A new form for society? Questions to be answered...

Everybody is talking about it. Everyone is affected by it. And yet it shouldn't be a surprise. The world wide economic crisis is her to stay. The old western world is definetly sinking in its own hands. It's nothing new. every big civilization in history has experienced it: the huge golden era first, and then the drop down, the surrending to the excesses commited in the high wave...

All I hear in the news are politicians talking about creating economic growth, finding new jobs or  new technologies that will make us competitive enought to survive  the crisis. The problem with these ideas is that we're not thinking out of the box, and this crisis needs real new thinking.


For centuries, our cicilization has depended on values based on the persuit of profit. All the major developments have been due to this persue. Money makes the world go round. Yes, it did indeed. But that world is cracking a part now, so looking at solutions where we only consider financial solutions will do no good. We don't need annother economic plan or another marvalous ingenious 'I-must-have-that-thing'.

We've done enought, at least what regards technologies and world records. We have what we need. We can always do it better, it's true. But what's the point of doing it to perfection if the whole point of it beeing disappears? As my old teacher in school used to say: form is important, but content is essencial. Just as making the most of the presentation of the writing is not enought to account for the missing point in the text, just as pointless it is to develop extremelly hight technology if there's no fuel to produce energy to turn the machine on, or if the people are so desperatly poor they even can't even pay for food or water.

We have to rethink the whole thing. We have to shift our society values and our main goal for our society. It can't be money and priviledged status anymore. We have to raise us above and find new ideals.

Philosophy, religious beliefs (not religion, which is religious belief transformed into organisations) and not to mention the declaration of human rights have always presented us for alternative values. So we already have some other ideas we can use.

We have to reorganize our society, decide what we want to keep, what is really important and find a way where everybody, so to speak, can have a fair share of the cake. It's not new communism. It's plain survival. One could also say, it's only trying to live according to "treat your neighbour as you'd wishes to be treated" or "love your neighbour as you love yourself".

But how do you do that? I don't know. I'm just an artist, a dreamer, and I have very little knowledge of economics  and politics. But I count on the internet. I count on this blog getting read by many people, maybe creating discussion, maybe giving other people who are closer to those who are major decision takers an idea, an inspiration. We need new ideas. We need everyone's engagement - for maybe your word will make somebody else find the answer... So help me find possibilities, help me ask questions, help us all with new ways of using what we have on earth.

Here are my questions:

What would happen if profit no longer was the main concern and goal of society?
What if we placed 'good living skills' as the new goal for society, where healthy living is the main idea?

How would that affect our work places? What if instead of giving values and status to papers in the bank, we value the time spendt helping one another, for eks. through teaching, caretaking, and other 'soft jobs'?

If money is out, what is so our currency? One man created art money (a small art work that has a fix value, and can be used to pay for goods and services) and caused huge noise in the economic world. Maybe we should look at such experiments and try something new. We all have so much to give - much more than money can buy. So why not use that as currency?

What if we just decided to accept that our financial world is cracked and decided to shut it down? What if we called that financial marked 'the new Disneyland', a fantasy world that isn't real? We gave those rules in the financial marked meaning and value. We could just as well withdraw their values. What would happen if every company, every business and every person just had what is real: their houses, their workers, the work they do, the ideas in their heads and their skills and their relationship to other people? Without money, as we know it, how would we share food, water, housing, jobs, technology, and waste? How would that impact our social structures, such as families, friendships and workrelations?

What is really vital for people? What is important in order to live a good life, and not just survive through life? How do we best use freedom of speach? How do we best contribute to the whole society? How are we democratic in a new era, where communication tends to create huge opportunities for many people to share their ideas and to affect political, social, economic and religious events? I've heard Google, facebook and the likes already do it, just for making more profit for themselves and for the companies who use them... What about using the same technologies for keeping up with the good ideas, for developing a real forum for a new world?

And I didn't talk about all the green possibilities - everybody talks about it now, so, there should be quite a number of good ideas there. I'll let this space for those who are much better to argumenting for a green active policy than I am.

Making a new world is like rearranging the furniture in your home.  You have to think first, because it costs a lot to move the huge closet out of the room. You have to decide what use you want to make of the room, what needs more lightning or darkness, what stays in the way of traffic, what contributes to a cosy atmosphere, and how you see yourself in it. And then it's mostly about deciding what to throw away, what to keep, what to mend, what to use in a new way and what to give to other people who may use it better. And once we've moved the heavy furniture, there'll be a lot of readjustment. Routine will teach us how practical or efficient things are and then it's all 'learning by doing' time...

But right now, we're just in the 'thinking fase'. Please, feel free to comment! Feel free to give voice to your ideas! They're badly needed! And please, do share this with your friends and accquaintances!

And the forest grows...

Now I've worked a couple of layers in my forest... This time I began working on the branches - there are always so many of them in the woods - and then I moved up in the colour skale: up towards red!

It's kind of funny working on an autumn scene as my trees outside are bare and grey... We're already in the Danish winter:  grey, wet, dark and foggy. So I had to tune myself into the right atmosphere. And for once I was really happy I've been taking thousands of fotos with my camera. I used some time observing my old pictures, and when I felt as if autumn was getting under my skin again, I set the computer to slideshow my many autumn pictures... Her are a couple of them.

Back to my work, I've managed to keep the printing of the dog walking motif still visible beneath the layers of forest. The white vertical lines in the foto beneath are the light reflections on the soluble plastic. I wonder how it will look like when it's gone!

I guess my forest is getting to the point where it's ready to be stitched as a layer with fine nylon thread - my magical invisible thread.  That's what I'm going to do now and then when everything is sewn together, I'll wash the forest layer in water, so the plastic will dissolve. Sounds like magic, doesn't it? :-) It's so high tech! :-)

A forest is born

Today was just a good day! The sun shining outside all the time, gave me a lot of light to work with my art quilt which I haven't decided on a title yet, but is about walking in nature, with your dogs and enjoying the freedom there is to it.

So today I 'gave birth' to a forest. Well, it's not finished yet, but it's pretty much on the way. :-) I'm using a new technique this time. Since I printed on the previous layers, I wouldn't want to have to wash the whole work if I used my old method: layering would just continue until I was satisfied, and then I would spread a piece of soluble plastic over the whole thing, stich throu it very tightly with invisible thread and then wash the piece, so the plastic would dissolve.

Today I just changed things a bit. I put a layer of soluble plastic under the first new layers and when I had to stop working, I put another piece of plastic on top. Tomorrow I'll layer on, until the forest is finished. And then I'll be able to stich the layers separetly from the bottom picture itself. Does it make sense for you who is reading? Mmmm. Maybe it's too much nerd talking without images to show! :-)

Anyway her is the forest so far:

I really really love that the printing behind, in the bottom layers, is still visible. I hope they still will be tomorrow, once I've finished the forest. I need some more layers on with the other orange and reddish colours of the autumn.

Her is an overall picture of the whole piece so far... Once I'm finished with the forest on the left, I'll have to do something about the sudden vertical sharp line on the right, I think... And I have to add teksture to the main tree and... yes, many other things.... Just wait and see! :-)

A walk with the dogs

Efter a long while I'm back working with my art! It feels great! My trip to Brazil in October brought med inspiration and most important, life experience which actually makes it easier for me to do what I do: my art! :-) But that's another long story...


Today's story is about the joys of walking in the forest with the company of our best friends - dogs or even cats, as it often happens to me. Pets are wonderful and bring a new dimension to our lives.

In spring time I took a photo of one of my friends while she was walking with her three dogs past my house. Some of the pictures were quite good, so I managed to change it into a couple of nice hard black and white version that later were made into two Thermofax frames. If you are wondering what this is, I can tell you it's a frame similar to those used in silk screen. I wrote a post about printing with Thermofax frames in february 2011 - the pictures speak for themselves!

I printed the motif on a cotton piece I'd used to try other prints on for some time ago. I chose some pastel and autum colours. And when I felt it was time, I stopped and now I'm having fun finding some motifs to work on some time later:

It's fun to move my card strips to find new possibilities. But I have to choose at a time... But undtil then, I'll work on my bigger project, an art quilt I've been working on since 2009 for my vet. Now it's time to finish it. And since I've seen how the two frames with the dog walking lady have been tried on, I have a much clearer idea of how I'm going to use the print in the large art quilt... I'm ready to work again in my studio. Paints and frames, her I go!  And soon a new post about this big art quilt will come!

Old glass and chrystal stamping

It's always amazing to go to a second hand shop and go hunting for beautiful aged things. Last month I found several bowls of glass and chrystal and I saw the unique possibility at hand for me: to use them for stamping.

I've always admired the patterns of old glass - specially when today's are so plain and annonimous. The patterns always take me back to my days back in school, where I learnt how to draw less complex geometric motifs. I know it takes a lot of precision and patiente to make such patterns, so I appreciate that somebody long ago took the time and made his/her drawings and later made them into real things.

Last year I started a portrait of my mother, and I played with the idea of using mandalas in the background, as a way to describe her incredible skills in telling stories and creating webs and contact with other people. But then I drove away from the project, because other projects took over...

Looking at the bowl glasses, I finally found the perfect tool to take this project up again. But first, I have make some samples - and that's what I did yesterday.

It was really fun stamping with the bowls. The most successful piece is show in this entry.  The very first is a full view and the other two are details I specially liked.

I'm pretty happy with the first results. I'm looking forward to my next samples! 

Sketches for the purse

After a couple of weeks working on a new art quilt, I'm going back to the purse project. I brainstormed some possibilities. The theme I chose is the different shapes of ceramic utensils - vases, jars and cups. I played with their lines and her is what I've got so far:

Danish gift traditions and my own gift card

In Denmark there's a tradition about gifts. Whenever a birthday or special season near us, people ask each other what they would like to receive as gift. If you're invited to a jubileaum party, a wedding og some other celebration, you'll most certainly receive a list of gifts which the person wishes for.

When I moved to Denmark I felt this was weird. But it's just another example of the logic mentality of the Danes. In Brasil sending a list of gift along with the invitation would be almost offensive - except maybe at weddings. Cultural differences...




But that's not the only thing about the Danish gifts. Many wish for a 'gift card' - or in Danish "gavekort" - usually from a specific shop. For example if I'd like clothes from a nice shop in town called 'Hos Hanne', I'd state that I wish a gift card to 'Hos Hanne'. My friends would then go to the shop and pay ie. 200 kr and get a voucher for the same amount, which is packed as a present. Now if you've got many friends who do that, then you can buy almost a new collection to your wardrobe - at your own choice! Not bad!

I wonder if some other countries also have the same tradition? Or is it just a Scandinavian thing? If you know it, please tell me. :-)

And so it happened that one of my customers told me she was going to her sister in law's birthday and wanted to give her a purse. Her sister in law is a very creative person herself, so one of my hand made purses would be a nice gift.

When we agreed on the price, I went on and made a gift card for her. Of course it shouldn't be just a piece of paper. No, no. As a textile artist I'd rather use some cloth - specially some of it I'd just painted and printed on! :-)



The picture above shows the front side of the card, which is a mini art quilt. I machine qulted and machine embroidered it. On the back I mounted corners where I could attach my business card, the gift voucher and some pictures of other purses I've sewn, so she could have an idea of what I do.



My customer told me later that she was very happy for the present - that is the gift card - the mini art quilt. She also told me that the other guests at the party admired it - good to know!

Since then I've talked to the lady and received information as to what kind of purse, size and colour she desires. I'm really excited about this project! I loved making the mini art quilt and I've already got some ideas for the purse... Don't miss my next entry! :-)