Untitled

I've been thinking about doing a picture like this one for some time now, and when I got started it didn't take me more than a couple of hours to finish. The result isn't exactly what I had in mind, as I wanted the shell to mutate into an old smiling man with a beard and not a screaming woman, but I guess it's close enough.

The inspiration for this picture I got partly from a dream (a really weird one!) and partly from some equally weird new age video that I watched by accident on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oSePXRbW9o). The video itself is kind of wacky until about 3 minutes into it, but I guess it's worth a look ( if you're as spaced out as I am you might even enjoy it!).

So, what am I trying to express with this screaming woman/seashell? Well, I actually wanted to make a picture that would make people smile - I wanted it to express joy and a feeling of unity with nature (or something equally cheesy), and not weirdness and agony as it does now. But sadly I still seem to be quite uncapable of doing any such thing.

As a sidenote I'd like to mention that I've become quite interseted in Throatsining lateley (especially throatsinging from Tuva), which may also have been something of an inspiration for this picture. Here are some of the songs I listened to while making it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLF7Fl4SXh8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNAKH4KdRY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYqrWRiS204
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAd9UhhS61E
Enjoy!

EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL (another picture for my mother and her husband)

I've been thinking a lot about life lately.
I've been thinking about us humans, about my friends and my family, about our surroundings, about other animals and about nature.
I've also been thinking of how much I take these things for granted, and this has resulted in some kind of mushy sentiment that I can't seem to shake. And I don't want to shake it either.
I somehow feel like everything is beautiful, and that everything always has been beautiful and always will be beautiful. Even ugly, scary or disgusting things like war, violence, shit, intestines, dogs, hate, love, horses, vaginas and Christmas trees seem beautiful to me these days, and it's confusing me. Even scaring me sometimes.
Everything seems so very complex, yet delicate and simple.
Anyhow, I guess I wanted to make a picture that reflects just a fraction of these thoughts, of this state of mind that I'm currently in. And I also wanted to make a picture for my mother and her husband, because they always tried to tell me that the world was exactly this beautiful place that I've just recently realized it to be. I mean, every time I've been depressed or felt like things were unfair or sometimes outright unbearable, they've always been there for me. And for the first time since I was a child I can really see it again. And that's just amazing.

Here's the pictures I used to make this one. They were found with googles image search engine. I have not made/taken them and do not own the rights to them.

Animal Collective T-shirt

I've personally had some strangely profound moments listening to Animal Collective; they somehow put me in an almost meditative state of mind - and some of these moments may be the most precious I've experienced (and probably ever will experience).
It took me awhile to realize how special this band really was, but it was worth the wait. In a way, and I mean a really positive way, they changed my life.
And that's why I'm not so sure about this picture actually. I kind of hate it, and I kind of like it. I hate it, probably because it can't possibly be as good as what it's supposed to represent, and I like it because it's not really a bad picture at all.
I started on it a while back as a hand made pencil drawing (the first picture below is a colored version of this drawing, and below it is the black and white original), but when the "character" was finished I got scared I might ruin it with a background and decided to do the rest on my computer. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not, but it's not like I can change it as the original is somewhat damaged now.
Anyhow, when I had finished coloring it I tried to make a cool background, but it didn't work. So I asked my brothers girlfriend what she thought about it and she said it would look really cool as a t-shirt. This got me thinking, and soon afterwards I made the picture that I've posted above. I guess one day I'll make a new picture for animal collective that I'm more happy with, but for now this will do.