I am the mother. I have a daughter of 13 and a son of 11. I am a teacher and have classes with children and young people at my studio. I am an entrepreneur or initiator that gets energy from being with other people and loves to organize parties and other social events - and participate in the same.
When- and where were you born? Where did you grow up - and where have you lived?
I was born in 1972 in Aarhus/Denmark, and I grew up there. I spend a few years in Holstebro/Denmark, while I attended high school. After graduation I took spend half a year in East Africa, three months in Russia and a half a year at Langeland Art School before I moved back to Aarhus and began to study art history.
How did you become an artist?
It took me a while to figure out how to use the word “artist” about myself, because I didn’t do Art College, but took an academic education instead. I have always had a fundamental desire to create and translate thoughts and impressions into pictures, but I had not imagined that I was going to end up as an independent artist and make a livelihood out of one of my favorite pastimes. As I studied, I read a lot and only painted very little. I missed painting, so after graduating, I took a leave and spend half a year at Aarhus Art High School - and during that time I became aware of the scaffold as a motif.
After a subsidiary subject in Russian and a thesis, which developed alongside a pregnancy and therefore was followed by a maternity period, I resumed painting. A private construction project, which was to join two apartments together, launched the process by revealing some exciting designs. As an example, I found some motifs in a crack between the boards in a wall, with straw and spiky lines - and for a period, I could use the dismantled kitchen in the apartment as my studio. Suddenly I was not so busy trying to find a job. Creating images was - in retrospect - what made me happy. From the pictures of our own construction mess, I returned to the building site design, from where I had found inspiration while I went to art school. Little by little painting even began giving some money and spread joy to others than myself. I became aware of an obvious customer group - written in big bold letters on the construction site banners: The developer, the architect, the builder, the scaffolding company, the construction worker firms - and the building's future tenants or owners. When I found a studio with an exhibition space, new orders began dropping in, and I also began painting portraits.
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Where do you find your inspiration and motivation?
I find inspiration where I am, in everyday life, in the city's aesthetics, variability and contrasts. A good conversation may also be very inspiring.
I have learned that my ideas and creativity flourishes within a well-defined framework such as the portrait or changes in the city structure - or stair designs, which I have studied recently.
It is very rewarding to delight someone with an image or to work with a specific task for to a particular place or a particular customer - and translating idea into images.
How would you describe your style?
I paint figuratively, but some subjects are close to abstract. My pictures are graphic, raw or sketchy by not being completed in every detail, but still show clear brush strokes and hints of underpaint. The expression must be related to the design of something that is on its way somewhere.
How have you been using artmoney? Do you have any suggestions on how other artists make the most of making artmoney?
I have used artmoney as gifts, as a cheap alternative to my large paintings in exhibitions and art associations, as "calling cards" on artmoney exhibitions here in Copenhagen/Denmark and Berlin/Germany. They have also been useful as a form of payment. I could pay 50% of an exhibition stand with artmoney and I can only recommend others to use the alternative currency in many different ways.
I use own photographs as a basis for my acrylic paintings, but when I do artmoney, I use photographs more directly, by putting them together into small collages and combine them with fragments from the city's billboards and own lines.
When you are not "artist," who are you?
I am the mother. I have a daughter of 13 and a son of 11.
I am a teacher and have classes with children and young people at my studio.
I am an entrepreneur or initiator that gets energy from being with other people and loves to organize parties and other social events - and participate in the same.
I am engaged in different boards. I am president of a chamber choir that I have been a member of since 2001 - and I love to sing.
My choice of motifs also tells indirectly about who I am. Why am I so crazy about motives of changes in the city and the building processes? Because I feel that the unfinished and ongoing should be valued and deserves attention. You do not need to hurry to get from A to B, as you might miss something important on the road, in the process ... Mess, chaos and destruction can accommodate beauty and renewal. Transformation in process unites opposites like old and new, order and chaos, then and now, and I like the composite and complexity in the motives and in everything. I am”” not either or”, but “both and”. I am often undecided. I always consider the pros and cons, back and forth when I need to take both small and large decisions. Therefore, the path or the decision-making often is longer for me than for others. It is not easy for me to say NO, because I would like to embrace it all. I could have taken a more direct route here, where I am now, but think of what I would have missed: Before I decided that I wanted to study art history and Russian, I travelled half a year to East Africa, I tested my skills as a teacher, I improved my Russian skills in Vladimir, and finally I tried out different artistic expressions/media on Langeland Art School. Had I known that I would end as an artist, it would have been more obvious to attend the Art College, but then I would have missed an exciting university education - and I had not met my husband - and then we had not had our children ...
What are your personal hopes and dreams?
I hope for new exciting projects, exhibition projects and collaborations, more customers in the store and that I can continue to teach and share the joy of creating.
What are your dreams and desires for the world we live in?
I wish that all would put on the glasses which see not only things from their own perspective and that all were open to fellow human beings and new opportunities. I would hope that fanaticism disappeared, and that the goods were more evenly divided - and a lot of other things.