on the right, she looks a little apprehensive and timid, but curious too - waiting for what will come next. So I copied her and put her in my blog. She represents something of what I feel myself these days.

Japan, Japan

Clockwise: Ryoko Aoki, Zon Ito, Yuka Katagiri. All young Japanese artists, except for Zon Ito, they all do drawings. It may look like a drawing, but on closer inspection you see that it's embroidery. I like this whimsical, naîve style of drawing/ embroidery.
(click to see larger image)

Above a print by contemporary German artist Eva Pietzcker , and the famous Tsunami wave by the 19th century Japanese artist Hokusai. Both use Japanese woodblock print, a waterbased print method. 

In beginning of March, I will attend a one week work-shop to learn this printing method. The work-shop takes place in Berlin, and is given by the aforementioned artist Eva Pietzcker. I'm very excited and hope I'll be in good form by then, I've been feeling a bit under the weather (as they say) lately.