Art with care

Anna Ehn, Curator of of Public Art in Uppsala Municipality and Ebba Stålhandske, textile artist

Last Tuesday, the exhibition "Art with care - art for the new palliative care center in Uppsala" opened.
What type of art can hang in such a special and sensitive environment? Can art provide a relaxing momentary journey into another world? My talented Kaleido colleague, Ebba Stålhandske, (posted previously here)  is the selected artist for the art that will hang in the dining room. She'll provide the room with her lovely textile works; Field, Meadow, Forest and Garden, where she works with painting on fabric, printing and embroidering. Stones with embroidered trim and rya stitches to both see and touch.

My own piece Longing, a small coffee set made of paper, will also be placed in the new center. This makes me feel good. Having personal experience from this kind of place I know the environment is essential. 

Längtan / Longing, 2011

And this is of course what I've been occupying myself with lately. Paper petals galore! Three thistles are due for Flow Gallery. They are actually finished, I have yet to take photos of them in better light. Tomorrow!

Invitation will follow.

thistle busy

I'm in the midst of finishing off three pieces for a group exhibition in London, in February. The exhibition, with the title Forming Words, takes place at Flow Gallery in Notting Hill.

Tickets are bought and hotel is booked, Mattias and I are going for the opening! We're thrilled about the thought of visiting London again! It's been a year ago since we were there (for the opening of the show Bacchanalia) it can easily become a habit :)

Above you can see part of the process in making one of the three thistles I'll be showing. More will follow, but now I need to get back to pasting my little paper petals.

My work is featured over at the beautiful blog Designskool - go there and be inspired!

while waiting for spring

 

I've begun to make these paper flowers for Kaleido. They keep fresh longer than the "real" thing!

post-xmas-stress

the Ipad is never far away :(

Finally! - we made gingerbread cookies last Sunday, about a month late :) Well, better late than never. Olivia, our eldest daughter came up with the house idea - tricky business with the slanted roof, but it turned out nicely in the end!

Best wishes for 2013!

I gave mattias binoculars for our new hobby - bird watching!

what's that strange species over there - oh, just a teenager passing by

best family shot ever with a self-timer

Our family, made by Mattias. Handmade gifts are the best!

Hope you celebrated a nice/peaceful/exciting/happy/creative/inspiring X-mas and New Years Eve!
2012 was a good year for me and I hope it was for you too.

I wish you all the best for this new year that lays ahead!

Bertil Valliens choice

Ann Westin, Bertil Vallien and I

the favored object, Red, at Slow Art

Nationalmuseum during spring - imagine a snowstorm outside...

The day before yesterday (Tuesday) felt utterly unreal. I received a call in the morning letting me know that my presence at the Nationalmuseum would be much appreciated that afternoon and evening. It turned out that Bertil Vallien, famous Swedish glass artist, had been invited to hold an artist talk at the museum. This I knew, but not what he was going to talk about. And since there was heavy snowfall going on outside - which always means that trains and traffic will be affected, I had already rejected the idea of going into town. I changed my mind after the call.

During the summer Bertil had checked out the exhibitions to look for 1 (one) piece of art that served as an inspiration/influence on his own art. He rejected the Rembrandts, the Carl Larssons, all the famous masters - and chose my paper bowl Red from the current exhibition Slow Art!

He gave a lovely speech, it was wonderful to hear someone that truly has the gift of words, speak about a piece of art made by myself, to hear his views on my work... Well, I'm still walking  on little clouds as you can hear :) 

close up shot

Close up shots of my paper mittens for the Kaleido Christmas exhibition. I used odd paper scraps of different qualities and color, book pages, color pencils and glue.

Merry Paraphrase and Happy New Plagiarism!

That's the title of our Christmas exhibition at Kaleido Konsthantverk.

Members and invited guest artists have been inspired by an assortment of old objects from Upplandsmuseet, the county museum, responsible for the cultural history and archaeology of Uppsala county. There were mittens, candlesticks, wall hangings, trimmings and decorations etc, 100–200 years old. All of which we were free to use as inspiration to reinvent new pieces. 

Here is a small selection of what we came up with.

Elisabet Berg, trimmings made of beer cans

Lena Billingskogs massive wooden candle stick

Lina Holm, textile necklace (guest artist)

Lotta Hellström, ceramic

Lotta "Kraka" Persson, knitted fingerless gloves

Pernilla Sylvan (guest artist), candle sticks for birthday candles

Veronica Gardetoft, glass angels/schnapps glass when turned over :)

and my own paper mittens...

featured in Ernst

My bowl and a short interview with me in the first edition of the home decor magazine Hemma med Ernst. Thank you!

recent sights

Took my youngest daughter, Rosa, to the National museum in Stockholm to see three of the
creations from one of the competitions of Project Runway Sweden. It was meant to be a cosy mother-daughter evening out, but we ended up almost missing the whole thing, due to my totally underestimating the time it would take to get there. We had to grab a taxi from the Central station and made it there just before closing time... We raced up, grabbed a glass each of sparkly water, looked at the three dresses and... left. Rosa, 13 years old, was not impressed. 

I'm taking part of a small exhibition arranged by an art society, Konstföreningen Botvid. The other three artists are Carina Sohl, pattern printed leather; Carl-Erik Ström, photography and Eva Kai Larsen, ceramic tiles. The exhibition is on for another weekend at Villa Skönvik, Rönninge. Open Saturday and Sunday 12 - 16.

a table with my work in front and one of my large plates on the wall. Carina Sohls chair by the window

coffee rimmed bowl in  late afternoon sun

Carina Sohl

Carl-Erik Ström

Eva Kai Larsen

beautiful view of the small lake Flaten outside