underwater photography by zena holloway

happy new year everyone!! i have my champagne ready, and hope you do too! 2009 is going to be a kick ass wonderful year!!!!

the nature pictures

I like mixing fake stuff with real stuff to see what happens. Do I get an utopian fantasy reality or do I highlight the shortcomings of reality - or do I enhance the feeling of unreality about real life?? I don't know. It seems to me that the Norwegian photographer Una Hunderi is playing with the same ideas in her photos called "the nature pictures".



Mmhh I'd go for the utopian fantasy reality, but then again, I'm soft hearted and naive, I want to believe ;)

dreamy illustrations by Aya Kato

Manga+art nouveau. you've probably already guessed that she's Japanese. So much cool stuff is coming from Japan!







I sort of feel like I should say something Christmasy but I can't come to think of much. I hope you all ate tons of food, got drunk and avoided drama. Oh and I hope you didn't get any Christmas ornaments for Christmas.

poll closed

so the poll is closed, and i'm shocked at the result;

64 % said they believed in aliens
10 % said they didn't
and 28 % said they were aliens.

i think someone must be joking with me, and this is the time to come forward and admit to this joke. leave a confession in a comment. i refuse to believe that 10 %, (THREE of my blog readers), do not believe in aliens.


the universe is infinitely vast, and nature is a repetetive pattern, like a massive fractal. it just wouldn't make sense to think we're alone. also it would be less fun and it would ruin my daydreams of being picked up in a ufo and taken to my home planet for a tour i'd never forget. i bet i'd forget to take my digital camera if that ever happened (see, i'm already thinking about what to bring).

on the upside, i'm so grateful to have 8 actual aliens reading my blog! although i voted from three different computers saying i was an alien (i AM!), so i guess in reality, there's only 5. i think that's pretty good though, and i bet some of my alien readers didn't even bother to vote, so maybe there's more?

conjoined aceo

stereotype

i love this photo. it's just delightfully bold and wrong. who decides what's wrong and right anyway. i guess when thinking of pregnant women i think of them as all mumsy, dressed in pastels and only thinking of their baby - not on confronting people with their nakedness while wearing high heels and gas masks. i realize there are as many different pregnant women as there are different women in general, yet i do think the stereotype must come from somewhere. certainly not my mother, so maybe the media? fuck the stereotype :)

passion aceo

red is the colour of passion, willpower and sexuality! i've painted this aceo art card with oil paint on canvas paper.

harder better faster stronger

a bit of an update;

i was so excited when writing this blog entry(i just kept looking at the video) that i totally forgot to mention HOW the video was made. my boyfriend thinks it's clear for everyone to see, yet i didn't realise that there was some funky tricks going on till i saw a video of it on youtube.. apparently the girl is videotaped dancing all slow to the tune slowed down, and then it's been speeded up to sound normal and look like super-fast dancing moves. none the less impressive, me thinks. clever!

plastic heart, synthetic soul

another doll portrait miniature painting, painted with oil paint on canvas paper.

insomnia

this amazingly dark illustration is for sale here. i wish i could afford it.

heart of plastic 2 aceo

oil painting aceo of a doll on canvas paper. i've been doing loads of doll potraits lately, dolls are creepy!!

heart of plastic aceo

backwoods + random rants

i've fallen in love with this painting called "backwoods". it is made by an artist called scott who i've found on myspace. this painting gives me that sense of naivety that i've started enjoying. a notion of something simple and pure and friendly. aww.


for you norwegians reading this (hei ida!!), doesn't the bottom half look an awful lot like stratos (it's a type of porous chocolate)?? or am i only seeing this because i'm trying very hard not to munch up the 150 g stratos i have in the fridge? my boyfriend has this silly idea chocolates should be eaten in tiny pieces and left in the fridge for ages, while i HAVE to munch all or nothing.

i had a sort of similar experience of associations a while ago. i was painting this green and yellowish art card based on a vintage photo..

and suddenly all it reminded me of was beer. becks beer, actually. mmmm, i love becks beer. and i was thinking, who will want this painting, it looks like a beer commercial.

here is the painting. let me know if it makes you crave(or even think of) becks beer:


.. that was a lot of babble that had nothing to do with scotts work at all.

check out scott's myspace profile for more of his work.

i wear black on the outside

"i wear black on the outside" by amazingly talented david hancock. again, an artist i've discovered on myspace. i'm telling you, myspace really is the place to discover new fresh kick ass art!!

this painting has been a favourite of mine for a long time. i like how there's a sort of narrative to it, and how it's absolutely packed with photo realistic detailing. i love it when artworks are so intricate that they seem nearly compulsively filled with details. it adds that little extra spark of madness that i look for in art.

kokoro scan ♥

my friend lars sent me a link to this video over a year ago, and it's STILL my favourite. i've been looking for a good quality mp3 of this song so i can hear it on my mp3 player while on the bus/walking etc, but i haven't found it yet. my boyfriend has promised to make a hard techno version of it, sounds very promising, i can't wait!


this video is a commercial for a nintendo ds game. i have a nintendo ds, if i thought this game would give me defenite numerical values for people's feelings, i would certainly buy it. i'm sort of tempted to buy it anyway, except i bet it's all in japanese, and i think you'll have to TALK to it. the nintendo ds has a microphone, and i'm not really too keen on the talking bit. my brother bought me a baby pink(grr!!) nintendo ds with nintendogs for christmas one year, and i was eager to try my new game out when everyone had gone to bed. i chose a little chihuahua as my pet, and when asked to name him, i named him "cock". i played around with "cock" for a while, before i was asked to teach him his name. i had to say his name into the microphone so the nintendo ds would recognize it. i tried whispering but it wasn't loud enough, and when it was loud enough i didn't say it right. i had to repeat "cock" countless times to my bastard ds. it was sort of embarrassing as my mother and two brothers could probably hear me, and they had no idea i was talking to a digital chihuahua.

oh well. no hard feelings, i still love japan.

poison aceo

acrylic on canvas paper, yet another aceo - i'm addicted!

bragging

i realise this isn't really important for anyone else but me, but i just have to brag about this, as i'm so excited!

i've been featured in etsy's blog "the storque", in an entry about scandinavian sellers!!

they asked me to send me a photo of myself at a place that meant something to me and my work, including a brief description, and i sent them this:

"This is the house i grew up in, in a little village called Feiring. Only ghosts and spiders live there now, and I sometimes go to visit them."

i think i look a bit psycho, but my boyfriend said "oh well it only adds to the eerie feeling.. it's a good thing".

i didn't seriously think they'd use it as i'm all new to etsy, but they did, and they also included my mushroom earrings in the related items:


ho ho i love having a little shop. i realise there's a reason for why things are being produced in india and china and not in norway, but money isn't really the reason for why i'm doing it. i'm doing it because it's SO MUCH FUN! i love to create stuff, and having a shop gives me an excuse to make stuff, it gives me an illusion of doing it for a reason.

i've even made my own business cards and have got hold of a mannequin so i can be all professional..

check out lilly, my mannequin! she doesn't look as psycho as me, she's of the stern, reserved type. she's not as pale and short as me either. in fact, i think she's everything i'm not. i have broader shoulders than her though, and larger ears. at least that's something, eh?

they said in the shop where i got the yellow coloured yarn that it wasn't very popular. what's wrong with yellow?? i won't be very disappointed if the shawl lilly is wearing doesn't sell though, it's fluffy to the max (i'm on an everlasting search for ultimate fluffyness) and so YELLOW that i wouldn't mind keeping it for myself.

check out the storque article for photos of more scandinavian sellers in places that are important to them, and a selection of scandinavian crafts.

mirabilia photography

i've posted a photo from mirabilia photography before, as i think they or him or her or whoever is taking the photos, takes cool photos. a lot of the photos keeps reminding me of other artists, though, so maybe the reason why i think they are cool is because they are greatly inspired/influenced by some of my favourite artists/artworks. especially their latest work seem very inspired by jan saudek in the way they are coloured in. remember, he who stands on someone elses shoulders sees the furthest!

check out the blog post of mine on yuko shimizu to see an illustration on the same theme as this photo:


this photo doesn't remind me of any other artist, and is also my favourite.. what a great elf person:


if you like how these photos are coloured in, you might like my blog post on jan saudek:



ooh loving how this photo plays with the blurred effects of steam and water to create a dreamy feeling:
mirabilia photography.

etheral paintings by elisabeth werp

one of my favourite norwegian artists, elisabeth bjørnsen werp. she works in egg tempera, and uses many layers of paint, coal, paint, tempera, ash, marble dust, lead, sink, chemicals and metal dust, giving the layers rough a treatment, etching in, scraping off, burning(!), and crackling. the result is strangely etheral, like a distant memory.

UglyShitOnEtsy

i've found this through a person who calls herself UglyShitOnEtsy on twitter. she's going through etsy finding what she thinks is the worst items, and a lot of etsians are angry and hurt by it. i wish people wouldn't get hurt by it though, as it really doesn't matter what this UglyShitPerson thinks about anything. also some of the things she has picked as her "worst-of-etsy" has even turned out to be my new etsy favourites!

if it wasn't for her, i would never have found this educational birthing doll. and i'm so glad i have!






i think it's amazing to see something crocheted being so detailed and so graphic. i bet it is actually really educational for kids too.

upon seeing these photos, my boyfriend said "you totally need one of those!".. i agree!!!!!! i have no money though. i've also showed it to my friend tony, and he said he'll ask his boyfriend if he will get him one for christmas. if he does, i will be green of envy. apparently the lady can make more though, so we can all have one each.

you can buy your own mama doll in CozyColeman's etsy shop.

alien kitten aceo

crafting humanity

fantastic photo project by margie geerlinks!