Stockholm, urban peace

Stockholm, Up there in house number two I spend my days. The most urban area of Sweden. In front of the first house and close to the rotary are some park benches surrounded by a heather plantation. There people enjoy their lunch break and the maybe last sunshine for a long time. Relaxing!

Stockholm, to fly

Stockholm, At home, regarding a painting I made more than twenty years ago. It's called To Fly. It's about to become a man, the one you are intended to be. To take a step out into the big Unknown called Life. Now I notice that the flying subject has got no legs. And it strikes me that once you have to come down. With no legs and no feet, what about that?

Åmål, Sweden, on vacation

Åmål, Sweden, On vacation. Summer evening at the camping. The sun is on its way down and lake Vänern is quietly whispering. A glass of wine, maybe a coffee, that's all. Resting. Resting. Resting.

Paris and the End

Paris, For a long time it has been well known that the Earth is a globe. Still the conception of a flat Earth has resisted until the 16th century. When reaching the upper end of rue des Bernadins, close to Sorbonne in Quartier Latin, it's impossible to keep on walking. I start thinking of the flat Earth.

Thinking of a long, distant walk straight forward in any direction. At a certain moment the walk would come to an end. What does the end look like? An unimaginable Nothing? Or a wall like this one? Okay, here the world has its end, just to turn around and walk back. Or what about breaking the wall?

Krakow, no, no, no, no

Krakow, Passing a playground with a prohibition sign on the wire fence: No biking, no football playing, no climbing on the swing, no climbing on the goal, not four kids on the seesaw, not two kids in the swing, not walk around with body bent over, no dogs. One single thing is allowed and recommended: throw trash in the bin.

All are floored.

No one is here.

Hardangervidda, Norway, outside, inside

Hardangervidda, Norway, Mile by mile, a desolate, magnificent and wide landscape. After a whole day's running across the highlands, and my ears still filled up with the sounds of wind and speed, I put up the tent and lay down inside. It's small, cosy and protecting.

Maybe the contrast outside/inside makes me love to lay down on my back, while listening to the sounds of nature from outside, looking at the movements and changes of light of the canvas. And maybe because it's like this we have been laying down for thousands of years. On the ground, in the middle of nature. When the night arrives. It's a good feeling.

Västervik, walls and colors

Västervik, Sweden, I visit the city where I lived when I was young. Walking the streets giving life to memories.  Find the house where I rented a garret. And the former printing works which became my studio for some years. Now the backyard is an open-air café. And my old studio is a family home, neatly wrapped in reddish-brown wood panelling with black corners. Then it was yellowish and the old plaster was cracked.

Childhood, youth and getting older. I am more than a grown-up person and all houses in this little city are decorated with light opaque paints: yellow, blue, green, rose. People have a better life, are healthier and earn more money. That is good.

Still I am happy to find the maybe very last house that has not yet got choked by plastic paint, but is breathing and telling a story.

Children like things inspiring imagination. I recognize the child within me, and that's a good feeling.