I'm so glad to share this body of work alongside two wearable pieces, the Swan Tee and the Market Tote, designed in collaboration with Idun. My art and studio practice has always bled into my creative work at Idun but it's exciting to create something tangible, something others can cherish and physically wear.
This body of work is in one sense an ode to my heritage, to a physical place that is like home- maybe home isn't quite the right word, but a place that feels like I have been part of it for a long time, in my bones and blood. Not somewhere I go every evening (or even every year) but a place that makes me feel rooted and at peace. Norway, Lindesnes Fjord, my family's hytta, the place where my father grew up and his family has lived for hundreds of years. There are two swans that swim together across the fjord, ornery and elegant. I have been mystified by them and you can see these characters coming through the work, alongside other glimpses of this place, like the mysterious female statue that has stood outside the farm my father grew up on, like a loving, beautiful guardian in a bonnet.
In another sense these paintings and sketches are an ode to intuition, playfulness, and allowing oneself the luxury of following a curiosity; with no specific reward at the end just the simple pleasure of using one's imagination and allowing it to take control. With three children of my own I'm often witnessing intense imaginative play, and what seems like never ending energy and curiosity. So much of parenting is witnessing it and sometimes not necessarily being able to live in that mindset of wonder. In my studio practice I'm able to allow myself that luxury. The late John O'Donohue talks about poets who refer to occasional poems as "found poems". The idea is, rather than the usual frustrating and endless editing most poems take, a "found poem", is one that came about as if the poem wrote itself. The way most children would write. Without ego. Allowing one self to loosen control and stumble upon the words or the drawing as if by chance. These corky swan works of art were never meant to live beyond my sketchbook. They were quick strokes of random colors and configurations to help guide me for the layout of the "real" paintings I was going to work on. As it turns out, these "found paintings" are just as interesting if not more than the long winded oil paintings. In a world where most things have to be hard earned and perfect these small treasures of "found paintings" are like divine gifts, an offering, as if the universe is saying: thank you for letting go of control, stress, perfection and ego and allowing the silly, even awkwardness of our human hands free rein.
Discover the body of work HERE.
Xx