Working Away From Home

We just got back from Hawaii this weekend. For three weeks I hung around Honolulu, looking at people, art, traffic and Nature. I took my books and Ipod touch to the beach and just let time pass. I absolutely loved it, and now being back on Guam, I am full of good energy, hoping I can ride on the Hawaii happy wave for at least a while...

I brought my little sketchbook and noted anything I came across and wanted to remember. I have mentioned it before: I thrive on new environments, in new settings. That’s partly the reason each of my studios have had a special significance to me. And it is somewhat refreshing to leave my studio, books, paints, boxes of postcards, and books of magazine cuttings. Just having a notebook and being in a brand new place in the world. It is a way of leaving any (art) baggage at home and starting over. A clean mind sweep so to speak. Being back on Guam is surprisingly great. I am ready to begin again, to start over...

I always bring my little black moleskin notebook. You never know when an idea hit you, a piece of great music, or a book title you want to look up later. My book is a mess of loose notes and quick sketches.

Honolulu Academy Of Arts

Today I went on a little art expedition, all by myself. One I had been looking forward to: the Honolulu Academy of Arts. I took a taxi from the Hotel, although it wasn’t actually very far. I just wanted (at all cost) to avoid getting lost in the city! I didn’t know what to expect. You never do when all the Information you have is an Internet page and a place you have never even heard of.

I was simply looking forward to ART and to the experience. I did not get disappointed. It was an amazing place, and definitely worth a visit. The Gallery did not look that big from the outside, but I quickly found out that it was indeed huge. Many small rooms, and so many kinds of art: Egyptian, Italian Renaissance, Chinese, Islam - just to mention a few. and also modern Western Art - which is my favorite, I have to admit. In the collection were Warhol, Katz, O’Keefe. And also Dale Chihuly, to whom we probably got a bit overexposed while living in Tacoma, where he lives and works too. But it was nice and slightly nostalgic to see his work again. I enjoyed every moment, being surrounded by art, looking at it, taking it in. Sitting on the wood benches in the middle of a room with paintings on each wall, and smelling that special museum scent - of oil, thoughts, dust and varnish. Going through the many little courtyards, flipping through art books in the Museum Store, and eating a great lunch in the Museum Cafe. On a small scale I absolutely got that “MoMA feeing” which I have missed so many times since leaving NJ. So here I am, Tuesday night, writing on my laptop in the fancy Hilton Lobby. Feeling quite happy, enjoying my personal little (art) high and hoping it will last, at least for a while...

Local Hawaiian Art

I was lucky enough to get to go to Hawaii for a few weeks. It came about suddenly, and I am enjoying every moment of it. It is our first time here, and coming straight from Guam, we were expecting the climate to be the same. Wrong! Hawaii is much less humid, the breeze i

s comfortably cool, and NO insects! Very nice indeed. I am spending a lot of time just walking around, watching people, looking at stores, sitting on the beach, reading, listening to the waves and the breeze ...And of course I have visited a few local art galleries as well. I can’t help but stop and check it out - whether I like it or not, and whether I find it interesting or not. I am always curious. And not surprisingly I see a lot of Hawaiian land - and seascapes, flowers and hula girls. Guam is different, yet similar. The heritage naturally is different, yet the nature and flowers seem alike, to me, anyway. So in a lot of ways, the art here reminds me of the island I just left for a few week

s.

Thinking back - where I grew up on the Danish West Coast, it was the same thing: people painted what they were surrounded by. Most of my fellow artist were mainly inspired by the rugged Nature around the Northern Sea. The tall, freezing waves, the violent wind and the rough beaches. A differently beautiful landscape (-and about as opposite to this tropical setting as you can get). Every time I go home to visit, I see the same motifs and the same cool blue color schemes. And over time (perhaps because of not living there anymore) it has become quite nostalgic to me.

I guess it is a natural thing for your surroundings to rub off in your work to a certain extend. I have found that myself, even though all my environments have been extremely different. I think I pick up something from each place, and carry it with me in my work from place to place.

Snapshots from a local art gallery booth in Honolulu