Hipster apple mac cables!

So I got a new obsession!

Over the spring I hardly used my living room. I sat in the glass room/ gallery every night and ignored my cosy sofa completely. So one day I was home alone (my daughter stayed at my mum's), then I walked into the living room and asked myself, what I could do to improve this room. And the first thing that came to my mind, was all the white mac-cables that were just everywhere! And I felt how sick of it I was.
I am a loyal mac-user! All my products are mac, I love them, I really do! But its also just a little too much.. especially when I started to notice the stupid white cables that were just everywhere! So I decided the best thing I could do for my living room, was to do something about that... and now it is a dirty paper project too. And you can buy them from me, overpriced obviously. Its not hard to do at all, its just a little time consuming. So if you can't be bothered yourself, I will do it for you!

More pictures to be uploaded soon!

Visit my Facebook page for more pictures and prices: https://www.facebook.com/dirtypapersocial

Poetry #2

"Fear me" I say
"I am loosing my mind"
You smile
and congratulate me
"It's good so" you say
"I was worried, I couldn't see you"

You are my sunshine...

I have a love-hate relationship with clichés. I love them because they always hold some kind of truth. You will have to wonder why some things are being experienced and said over and over again. It can only be because so many people feel the same thing.

But clichés can also really piss me off. And it is when they are just fired off as the final proof of something, without further thought or consideration. It is so lazy to just fire off a cliché, bordering the ignorant. And I have a bad habit of turning clichés upside down, just out of interest, just to explore. And it can make me really annoying to work with.

For instance, when I worked in interior design, then I would hear this quote over and over again: "white walls makes rooms bigger". And I would actually challenge my colleagues to measure up a room that was white, then paint it a different colour and measure it again. Annoying, I know! But I developed at set of rules for interiors purposes, of where to add colour or wallpaper, in order to make the rooms look even bigger than with white walls, and it worked (thumb rule: add colour to walls that frame the complete layout of a flat/ house/ shop/ space (so no internal walls that separate rooms inside the space), and preferably walls that has no windows or doors. And on those walls, you can go really bold). But before I get too nerdy, then let me explain why…

I like my mind to be challenged. I like my mind to feel provoked. I like to see something that pushes my sense of perception. It tickles the old punk in me and reminds me of my youth, and wakes me from the sleepy state of being middle-aged. And I am grateful for whoever will do that to me. 

Like this interpretation of 'You are my sunshine'. It may not tinkle my peace or help me dwell, but it is performed with such craftsmanship, intelligence and personality that it makes me want to roar. And that is the very juice of life for me! You can see it here for yourself:

-and of course then I can't roar all the time. And sometimes, well most of the time, then I like to hang on my sofa, with candle lights, the sweet smell of incense and a romcom recommended to me by Netflix… I have always been a sucker for diversity too…

The paint bin...

I picked up this beautiful piece of wood from the trash on The Kings Road in London. It had holes drilled into it, to hold tea lights, and that made it a little tacky looking…. but there was something about the wood that I liked. So I grabbed it, not really knowing what I would need it for.

And it has been around a little. First it moved around in the house a little. Then it got stored in the attic. And then I took it to our summerhouse where is was just standing outside, slowly being consumed by nature in true wabi wabi style. But when I moved into the new flat, here in Denmark, then I took it into my studio, where it was standing around: not really that pretty, but also too nice to throw away.

Then my daughter and I started painting, and we were a little too generous with the paint on our palettes. So one day we just started painting the woody thing with left over paint, and took a principal decision to always do so. And so it became our paint bin and a constant changing piece of art, that both of us work on, and great picture of impermanence, changed by circumstances that has nothing to do with it. And so it has become a treasured and interesting piece in our joint lives here. And we love it for it!

Weekend poetry

If Love is all there is
Then you are rich
Your harvest is big
Your crop has been successful
Everytime you blink
With every heartbeat
and breath
Your fortune grows

Wabi sabi

Wabi-sabi is relevant because we are living in a predictable world. It is getting boring. We all know what is going to happen next and what things are going to look like. Pretty much!

If you want to be current and get some attention for yourself, then it would be good if you could be a little bit more unpredictable and surprise your audience. That is if you dare of course!

This is the most famous quote explaining wabi-sabi and it is by Leonard Koren:

"Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.” 

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetics that is so sophisticated and complex that you can hardly get a Japanese friend to explain it to you. When I asked friends in Japan to explain it to me, then they were looking nervously around for assistance from others, and the normally helpful and friendly colleagues would simply turn away and look busy to avoid the conversation. (Which should give me second thoughts writing this I guess).

My knowledge on wabi-sab is hardly touching the surface and all I understand is that it has many layers and so many different interpretations. It is complex and yet I think it is simple and very very beautiful.

The first explanation I had about wabi-sabi from a Japanese friend goes like this:

"Imagine the tea ceremony room. The tea ceremony room has tatami mats and a wall with a couple of shelves for decorative items and a calligraphy with a painting. Now imagine the painting is gone, but you know the painting was supposed to be there. Your mind can't help imagining the painting even though it is gone. That is wabi-sabi."


WABI-SABI AND DESIGN
When designing wabi-sabi-style then you wont have a technical drawing or even a sketch, but you will be working from pure skill and experience. You will just have the idea of making something, lets say a bowl. You will make the shape of the bowl, not so much to look exactly as the one you made before. It will be similar for sure but the differences will be obvious, because you let yourself be guided by the moment in time and the immediate circumstances.

Maybe your cup will sink to one side while you are leaving it to dry and you will appreciate this flaw as beautiful.

When the tea cup is ready to be glazed then you will look closely at the shape of the cup and make what looks like accidental splatter, not a motif, not a colour, not a pattern. Just what you think this cup invited you to do. Every cup will be different from the other, representing their own beauty and always challenging the mind to explore and look closer.

WABI SABI AND UP-CYCLING
In wabi-sabi it has also been a long tradition to re-use things and make them into something else. One famous example is the tatami floors, an original wabi-sabi design. Tatami matts are made from the otherwise useless left over straw from rice. But if you take the time to stitch the straws together and finish the edges with fabric then you will find your self with a beautiful tatami matt. A worthless material has become something precious.

In wabi-sabi you will also find that doors becomes tables and fishing traps that becomes lamp shades. Wabi-sabi allows you to look at every object with an unlimited mind so you can see something new every time you look. 


WABI-SABI AND NATURE
Wabi-sabi lovers also loves watching nature changing things and adding patina. Like rust on iron, moss growing on stone, water shaping wood and so on. Nothing can stay here forever and the process of 'disintegrantion' is beautiful to watch. 


WABI-SABI AND CREATIVITY
I think that wabi-sabi is such an exciting way to twist things when we want to challenge our mind and creativity. In wabi-sabi there is always room for interpretation, you could even say that nothing is wabi-sabi until your own mind has added to the design through your imagination.

This is so far from the conceptual thinking we have been trained to do over the past 10-15 years. We have taught ourselves that there must be no room left for interpretation when we communicate a concept or a brand. Customers must understand what we want them to understand. And where it is true that a well defined concept makes it easier to handle communication on all levels then maybe time has moved on and away from this predictable and structured way of thinking. Maybe we have simply been trained too well as customers. And maybe it is time for any concept to ask these questions; Are we predictable? Are we boring? Have we become plain lazy? Is there a danger of us becoming old fashioned?


MODERN WABI-SABI
So where do you see wabi-sabi used today? The most obvious place to look is in the bread market stall where each bread looks different as opposed to the bread you find in the supermarket. Isn't part of the appeal of breads in the market stall that they look different?

The shop Anthropologie is great example for a more conceptual integration of wabi sabi. They use antique display units they do up for each individual shop, making for an interesting and personal shopping experience. It is one of the most interesting shop concepts around in the moment.

But also, if you visit a website where the website suddenly does something you would not expect it to do. Something surprising, something that engage you, then it could be wabi-sabi inspired. It could be a little cute bug that starts crawling across the page, without motivation from the user. Or like this website that invites you to have a little play with the menu on this website. You will probably be inspired to make a little tune, something that you will never be able to hear again, but never the less you will have a beautiful little moment. An impermanent moment.

It is worth noting that wabi-sabi hardly comes cheap. Wabi-sabi will always add to the value of any product, because it is unique and considered. When Anthropologie does up old furniture for their display, then it is not saving them money on the design. They do it because it appeals to their customer.

Wabi-sabi moves you because it engages you. The un-expected is attractive because we live in a predictable world. The exclusive event is important because it makes us feel special.

If you want to read more about wabi-sabi then I suggest this beautiful and easy to understand book by Leonard Koren, called "wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers", you can see it and order it by clicking here.

Then the music came...

Around the same time as I started messing around with the tusch, then I also got introduced to some music, and I may introduce you to that later on. And with that, then it was as if my desire to paint just exploded! I felt so inspired and happy.

So one night I grabbed a piece of watercolour paper and clipped it on to my easel, and just started to drip the tusch onto that. I watched the drops as they drew the incredible black lines down the paper and I got butterflies in my stomach. It was just an incredible process and so simple. Very, very, very wabi sabi!

I facebook'ed a lot that night and got some amazing feedback too on the pictures of the process, and I just felt that I could go on for days, doing just this…

And here is the picture, I'm going to make more of these. And you can buy it if you like (only 650ddk)! Its really, really cheap!

Where THIS actually started for real….

I turned 40 6 weeks after moving back to Denmark after 11 years in London. And arranging a party was the last thing on my mind. I was so busy setting up the flat!

But then I panicked last minute and thought that I can't just sit on my own on my birthday, so I quickly booked a restaurant, and started ringing people to hear if they would come. I got about 25 people together which was just perfect!

Then my guests of course also started asking what I wished for, and I couldn't really think of anything! But then it hit me that I should ask for "stuff for painting". And Oh My God, I got a lot of stuff! I also got some vouchers, for a really nice local art shop, so I went down for a snoop, and grabbed some random stuff. One of them was a bottle of tusch, and I had no idea what I was going to do with that.

But then soon after, I just opened the bottle and started dripping it on to a canvas, and I got so excited. I just absolutely LOVED the way the tusch drew big fat lines on the surface as it made it self its way down, dragged by gravity. It is making one hell of a mess, but who cares! I added a bit of white acrylics to before i started dripping on the paint, which makes the tusch behave a little different. God it was fun!

And here is the first attack with tusch, its hanging in my living room now.

How the obsession started...