Sorrow and shock

The whole peaceful Norwegian nation is in shock and sorrow. On friday afternoon one right-extreme man, after 9 years of planning, released his personal ragnarok on us. To express his own crazed views, he blew up a bomb in the government district, killing and maiming several people. After that, he went to a political youth camp, and executed youth after youth after youth after youth, shooting them with devilish arrogance to «market» his own beliefs. Smiling, shooting and laughing while the doomed youths fled panicking to save their lives.

Today he has told the police that he had had his hair cut, taken hours of solarium, to look good on the press photos afterwards. Smiling for the photographers on his way to the Oslo courtrooms.        

What can one say. It’s utterly terrible, utterly meaningless. Mad. Wasted. Utterly sad.

Expressing this through an artwork this afternoon. Sorrow and tiredness from the unstopping media exposure.

Christmas on the Church's website

The Norwegian web site nettkirken.no has chosen to prepare for Christmas this year with a display of my art combined with inspirational thoughts for each day in the advent season. The web site is co-operated by the Norwegian Church and the Norwegian Seamen's Church.

Dreaming

It is so easy to spend one's life just longing. Longing to get home from work. Longing for the weekend. Longing for pay-day. Longing for Christmas. Longing for summer. Longing to become an old age pensioner.

It is so easy to spend one's life just hoping. Hoping for the big win in the lottery. Hoping that everything will change. One day.

It is so easy to spend one's life just dreaming. Watching TV. Reading a book. Watching a film. Surfing the internet. Consuming. Not thinking.

But when shall one start living?

Emerging art

On my internet site www.trygveskogrand.com is a new gallery: Emerging art. Here I publish works as they are finished, and some works that are still in progress. So if you want to see the newest of the new of my art, click in and have a look!

Updating the homepage

Updating the homepage today, adding scans of various works on paper to the online galleries. There is quite a lot of them, it will take more than one day to get them all scanned and published online.

Going online

My artworks are gradually appearing in the Bridgeman art database. So far 26 artworks are catalogued into the database, with more to come in the following weeks. Very exciting all of it, I think!



http://www.bridgemanart.com/search.aspx?key=skogrand

Christmas designs finished

One very busy week, and 62 design variations for the Christmas porcelain set delivered to the customer! Very excited and wonder: Will they like it? Has my love of Christmas been enough to make an enticing and sellable design? Feedback should come in some weeks. And then well see... Well, it was great fun doing the designs, anyway!

Christmas designs

12th day was yesterday, but here I'm still hanging on to the Christmas feeling. I have got an invitation to deliver designs for a new Christmas porcelain dinner set to a producer here in Scandinavia, and have been drawing angels and stars the whole week. It's not easy to hit on a design that will: a) please the masses so that they buy it, b) is traditional, c) is original and d) is true to my own taste and heart. I have maybe a handfull that is OK after a weeks work, another couple of handfulls that is more so-so. I'll keep on working, deadline is in three days...

Reading "A Christmas Carol". Seems less a story about greed versus generosity than a story about love and the fear of loving

Merry Christmas

So is finally Christmas here again. A celebration that I am especially fond of, and enjoys immensely!

Of course it IS a rather strange mishmash of new and old traditions, with Christian, pagan and secular elements all mixed together in a sometimes lovely and sometimes rather bizarre mix. Some Christians I know are very critical to the secular and pre-christian elements in the celebration, wanting to remove most of them and make Christmas a pure and spiritual festivity. And I understand and partly agree. Somewhat. But in my heart of hearts, I like many of those elements as well, even down to the story of the old man with the sleigh, dashing across the moonlit sky. A poetic idea in its strange way, I think.

I think this mixed-up Christmas is rather like life itself, for life is really a strange mishmash of all kinds of elements, and one must always decide and chose what is good, true, what brings love and joy to both yourself and others. And naturally: Christmas is a very vivid example of the meeting between the sacred on the commonplace, perhaps the time of year when it is most visible.

The Garden

Yesterday I saw the movie "The Garden" by the late British filmmaker Derek Jarman. Poetic and strange, and sometimes hauntingly beautiful. Very interesting to see how he puts the Biblical characters into modern settings, to retell the Christmas Story, the story of the fall and the message of Jesu's love in a very artistic way. Sacred pilgrims into the modern everyday indeed!

It is not a movie for the everyone, perhaps, due to it's strong message for homosexual love. And it's art, not hollywood cinema, so it's quite artistic and strange, without a clear narrative line. However, I liked it and found it inspiring.

International art

Well, this is really an exciting day! I have come to an agreement with an international licensing agent for my art. All the artwork from the series "We Dreamer", "Sacred Pilgrims" and "The Christmas Story" are now administered worldwide by the Bridgeman Art Library in London. They have offices in London, Paris, New York and Tokyo, so this will really be a new opening for introducing my art to new audiences. I am very happy, and very excited - what will shine forth from this?

My art on Norwegian TV

From my Norwegian publisher I learned today that the writers of the dreambook published earlier this autumn will be on Norwegian television this month, and will talk about my art as well. The authors are presumably very happy with the art I contributed to the book, so that is very gratifying. Shame that I do not have Norwegian TV here in Sweden though, it would have been fun to watch.

New audiences

I read a quote from Thomas Alva Edison last week, he said something that one should produce the idea, not the product. No doubt he was talking about lightbulbs, but I came to wonder if the idea could be applied to showing my art to a wider audience as well. What if I could simply make the art itself, and then leave to someone else to exhibit and distribute it! Perhaps even more widely than just a common art exhibition, - more in multiples like art books or something. Or in commissioned prints, calendars and so on. This week I am consequently reading about fine art licensing, and how an international art licensing representative could make this possible. Very exciting!

Music video!

My first video-work, out now on YouTube: a music video for a moving song from the very talented (and unsigned!) artist Woodrow. What music he makes!
Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBkZTwLQfPQ



I'm quite satisfied with the video myself. Making a music video was very interesting. In addition to the challenge of working with moving pictures in it self, it gave the additional dimensions of relating the video to both the text and the music. Exciting and difficult, and great fun.