Pictures for sale @ Urban Artroom 1209!

10 of my pictures will for an unspecified period of time be available for sale as signed  large limited edition high quality prints at a local gallery called Urban Artroom 1209. At a low cost as well. http://shop.textalk.se/se/artgrp.php?id=30937&grp=1705683

Salvia Divinorum with Justin Bieber

So, finally, I'm done with the fourth picture featuring Justin Bieber on drugs. And it is a detailed and weird one at that. A really special one too, because Salvia Divinorum (or Salvorin A and B) was the substance that got me into this mess, as it was while reading on online forums about smoking salvia and listening to the song "U Smile" slowed down 800% that I got the idea of linking Justin Bieber with drugs and started on the series.  The weird thing though, is that all of my pictures are more compatible with the music of Animal Collective, even though I specifically had this song ("U Smile" slowed down 800%) in mind the entire time. But I guess that's not a bad thing, since they're my favourite band. 

Anyhow, the effects of Salvia Divinorum are described as reality melting into waves, flowing all through the environment you're in and washing into your body and mind. You will also feel like you're a part of your surroundings, that you're not like a separete induvudal anymore but one with the room you're in, the city, the country, the earth itself. Everything is a part of you and you are a part of everything. At high doses it's said that you can experience merging with the whole universe and, for a second, understand "everything" (whatever that means). It's also described as having a comicbook like effect on your vision, and some experience the world as monochrome while under the influence of this plant (this monochrome business I chose to ignore, since the picture wouldn't fit in with the others in the series if I hadn't). 

The plant itself is kind of curious. It's a feeble-looking thing that can't reproduce itself, since it's seeds are infertile, and it has to be propagated through cuttlings. It rarely flowers, and has an integrated defect that makes the leaves form black patches of dead matter all over no matter how good conditions it grows in. The only reason it's still living today is because of human cultivation; if the Mayans had not found out about it's "divine" effects when smoked and started growing it, it would have died out over a thousand years ago.

As I just finished this picture I'm not so sure about it yet. I haven't placed it among the others to see if it fits in, (I mean the colors are quite different from the other Justin-pictures), and it has some kind of elf-like fantasy quality that I'm not sure I appreciate. But I guess it is as it always is when I make pictures - I start with an idea, and then I back off and let the picture paint itself. Ultimately, this is how the picture wanted me to do it, and I guess I just have to accept that.

One noteworthy thing in the picture, and something I'm kinda proud of, is the amount of detail I put in on mr. Bibers haircut (this is only visible when viewed in the large version of the picture you can view by clicking on the picture once, then right clicking on the enlarged picture and choose "show picture").

Finally I should probably mention is the purpose of the picture (or any of the other pictures in this series), which is something that's kinda hard to explain. I did not make this to get kids into drugs or anything like that. I'm not for or against the use of hallucinogens, but I find the concept interesting. The thing I would like my pictures to promote is self exploration. If you can feel like you're one with the universe, wouldn't you like to do so? And shouldn't there be a way of feeling this without the use of any substances?
I think so. Or at least I really hope so. I believe everything is beautiful, not good or bad as we commonly put it, but more like the way you feel while reading a good book, watching a great movie or looking at a well made picture. It may horrify you, make you sad, make you happy or whatever, but that's beside the point. The point is that it actually makes you think or feel, and that's really all you have to do. That is why life is so beautiful.

Here's the song that inspired it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspuCt1FM9M

Some interseting reading on Salvia Divinorum:
http://pearlsofwar.blogspot.com/2010/11/salvia-bardo.html
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Salvia_divinorum.shtml

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.

Cannabis with Justin Bieber

In English:
Cannabis is probably the most common drug I've tried to get some inspiration from for my psychedelic picture series, but strangely one of the pictures I've had most trouble finishing. Maybe because the drug itself inspires more laughable and less serious associations, and often is depicted as something that only makes you more or less stupid; maybe because the cartoonish pictures of people under the influence of this drug are so many, and that makes it a lot harder to do something original yourself. On the other hand I'm not making these pictures because I want to do something new or try to be original, but because these are pictures I would like to have hanging on my own walls. I hope the humor of this latest project hasn't taken over too much, though. My intentions are not to make over the top cartoonish parodies of drug addicts (such as poor mr Bieber), but it isn't to do difficult and serious art either.

If you blow up this picture to it's original size by right clicking on it and selecting "show in new tab", please note the small faces on the slices of sausage that covers the pizza-sun. Another thing you should notice is the wrong proportions of the right arm - which of course is something I did intentionally.

I am especially happy with the effect of the three mouths, somehow making it hard for your eyes to focus. Beyond that there isn't much I can think of to say about this particular picture. Justin Bieber continues to be a cool dude who likes drugs, and I hope I haven't completely run out of ideas when I'll get on to my next picture, which I think will be an interpretation of what happens when you do psilocybine/psilocine (magic mushrooms).

På Svenska:
Cannabis är nog den vanligaste av de droger jag hämtat inspiration från i min psykedeliska bildserie, men var konstigt nog den svåraste hittills att få klart. Kanske därför att det finns så mycket klichéer kring vad som förväntas av ett THC-rus att det inte riktigt kändes nyskapande att göra den här bilden. Men å andra sidan gör jag inte de här bilderna för att de ska vara nyskapande, utan för att det är bilder jag själv skulle vilja ha hängande i mitt rum. Jag hoppas dock att humorn i mitt senaste projekt inte tagit över för mycket. Min avsikt är verkligen inte att göra pompösa skämtteckningar, samtidigt som det kanske inte heller är att göra överdrivet svår och seriös konst.

Notera gärna alla de små ansiktena som pryder korvskivorna på pizzasolen, och det faktum att högerhanden som håller hamburgaren är helt ur proportion - vilket såklart är medvetet.

Speciellt nöjd blev jag med de tre munnarna som nästan får det att klia i ögonen på en (eller i alla fall på mig). Annars finns det inte så mycket att säga om den här bilden. Justin Bieber fortsätter vara en skön snubbe som knarkar och jag hoppas att jag inte har fått helt slut på idéer när jag ska börja med nästa bild, vilken jag tror kommer bli en psilocybininspirerad sak.

Mescaline with Justin Bieber

In English:
So, this is the second picture in my postercampain for psychadelic drugs! And by now I have decided to feature our beloved Justin Bieber in every one of these pictures, which may prove quite difficult as he seems to be posing the same way on every picture you can find on Google. Anyway, the drug this poster is supposed to symbolize is mescaline, a fenetylamine that naturally occurs in different types of cacti, of which the most famous would probably be peyote. Due to this I chose to replace the top of Justins head with one of these cacti, and as peyote (as well as most other kind of succulents and cacti) grows in the desert, I chose the desert as the pictures setting.

Other things I've read about this drug is that it alters your perception of time - a minute might seem like eternity, an hour may pass in the blink of an eye. This I try to represent by making mr Biebers right eye look old and blind, while the other still looks young, though somewhat fucked up. Other common effects of the drug is nausea, visual hallucinations (living objects, like plants, apparently seem very strange while high on this substance, and to some people extraordinarily beautiful), "magic" patterns, etc, which inspired some of the background, and the smaller Justin, throwing up a flower.


På Svenska:
Så var jag klar med den andra bilden i mitt affischkampanj för psykedeliska droger! Har nu bestämt mig för att ha med vår käre Justin i alla dessa bilder, vilket kanske kommer bli svårt då han poserar ungefär likadant på varenda jävla bild. Hur som helst är drogen som bilden ska representera meskalin, som är en psykoaktiv fenetylamin som naturligt uppstår i olika typer av kaktusar, varav den mest kända borde vara peyote-kaktusen. Denna kaktus valde jag alltså att använda som toppen av Justins huvud, och då den växer i öknen använde jag mig av just öknen som setting.
Andra saker jag läst om drogen är att den gör det svårt för en att uppfatta tid, att en minut kan kännas som en evighet och att en timme kan flyta förbi på ett ögonblick. Detta försökte jag representera genom att låta Biebers ena öga se gammalt och rynkigt ut, medan det andra ser ungt men något vridet ut. en annan av drogens effekter är tydligen också att man ska se skönhet i växter och liknande under ett meskalinrus, samt må illa, så då tyckte jag att det passade bra med en extra Bieber i bakgrunden som kräktes ut en blomma. 
Gamen som cirkulerar i vänstra toppen av bilden lade jag mest till för att fylla ut bilden, men kan väl även symbolisera rädsla, som man säkert kan känna stundvis under inflytandet av en såpass stark drog.

ENG: Here's some of the pictures I used:
SV: Här är ett par av bilderna jag använt mig av:

ENG: The clouds in this picture are taken from:
SV: Molnen i bilden är tagna från:
http://cloudery.wordpress.com/gallery-two-large-works/untitled_lw2_rgb/