I love CODY:-)

I´ve always been kind of a reluctant blogperson (sorry Janis, I stole that word directly from your blog) not really sure what my blog is about. Or weather I even want to write it! Or weather it´s interesting (okay I have an answer to that: when I look at my statistic page and how meny people read this, it turns out my blog is not interesting. So now we got THAT cleared;-)).

And is it going to be personal? (Not that much going on there). Or is it going to be only about my art? (Not that much going on there either;-)).

This have been a really hard year, and I´ve discussed with myself about how much to write about it on the internet and what is too private.

Anyway, here it comes:

I have a little child in my life whom I´ve been concerned about. And this year have been fantastic in the way that now he lives in a fosterfamily, he´s happy and finally allowed to be just a little kid playing...

So things ended up in a good way and it´s a big relief. But my life have been turning a bit around because of this, and every time I think things are starting to settle down, whoops: it all turns around again and I can start all over getting adjusted.

Then I had this herniated disc and have been going throught a lot of pain, not to talk about the fear of a planned operation. Luckily my operation was cancelled, also thanks to my physiotherapist (which almost makes me forgive him for suggesting to film me doing excersice and putting it on Youtube...).

And then I had this fall which seemed to be all about rejection: refusal on 3 grant applications, and yes, the rejection from Statens Kunstråds Internationale Billedkunstudvalg was just a little hard. And it was hard to give up my plans for going to Pool Art Fair in Miami, where I participate with TAKE CARE, but I simply didn´t have the money. So my art will be there, but I won´t.

Then I got rejected at Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling, and when I finally put myself together and applied for exhibits at 2 cafes here in Copenhagen, I got rejected there too. One of them was so kind to tell me that it was because "your art is too feminine and would make the cafe look girlish", so then I could think a little about that:-0

There have been good things too. One of them is music. I love music, everythings is easier when you can put on some music that fits your mood, and it makes hard times a little less hard.

One of the bands I like a lot is CODY. To be honest I started out with being a little bit in love with their guitarplayer David Fjelstrup (but since I´m not Demi Moore, I didn´t persue that).... but then the music really grew on me, and both their ep and the cd Songs have been on repeat on my mp3 player most of this year. And I´ve showed up at all the concert that I could possibly make it to. And I yet have to experience them doing at bad concert, that has simply not happened yet.

They gave a concert last saturday not far from where I live. I bought the ticket in september or something like that, and when saturday turned up I was soooo tired and feeling very fragile. But missing out on a CODYconcert is simply not possible, so I dragged myself out there by the hair. Alone of course, since I´m a old woman and all my friends only likes music that was popular in the 80ties....

And then in the middle of the concert Kaspar dedicated a song to me for showing up at all their concerts! I haven´t been so pleasantly surprised since.... well, I don´t know when. What a fantastic and thoughtful thing to do, and I didn´t suspect it at all, but it made me so happy!

This was so nice. And what a nice thing to discover: something good might come to you in a time when you don´t expect it. And you´ll never know. You´ll be feeling down and lousy and everything sucks, and tomorrow is going to be hard and next week is too, but something unexpected amazing could happen just in the middle of all this misery.

THAT is the best lesson I´ve learned for a very long time:-) So thank you Kaspar, that made a big difference!

This is the little boy in my life, I´m going to see him tomorrow:

And the winner is: Lars Dela

So my friend Lars is a really good photographer, and I`ve been trying to talk him into submitting photos for Gaffa Photo Award. But Lars is a very humble person, so he didn´t really trust himself to be good enough, and therefore never got around to doing it.

Therefore I´ve decided to make him the winner of this weeks big photo-event in Denmark: Sadie´s Photo Award 2010!

So here are the winning photos. They are all taken at a concert in Pumpehuset, Copenhagen in the end of May this year with the bands Monkey Cup Dress and CODY.

As usual click to see full size.

 

I travel heavy

This is one of the sculptures I applied with at KE10.

I just found out that I can find out on their homepage already tomorrow night if I´m out, or if I made it to the 3. round.

I´m just not sure I dare look? After all I was turned down for a job on tuesday, turned down for a grant for going to Miami yesterday (I think they gave around every third person that applied, so yes, I really was turned down), and then turned down at KE10 on friday? Can I do that? I´m not sure....

I´ll go to a concert tomorrow night (with Spejderrobot, I should remember to mention, since my best read posting yet was the one about him), and try not to think about it, and maybe... maybe... I´ll look on saturday morning. Maybe.

Okay. I´m not sure I really feel like this, but this is very late friday/very early saturday, and here´s this weeks update:

Tuesday: refused job application.
Wednesday: refused grant application for Miami.
Friday: refused grant application for Miami.
Friday: refused at KE10, I didn´t make it to the third round and NONE in the jury gave my work a yellow dot, which means special intrest or appreciation.

Next week? Come on! It can´t get any worse!

Eductional Plates re-worked

I re-worked my Educational Plates last week. To begin with they were about flowers and bees, but I weren´t really satisfied and thought they could do with some more edge. I think they have that now - actually I think they are a bit scary...

I´m applying at KE10 with these, amongst others, and as usually it´s impossible to know what the jury are looking for... but normally they are looking for something totally different than my stuff:-0

As usually: click to see full size.

 

 

Hoops (still in lack of a better name...)

This is that kind of project, where you start out with great enthusiasm, just to figure out that you really don´t know what to do - and then you stay like that for a loooooong time.

I think I bought these hoops a couple of year ago, and then they have been waiting in the corner of my livingroom, doing nothing but collecting dust.

Now I finally got something made. That´s fine. I just haven´t figured out yet what it is..... hence the lack of a proper title and explanation of what this is about.

The materials are hoops (made by DaneWood), silk in 2 colours, dried flowers, bird skeleton, fish skeleton, lacquer with Remazol dye (a way to colour lacquer and keep it transparent at the same time), filtet wool and horsehair, human teeths, printed text ("I have no skin, and therefore I can´t stop people from touching me inside"), pig intestine, Paverpol sculpture glue, glass beads formed as tears, white horsehair and a artificial eye (they took a lot of money for shipping it to Denmark, som I´m NOT going to advertise that company).

So in lack of an explanation, I´ll just give you the photos.

Sleep Party People photos

Actually I have a lot to post.... so maybe I´m going to be a bit hyper active the next couple of days?

I went to a concert with Sleep Party People in Little Vega, Copenhagen last saturday. It was really great, just a little short, so I´ll look forward to the time when they have a bigger pile of songs to perform.

I normally don´t take photos at concerts. I have a friend, Lars Dela, that does that very well instead, but he was busy somewhere else that night, so I decided to give it a try. Also because Sleep Party People always perform disguised as rabbits, and I wanted photos of that.
 
I have no idea of what settings to use in my camera, so I experimented a bit. And it turned out that the only thing working was something called night snap shot, so I ended up with only 3 photos that worked (and one of them needed a little help in photo editing from Janis Sawyer, thanks).

But I´m pretty proud of those 3 shots, so here they are (I even uploaded them on Gaffa Photo Award after they called for more female photographers, but I don´t have high expectations on that though):

(click on the photos to see the full version)

 

Spejderrobot

I know. I know. Yes, I DO know.

I should be posting more often. And I ought to post something about my new work, Hoops (in lack of a better title, so far). And maybe something about me applying for Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling. KE10,  very soon - one of those juried exhibits, where you pay 475 kroner to apply,  and then they turn you down on a depressingly regular basic....

And I certainly ought to post something about going to Miami in december for Art Basel Miami Beach/Pool Art Fair (see, there I did it, it wasn´t that difficult after all;-)).

Maybe I´ll post something about Hoops tomorrow, or the day after, cause Lars will come tomorrow and help me take some decent photos. At least that´s what we hope, depending on the light and the mood of the camera.

But for now I think I´ll just post that video presentation Spejderrobot did of himself and put on Youtube, cause I think it´s the coolest video in the world, and I really admire him for making it. And I´ll copy him the moment I find out how to do something similar about my mental disease:-)

The reason I came to think about him tonight is that he applied for my friendship on Facebook today. I immidiately said YES, even though I suspect it to be some kind of mistake. He accidently hit the wrong button, I think, since I had the idea he got pretty tired of me on MySpace just because I asked him a billion questions...

Anyway here´s the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbrfJAHjnhs

And this is the music (this is from the first album, you might buy the second as well;-)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai9NHHaRxFE&feature=related

NOT going to Roskilde Festival:-(

Well, I did buy my ticket to The Roskilde Festival, Northern Europes biggest music festival where I have been going every summer for 10 years now, just before the festival sold out and people started offering their firstborn in change for a ticket.
But then my cute physiotherapist, who have been treating my herniated disc, looked at me in this weird way and pointed out that this might not be the best idea I ever had, and would I then at least consider bringing a chair?

Have any of you been to Roskilde? Maybe going to my favourite scene/tent there, The Arena, who can house 17.000 people? And if it´s a REALLY popular band, there´ll be another 17.000 outside the tent. Bring a chair? He might as well have suggested I should bring a couple of elephants.

So I sold the ticket again, and at least made somebody else very happy.

But I was disappointed. Especially about the fact that I would be missing out on one of the concerts that I´ve been looking forward to the most: the Danish one-man-project/liveband Sleep Party People. I´m going to hear him play in Copenhagen later this autumn, but that´s just not the same as experiencing him at Roskilde... Roskilde is special.

So I had to express my frustration somehow. And since I´m anyway busy at the moment getting myself re-acuainted with Gimp(the free alternative, for those of us who can not afford Photoshop), and since Sleep Party People always perform disguised as rabbits, I stole a photo from Sleep Party People on Facebook (I´m sorry!) - a photo showing a band member looking out on Copenhagen from a rooftoop - and turned him into a rather frustrated an unhappy bunny....

I´m actually pretty satisfied with the outcome. So now I´m thinking if I should just go ahead, and harm a hole bunch of my favourite musicians?

Where´s my Path Finder?

Yes, where have my Path Finder gone? Have you seen it?

I´ve been having some exhibits lately after lying low for a while, and that was nice. It´s nice to get out there and get a sense that what you do does mean something to somebody.

I just had this little accident while exhibiting my bed-size installation "Mikkel" at the Town Hall on may 27. The installation consist of a lot of stuff, pillows printed with drawings of sexual organs, condoms blown up like balloons, and.... a pink jelly vibrator (never been used, I swear).

I was a little stressed and in a hurry in the morning, where I went to put up the installation before going to work, so I haven´t thought about how to make my pink jelly vibrator steal-safe..... and the punishment for that came quick, of course:-)


When I went to take a look at the installation in the afternoon, before taking it down again, of course the vibrator was gone.
I don´t really think some woman in need stole it; I suspect it now serves as a trophy in some guys livingroom. I could be proven wrong of course, but I don´t think so.

My fault of course. I didn´t attach it to the rest, and I didn´t even - as somebody pointed out that I could have - put a label on it saying "very used" or even "private property".

So I had to go buy a new one. It´s fine, but I still want the old one back. You know how I get attached to my scultures, don´t you?

So if you stumble across it, it looks like this (and it could be bought at Lust here in Copenhagen, in case you´ve ben getting inspired to try it out):

Myartspace likes me:-)

Well, I know that you are not supposed to bragg about your self - and especially not when you´re danish! Then you are supposed to say: "Oh, don´t think about me, I don´t matter that much, so meny people matter much more that I do, I certainly don´t deserve this...".

But I decided to bragg a little about myself... I`ve had a profile on Myartspace for a couple of years, I think. To be honest I haven´t been going there much lately, but yesterday I decided to upload some new work, called Educational Plates, into a gallery.

And today I got a mail from Catherine McCormack-Skiba, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Myartspace, that informed me that my uploaded work have been choosen for the "front page media window, which shows interesting work from selective artists". And she sent me some statistic that stated that about 5 % of uploaded art on Myartspace gets choosen to be featured.

Actually this is the second time I get choosen to be featured. Last time - which was when I originally created my profile there - I got choosen to be featured artist.

So yes, I am proud of myself today. I´m not excatley having a hard time dealing with all the overwhelming recognision I receive in the art world, if you know what I mean;-)

And I decided to share my pride with you.:-)

Now I´ll have a glass of wine.

Exhibits right now

I seem to be having a problem  with updating my homepage. I can´t get the list of exhibits to work, and as it always is, my webdesigner is veeeeeeeeery busy at the moment:-0.

Isn´t webdesigners always veeeeeery busy when you need them?

Anyway here´s a list:

I exhibit at Cafe Sonja, Saxogade 86-88, Copenhagen V from now and until the end of may. I exhibit prints and photomanipulations. The cafe is open mon-saturday 10-15.30 and since I also work there, I can say for sure we have a very good and very cheap brunch on saturdays. Anything you can eat and all the coffee/tea you can drink, and the prize is 60 kroner! Belive me, that´s cheap. And most of it its ecological.
So please stop by, if you are in the neighbourhood:-)

Then I participate in a one day exhibit may 20 at Panuminstituttet/Faculty Of Health Sciences, 3B, Blegdamsvej, DK-2200 Copenhagen.

I don´t know that much about it yet, except that the former premieminister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen will show up. I like him, so maybe I will hang around a bit after having put up my print;-)
I particpate with the print named "Family". And when I know weather there will be public acess, I´ll post it here.


Then I have one more one day exhibit coming up at may 27 at Copenhagen City Hall, something called "Værestedsdag", which is about things going on for mentally sick people living in Copenhagen.
I will participate with my bed-installation called "Mikkel" in the Town Hall, and the exhibit will be open to everybody between 11- 17.
A lot of funny things will be going on, both inside the Town Hall and on the square in front of it (I think the pie competition sounds fun, and you can buy food made over a campfire) so please stop by. I´m sure you DON`T have to be mentally sick to find it funny:-)

.

Flying low

I´m still here. Sort of. I think.

I´m having a slipped disc in my back and one more on the way to slip, and a lot of pain, and I´m waiting to find out if I´m going to have an operation or not. So it´s really hard to find energy to be creative... and even positive.

I did have a very good experience during Easter though. I stumbled across Etsy.com and their Homemade section, and came across a LOT of inspiriring stuff. Mostly clothes, which made me take out my sewing machines again  for the first time in years, to make some clothes for myself.

And I bought some very small glass bottles and some leather necklace cords to hang them in, so you can wear them around your neck.

The glass bottles arrived in the mail today, and for a little while I managed to forget my back and leg pain. I put in all kinds of stuff, paper with text, my own hair, animal bones, freshwater pearls, gold glitter, white horsehair. I´m thinking of them as small talismans in some way.
I´m still waiting for the leather cords with anticipation, so I can open my Etsy shop. I´ll let you know here when I do:-)

Being in control. Or being out of control...That is the question

I learned something new this week. The hard way. And this could be a small story. But it´s also a big story.

I was asked in the beginning of January, before going 10 days to Florida, if I wanted to participate in an exhibit in February with two other artists, well one of them was the artist’s mother since the artist has died. The other was a painter that I´ve been doing a few exhibits with before. No name mentioned.

And I said yes. And went to Florida, knowing the two other participants was going to have a meeting about practical stuff  while I was away.

Then I got home from Florida and put up my art at the place for the exhibit.

And discovered that I was NOT in the press material and NOT on the homepage for the place where the exhibit took place. The other two participants where. As the two other participants told me, ”Well, you were going away for 10 days and we were thinking that you might have changed your opinion about participating when you got home, therefore we decided not to put you in the press material”.....What?????????

See.... I´m still sort of speechless when thinking about it...... I´m so speechless I´m not even sure WHAT I´m thinking: Angry? Surprised? Disappointed? Unable to comprehend what they are telling me?

I guess I´m all of this.

And I´m this girl brought up to be a very nice girl, so I haven´t even told them how mad I am. And I don´t know if I´m going to. Right now I´m just thinking: Never to do something with these people again...

Maybe they´ll google me one day and find out?

Are any of you (especially women) readers out there recognizing this?

I´ve been thinking quite a lot about this. And I certainly blame these people for not seeing me as a serious artist, as they have absolutely no reason to think I shouldn´t be serious and responsible.

But I´m also blaming myself. I´m blaming myself for not making sure that I´m in control of my own career.

Don´t expect people to treat you nice. Make sure for yourself that people treat YOU the way YOU and your ART deserves!

So the next time somebody asks me to participate with my art in something, I´ll say: ”Sure, I´ll love to participate. What are we doing about public relations?”

Photography in Seaside

So I have been taking up photography while being in Seaside since it is such a unique town. Here are some of the photographs I took. I hope you'll like them:

Final photo me on the beach taken by Fred Sawyer.

Meeting Sally Mankus

While staying in Seaside, Florida with my friend Janis Sawyer, we got a visit from another mixed media artist, Sally Mankus. Janis introduced me to her art and website some time ago, and I really like what she is doing and I do feel related to her art. I don' t know that many artists that I do feel related to, so it was nice meeting her. I just wish we'd had more time to talk...... like days instead of hours ;-)

We talked a bit about being an artist and how you make yourself seen on the internet, which is something that I know nothing about. So that was interesting. It's not the aspect of your work that you want to spend the most time on, but making public relations for yourself is part of the job.... So when I get back home to Copenhagen, I'm gonna look into that on my path to fame:-)

If you' re into my art, you should take a look at Sally's homepage. I guarantee you that she is doing some very interesting stuff! See:

Sea of Memories

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This is from an older exhibit in Copenhagen.

Welcome

This is the place where I will be posting stuff for you.