Hardware update.

Spending my days in the studio working on the new layout and practicing inking. Realized i needed a drawing board so I fabricated one using my Wacom Cintiq 24HD and a scrap piece of cardboard. Works very well. Nice to put the Wacom to good use.

Vabbit.

What's happening in the studio? Jump starting an unexpected new project. This is exciting. I'll post the outcome in a couple of weeks.

Art.

 We visited the opening of our good friend Jörgen Platzer's solo exhibition at Kalmar Art Museum today.

Jörgen is a great painter who also works with sculpture and installation. Recent years he has been occupied with the Trojan Horse as a theme. This show he also incorporated the concept of transport. Documenting his horses in different environments and combining paintings of, and real wrecked cars with his Trojan Horses.

Tools

Trying some new stuff. Pencilling in Photoshop then printout, ink with markers, scanning inks, clean up and adding some color.

Tools

Drawing some random tools.

Logo

Updated a logo i made about 15 years ago for Karin at Sunda Grepp.

Moebius

Moebius, Jean Giraud, dead at 73. A fantastic artist and storyteller.

Talks.

The talk on Tintin at Ädelfors went well, afterwards I had an interersting conversation with a couple of guys from the journalist course at the school.

Last week I was invited to do another talk at the Reality Club at Kalmar Konstmuseum. This was last wednesday. I think i went pretty well and I got a lot of encouraging comments from the audience afterwards.

This week and the next I will get a couple of days in the studio but I still have some teaching at the University to do before Christmas.

Tintin and I?

I'm preparing for a lecture on Tintin and issues of racism. I will also talk about how Hergé's work has influenced my art. Tomorrow at Ädelfors folkhögskola in Vetlanda.

Copy II

This is a drawing I have been working on for some time. I have made a homage to Caravaggio, another favourite painter, using the composition and figures from his painting Supper at Emmaus from 1601.

I changed the perspective a bit because the point of view is higher in my drawing than it is in caravaggios painting.

Abraham Bloemaert did the same thing in 1622...

...and Rembrant in 1648.

Maybe Caravaggio had seen the Titzian painting from 1535.

Copy

When I was working on my lecture on Tintin in February, rereading all the albums, I noticed something familiar when I saw the frame with the Inka from Prisoners of the Sun. I checked and yes, the likeness with Bellinis Doge of Venice was obvious.

We start with the frame with the Inca.

Take away the colours to see the lineart clearly.

Superimpose it over the Bellini painting, I have dimmed the colours a bit for clarity, and you can clearly see the likeness. Notice how the profile, cheek bones, eyes, mouth and even the dimples match. I don't think this is a coincidence, rather an intelligent loan by Hergé.

Here are the two side by side. Bellini is one of my favourite painters, this painting especially. I definitely saw Hergés version first so I wonder if that has something to do with me appreciating the Doge painting.

In my opinion this doesn't deteriorate Hergés work in any way. I see it as a homage to Bellini and as T.S. Eliot said: 'Bad writers imitate, good writers steal'.

Scott McCloud

I just ordered another copy of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. This way we will have one copy each to refer to in the ongoing work with Places People Stories.

I read UC for the first time several years ago and I think it is an excellent work discussing not just comics an how to understand them but also referring to creating graphic art in general, including fine art painting. Check out for example McClouds' theory on abstraction in the Big Triangle. Outstanding!

Cover.

This is great! Jean-Marie Distaso from France covered my painting "Wood Chase". Check out his work at: Tableaux a l'eau.

History

So what's been going on exept for working on the stars? I have spent a lot of time at Ölands Folkhögskola working with my students the two last weeks of their year at Basår Design. I have also been teaching at Linnaeus University. This week I had the privilege to be one of the teacher opponents for the bachelor students final examination at the Design Programme. They all presented really intreseting projects. Good luck to all of you!

There was an opportunity to see some great art at Wanås skulptural park two weeks ago. Here I am climbing one of Yoko Onos ladders in her ladder piece at the opening May 15. Photo: Elin Stenberg

And here's ms Ono. Photo: Wanås Konst, Sweden

Fun Stuff

I've been working on some graphics for my bike.

People's Choice

I won the People's Choice Awards for my participation in Här II, the exhibiton currently showing at Kalmar Konstmuseum.

I would like to thank all of you who voted for me. It feels really great to have your support!

The frame above is of course from Dogs and part of the show. And yes, it's Robert Crumb in the foreground. A small tribute to a great artist.

Congrats to Conny Karlsson who won the Critics Choice Award.

Tintin And I?

Photo: Sara Jonasson, KalmarPosten

Last wednesday a was invited to Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar Museum of Art, to talk on Tintin and his creator Hergé. I was also asked to talk on the issues of racism in the Tintin books that has been widely discussed the last years.

I think it went pretty well, and I hope the audience enjoyed it.

News

Today I finished a project I have been working on for a while. It's a group of sculptures for a new built daycare center in Rinkabyholm, a village about 10 km from here.

I haven't actually made the sculptures, just a model and drawings for them. But tonight I am finished and ready for the presentation tomorrow morning. I'll post some pictures soon.

As you can see I've had a lot of coffee the last couple of days. My studio is a mess.

Ai Weiwei at Tate Modern

I spent last week in London and I was looking forward to see Ai Weiwei's installation of Sunflower Seeds in the turbine hall. Unfortunately, due to health issues, the public was not allowed to walk on the installation. So what happens?

People are kneeling along the edges of the installation. Using the seeds to create messages, pictures and patterns. Beautiful!

Portfolio

Been working on a portfolio to show the people from The National Public Art Council. Joanna came to my studio to take new photos of my paintings. Thanks for all your help!

Updates on portrait and A-Bombs soon.