Wanting to look like someone else

Here is an interesting project that I just found. The blogger Nell Frizzell, a British journalist, is - using whatever she has at hand - making doppelgänger portraits of herself, trying to resemble celebrities, painted portraits, and sometimes herself as young or even her father. It really drew me in, and it makes me realize that however much we try to copy someone´s style or dress too look a certain way (some seem to think a hairstyle can radically alter a face), in the end, we will look like ourselves anyway. Our own face and body are the strongest ingredients we bring to any new look we try, and it´s just as well to try to make friends with them.

Dream workplace

Ok, so being a kindergarten teacher is really not my dream job, but if I got to work here, I´d love to do it! I imagine a place like this will make everyone happy and eager to work. Every kindergarten in the world should look like this; the UN should write a declaration about it!

Thaw

What is going on? We are barely out of February and I can already see the lawn in our yard. Only weeks ago we broke the snow record from almost 50 years ago! Driving is hazardous, the roads are full of potholes, both temporary (ice) and permanent (the roads crack from all these weird temperatures). The school children have been on sports holiday and most of them have had little to ski on.

But! the sun is shining, and I am up and running in the daytime, trying to change my hours to be fit and sharp for a special thing I´m doing later this month. That´s the thing about working nights - you must plan any serious daytime activity well ahead. It´s just that I keep loosing all my routines; the light in the morning is so glorious I sit down to play with paint instead of doing the stuff I´m supposed to be doing. I have found some really good sources of information on paint and an excellent filmed workshop, explaining what I´m doing wrong, so now I´m practicing for the summer trip when I´m expecting to do so much more interesting sketches than last summer.

I am slightly pleased about my watercolour sketch of the heron I photographed two summers ago (two? time flies, doesn´t it?). Not because it´s perfect, but because I made it after figuring something out that I didn´t understand before. And guess what? Sketching is tiring. I guess I must burn a lot of calories doing it, and hopefully I´m keeping dementia at bay (one must think about these things, right?).

Flying Saucer Retreat

When I was looking at photos from last summer, I came across this. It´s a piece of furniture, of a sort, and I seem to recall that I saw it when we passed one of the department store floors leading up to the roof café of John Lewis in London. We don´t usually hang out in department stores, so perhaps these are everywhere, what do I know.

If I had a garden, I would definitely want one; a safe haven from all those mosquitoes and gnats and gadflyes and wasps (I was stung last summer by a wasp who lay down in bed with me, did I mention that? I passionately hate all flying, stinging creatures). If I planted a flower bed around it, it would look like a landed flying saucer. That would sooo appeal to me!

Pencil Art

Oh. My. God. Is what I thought when I saw this. A whole new definition of pencil art, don´t you think (says I, who have been buried in the wonderful book "The Pencil" by artist Paul Calle for weeks)? I particularly enjoyed this one.

Thank you, Faith is Torment.

Blog Tip

I really have to recommend this blog, where artist Nina Johansson is "trying to rediscover her sleeping imagination". She is doing well, I think! Very inspiring. There is also much to see at her regular blog.

Wish I could draw like that!

The Land of Childhood

There is an interesting exhibition at the art gallery right now, by Lotta Söder, who works mainly in glass. She is from around here originally, Skellefteå more specifically, but has lived and worked in Gothenburg for most of her life, returning last year to Umeå to work on this project, which she calls "SPÅR - en forskningsresa i Barndomslandet" (= TRACKS - an expedition in the land of Childhood). The story is, according to the leaflet, a dream about a winter landscape, with a bear and a fox as helpers in the struggle to pull a sled up a hill. Söder wants to use her glass to create an image of the frail and the strong, light and ice, triviality and sanctity.

There is a quote from Sara Lidman, the author (also from Skellefteå): "Det finns en närvaro, en kännedom från födelseorten, så oförneklig som den egna huden." (= There is a presence, a familiarity with the birthplace, as undeniable as one´s own skin.) This collection certainly has a strong taste of personal experience, but at the same time, anyone who grew up in a snowy landscape will know it, as Lidman says, in their own skin. The boots, the jacket, the mittens, which Söder has rendered in glass mosaic. It brings that Chinese princess burial suit to mind, if you remember.

I am attracted to glass, and a bit apprehensive about it, too, as it is so fragile. Every time someone brings a graal or something to the antiques roadshow and it is appraised to thousands and thousands, I can hardly watch as they pick it up - I keep seeing it on the floor, smashed to pieces; a nervous tic, that. Söder´s glass seems a lot more sturdy, for some reason, perhaps it´s the unusual shapes. Here, for example, she has made four pairs of skis from painted and printed glass. If you want a pair on your wall it will cost you 16.000 SEK (in the neighbourhood of 2000 USD or 1700 euro).

I have come back a few times to these objects, which are, to my mind, the most interesting ones on display right now. Perhaps it is that combination of memories, the fragility of the glass, and the burial associations of the mosaics. Memories can be both defining and elusive, and in later years I have returned to this over and over again, for different reasons. I have become more and more convinced of the necessity to forgive, forget and move on, and I see people having trouble with that, not least because of social media, which is a great tool, but which can also be one hell of a shackle.

You can read more about the artist (in Swedish and English) here.