Olafur Eliasson's Beauty

Go check out Olafur Eliasson's Beauty exhibition at ARoS in Aarhus, Denmark.

Dreaming of Østjylland

Østjylland, Denmark is the place to live :) It is were I live and I love it :) So does these 2 brilliant musicians and they have made a little musicfilm, a piece of art, about the place they grew up. And the love of home truely shines through.

De eneste to - Østjylland Dreaming a musicfilm

Another circle around the sun

2010 is almost over, so it is time to reflect over what kinda year it has been and what is to expect from 2011.

2010 has been a year that has brought me new friends aswell as a year where I have reconnected with some old ones, but I have also realized that even because you have know someone your entire life it doesn't necessarily mean that you are gonna be in their lives forever, atleast not in a way you used to be - and do you know what? That is okay to, a bit sad when the thought first dawned on me, but I realized that I have alot of other amazing people in my life and so does this old friend of mine and if we are not the best of company for each other right now it does not matter and who knows maybe next year at this moment I will reflect back and we'll be as close as ever - who knows??

Like I said I have reconnected with an old friend this year too. Everyone has friends that they have known for a long time, but not really know. I have a few friends like that, but sometimes this year one of these friendships of mine changes. I am not really sure why, when or how it happened but I am glad it did 'cause 2010 brought me a new close friend :)

If you follow my blog or know me personally, you'll know I am also a music/movie buff so I also consider the year in art.

A lot of great albums has been released this year here is a few of the best ones that poops into my mind:

Great Big Sea - Safe upon the shore http://www.greatbigsea.com/store/
Sean McCann - Lullabies for bloodshot eyes http://greatbigsean.com/site/?page_id=7
Katie Melua - The House http://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Katie-Melua/dp/B003AXNSNU
The Avett Brothers - I and love and you http://www.theavettbrothers.com/us/shop
De Eneste To - De eneste to http://deenesteto.dk/

2010 has also been a good movie year. The ones that left an impression on me is:

Robin Hood (my fav actor in an impressive movie. It is stunning, funny and exciting).
Shutter Island (I loved the book and the movie is even better - DiCaprio is a great actor)
The Back-up Plan (Cute, sweet, funny - proved to be one of the best chick flicks I've seen)
Odine (no words - need to be watched. Truely a beautiful film in every sence of the word)
Inception (one of the best action movies I've seen in a while)

Besides my new fav tv-show aired for the first time in 2010: Hawaii Five-0




Other amazing experiences I've gotten in 2010 is counting:

Rasmus Seebach concert in Århus with a friend of mine (after letting her torture my hair ;)) It was a great night and something I diffinatly want to repeat.




Seeing Julie Nord exhibit in Aros really left and impression on me and she is now one of my favorite artist and I really hope to see more of her exhibtions in the future.

U2 concert in Horsen. Eventhough I am by no means a U2 fan, I do think they have made a few good songs and since my sister paid my ticket I wasn't about to turn this experience down and an experience it was. They played some great songs and the light show was extraordinary plus it was great to see my sister experience her favorite band live for the first time.

And the baptism of my best friend beautiful baby-girl:

2010 also brought a few tears. My brother left our hometown and moved 180 km to Fanø to live with his girlfriend which is great for him, but has been a bit wierd and hard on me. I am getting use to not having him so close anymore and I am really happy for him.
Other tears 2010 has brought is also in relation with brother. His girlfriend was diagnoised with an in-operable brain tumor and she is now undergoing treatment ( I hope 2011 will be the year she is declaired healthy).

2010 has also made me question myself - who I am and what I want with my life. I realiezed that I am not sure, so I decided to put college on hold for a while untill I figure it out. Which is what 2011 hopefully will be for me - a year of self discovery and soul searching :)

The last thing that has happend to me in 2010 is a good one without a doubt. I have alway loved writting but I had kinda forgotten about that for a few years, but this year I remembered which means I have begun to write poems and short stories again, but it also means I started up this blog.

2011 will bring more writting, but also lots of moments with my friends. So last but not least I wanna wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Talent on display

I have a sister with a great talent, she is able to draw just about everything you put in front. Amazing..

She is able to draw potraits of people as well as animals, and I am very proud of her and a wee bit jealous of this gift of hers, but hey not everyone can have the same talent so I think I'll stick with writting. :)

Anyway this post is dedicated to my sister Mona Frandsen and her art :)

I have chosen a few of her pictures to display for you here. Enjoy:

My sister has been painting and drawing pictures of animals for as long as I can remember and I think that this one is an oldie ;)



This one is an oldie too. My sister drew this one for our aunt, a few years back and it is of my grandparents dog. Dog, aunt and grandparents are sadly all past away now.

This one is of canadien singer/songwriter Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea. She did this one as a gift for me, since he is my fav singer.

This last one is of Mona's own fav singer Bono of U2.

I think my sister is a very talented woaman and I am very proud of her. I hope you'll like her pictures as much as I do.

The magical world of Julie Nord ;D

The first time i discovered this amazing artist was at Aros where her amazing exhibition Xenoglossy was displayed.

Xenoglossy is a term for an occult languagephenomonen where people suddenly in a trancelike state speak a language they have never learn or spoken before.

Julie Nord's paitings varies between black and white pen and ink painting to colorfilled watercolor paintings. Her still is uniqe and brings us into a magical world with cute anima, dolllike girls and flowers to persuade us to move closer only to see the dark shadows lurking in the form of flesheating plants, hybridbeings and skull.

Eventough Julie Nord paintings shows a magical world they also portray the real world and how darkness can be pressent behind the happiest of settings.

This painting shows none of the hybrid beings I talked about but it shows the duality which always exist in her art anyway. The painting looks piecefull when you first see it, but at a closer look you see the grief in the oen of the dogs eyes and the fearfull expression in the other dogs eyes. A fear of the big white void that seems to grow futher and futher into the picture. The girls eyes looks empty and distant aswell and the pot that is tipping over illustrades the surface is about to burst.

Nord often uses this void in her pictures and stands in great contrast to the overwhelming amount of details. The void expresses and emptyness or something that is left unsaid and like in most of ther other pictures are nightcreatures rushing out of the shadows and the flowers the girl is holding are dead and full of skull. The cute animals which drew us closer got the same sad and fearfull expression as the dogs in the painting above.

The duality is also shown in her colorwork, with a little child walking with her carriage on a beautiful summer day, but the doll in the pram tell us another story than what appears to be, a story full of shadow and darkness.

The painting of hybridbeings are another one of Julie Nord's characteristic. The beautiful colors and the absurd being is the constrast in this one, like the sad look in the girls face are a contrast to the light in the ceiling.

This picuture ones again in a real literal sense shows the duality of life. The most life like girl is in the middle of her dark side and her lighter side. To me it illustrutate the two side of one person and the one in the middle shows that noone can see inside us or feel what we are feeling.

A lot of her pictures are a testimony of how a void inside us can scare us and be all consuming, but it is also a way of showing how easy it can be to hide away the darkness and shadows inside within ourself, but nomattter how good we get at hidding them, they'll always be there.

This last painting is one of my favourite ones and I'll leave it and the quote with you without commenting on it. Hope you'll enjoy her art as much as I do :D

"Just before I fell asleep, I dreamt I woke up - lying beside My Self."

A world of art...

I was visting Aros a few weeks back with a friend of mine. Aros is a modern arts museum located in Arhus. I've been there before and everytime I go I find someting new that impresses me. This time 2 special exhibitions really left a mark on me.

The first one was a photo exhibition by Jacob Holst called Holts' America - Hope, belief and love
These are some of my fave shots:

These photos showed the America the artist has experienced throughout the 30 years he lived there. It showed pictures of the how normal it seems to be carrying guns and horrific pictures of how poor some people really are overthere, but it also showed pictures full of compassion, hope and love... Wonderful :D

The other exhibition that really impressed me was by Julie Nord. I'll only show a few pictures of hers since I intent to dedicate a later blog post to her. She really left an impression on me and I'll never forget her name again and her art is now hanging on my wall ;D

Julie Nord is a brilliant artist and I will diffinatly show more of her art in a later blog, where I'll also give my opinion on some of my my fave pictures.

Time for bed ;D Just love this oil painting and it's of one of my fav blogs Paintings in Oil by James Neil Hollingsworth.

"My love like a voice"

Okay I'll be the first to admit I never thought I would like this kind of music, let alone love it as much as I do now. Tell you the truth I discovered this band by pure coincidence.

I usually don't watch David Letterman unless I know an actor I live or a band I love is one, but this day nothing else was on, and I was bored so I watched Letterman... and there they were; The Avett brothers take a lot and be amazed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3H5BhWQij8 .

The song is the title track of their newest album and the next day I rushed to the stores to buy this album .. and the day after that I was off again.. my mom wanted it too ;D

Not sure why this very simple, maybe even a bit stripped down album seem so amazing to me, but there is something about the voices, choice and use of instruments that hits me... and never did I think the banjo could sound this cool!!

There a lots of fantastic songs on this album. January Wedding and Ten Thousand Words are so beautiful and movin. I love the vocal track and the pace of My heart like a kick drum and the changing pace and I'm tempeted to say style of The Perfect Space. Sligt figure of Speech is amazing and has me singing and dancing every time, but the best song on the album to me is still the title track I and love and you.

One of the things this band does best though are the lyrics. Sometimes a line our a phrase just poop when you hear a song and The Avett brothers got louds of these. A verse like this get me every time:

When at first I learned to speak
I used all my words to fight
With him and her and you and me
Oh but it's just a waste of time (from I and love and you)

And this line really touches me too:

I had news to give the wind to keep myself and my heart employed (from Tin Man)

Not only are these brother's incredible musicians they are also great artists.
This album hides 3 portraits of the bandmembers all done by Seth Avett. But must amazing is his oil painting on the cover.

It is called "Julianne in Vain," and I'm not quite sure why i love it, but I do. There is something very empowering about this sad older woman. The skull and the look in her eye and the skull shows strenght while the rest of her seem fragile and lonely enough to break. Amazing :D

I will leave you with this line from an older Avett Brothers song ("Murder in the city" of "The Second Gleam" give it a listen to if you want: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE7rkSELM3I) :

"Always remember there is nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name"

Favours from the sea

A bit frustrated today.... How much easier wouldn't it be if I could just love a Danish band? But No!! The best band in the world have to be from Newfoundland, Canada and even worse... not many other people in Denmark other than me have realized how amazing this band is. I'm talking about Great Big Sea offcourse :D



For the very reason that not many danes have discovered this awesome band I am compelled to order their music online, which i happily do, since I like supporting the band directly, BUT and this is a big but!!!! The mail from Canada is annoyingly inaccurate and my new cd is now two days late (the releasedate was the 13th)!!!



The cover art illustrates the the album title as well as tilte track (listen to it on http://greatbigsea.com/) stunningly well.



This gorgeous oilpanting is done by Grant Boland and is in itself an awesome piece of work.
I love Bolands work. I have lots of his paintings hanging around my appartment and it definitely wont be the last time i mention him or his work.

This paticular painting is called "The breaking of the bonnie lass"

What is amazing about this piece is the blue and golden lighting and how he makes something as sad as the loss of young love and death seem so incrediblely beautiful.

The way he with only a few lines shows the storm that have been roaring at sea is now clearing and the shadow over the young sailors face that illustrates death taken a hold of him.


Another thing I love about this painting is the gaze in the young man's eye. To me it seems as he is still dreaming of home, the shore and the girl he'd leave for the sea, not knowing he is already there. So beautiful. So sad. So heartbreaking.


As much as this drawing touched me, the song Safe upon the Shore, sung with great emotion by Sean McCann, made me cry!!

So my advice to you is look at the painting, listen to the song and prepare to be moved people!!! ;D