Frostbiten

It's winter in Stockholm. Cold and sometimes windy. I have been skating and enjoying my winter vacation. No snow yet but last morning I found frost. I don't think I ever seen frost like this. Totally amazing and I was out for hours taking photos.

Almost an ultrasound experience

I once had a wonderful teacher when I was taking evening courses in drawing and painting. I guess my old teacher is a good painter but he told us he doesn’t paint anymore. He teaches and spends time just observering light. He can sit for hours in his kitchen, looking at how the daylight changes.

When I saw this doll at a toy store I was amazed how real it looked, and also I was fascinated by the daylight that reached into the package.

Big Calm

A summer evening at sunset. A nice break at a rest area on our way back home from the summerhouse. Inner calmness.

My own shadow

An old archive CD is like a diary, part II

I found this image on an old archive CD.
Once again I had been taken photos without any clear purpose. This was originally quite a dull image, a photo of my own shadow. But when I started to play around in Photoshop something happened.

I really love this image. It has been hanging on my wall from time to time.

Folder ready

Unna Design just finished our work with an info folder (eight pages) for Fritidsforum. Art direction and copy by Unna Design. Helena Bergendahl made the illustrations. It is always easy and fun to co-operate with her. In my links you'll find her website.
Now it’s up to the printing-house to do an excellent job.

Fritidsforum is a Swedish, non-profit organisation which organizes approximately 400 youth clubs and their over one million youth club members. Fritidsforum, with associated neighbourhoods, youth, and community centres etcetera, is an important part of society’s social, cultural, and democratic infrastructure. Since the 1940’s, Fritidsforum has been pursuing the line of open youth club work with the aim to reach out to young people who have an expressive leisure activity style.

Pemba

Jondeni Guest House is wonderful. It' s a small guest house, only eight room. The view from the terrace, when sunset, is great.
From our room its was possible to walk directly into the garden. Pempa was an unbeatable experience and if you go there, don't miss Jondeni Guest House.

And the living is easy

There are many highlights to remember from 2008. One is definitely my first solo exhibition labelled “and the living is easy”. Most of the images were in the size 1000 x 700 mm.

I’m now looking for other galleries to show my work.

Christmas and gifts are equal

The Christmas season is fast approaching. In the rich part of the World, where Christianity is the dominating religion, many people are spending both a lot of money and time buying Christmas gifts. Every year you can hear a few people complaining. “Christmas is not about gifts” they say, “it’s about the birth of Jesus and love”.

Well. No doubt there is a hysterical shopping frenzy surrounding Christmas. I don’t argue that. But Christmas is about gifts. And it has been from the very beginning. Listen to Johannes 3:16:

“For God so loved the World, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life”.

Well, Christians must consider this the most valuable gift ever given in the history of mankind.

And Matthew 2:11 tells us what happened shortly after Jesus was born:

“They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Sounds like pretty expensive gifts to me.

One might argue that commercialism and the focus on Christmas shopping went out of control a long time ago, but don’t argue that gifts doesn’t have anything to do with the birth of Jesus.

Not being a Christian, I don’t care that much about the intention of Christmas. I just try to keep the gifts to a minimum.

Art book hits the bookshelves

Unna Design has been working with Hälsinglands Museum in Hudiksvall since 2006.
The design of two exhibitions, interior design of the museums café, shop and reception and a new concept for the Museums visual identity, is some of the projects we been involved with. And no lately, graphic design of a book about Albert Blombergsson, a productive Swedish artist in the 19th century. Blombergsson is most famous for his altarpieces and oil paintings depicting romantic landscapes.

Today, the 5th of December is release date for the book.
Author is Lars Nylander, since 2003, employed by Hälsingland Museum in Hudiksvall. We hope he will be satisfied when he receives the copies today.

An old archive CD is like a diary

I have started many diaries, especially as a teenager when you are supposed to write diaries about your hard and meaningless teenage life. I have a stack of them in the basement. They were never completed, but there is a new diary for every second year, because I kept on trying until I reached the mid- twenties.
A few nights ago, I wanted to find an image I once created. I ran through approximate 150 CDs and DVDs in order to find it. While I couldn’t find it, I learned something. I recognised that old CDs with stuff from work is really like a diary. One starts to remember old clients, colleagues and other things related to the projects saved. I laughed, felt both embarrassed and proud as I looked through some of what I created in the past.

I found a lot of nice stuff. The picture above is an example. It was made during a period, when I tried to find out everything I could about Photoshop. After a successful fishing trip, we had just taken out the guts from the fish we caught that summer day, and I saw that the business section of the morning paper was used to cover the table. I took a photo and worked with it in Photoshop. Today it seems to be a comment to the current financial crisis.

A project for the coming month is to transmit the content of all these CDs and DVDs to a portable hard drive. Diaries should be kept for the future.