Watching the kozo fibers floating in water is pure magic. Pouring bucket after bucket of the mix in paper frames is a luxury, knowing the process behind. In their own fields Awagami Factory are growing mulberry trees, and harvesting their own kozo during winter months. Only the inner bark is being used for paper, and the process from cutting the …
Paper Art for Public Commissions
POWER is the title of the latest IAPMA bulletin for 20202/2021. IAPMA connects paper artists from all over the world, opening up for hands on information through the bulletin, which naturally is made of paper, including special paper samples. (See more about the member organisation further below in this post ). Reading other member´s articles about their experiences with the …
RESIDENCIES and workshops 2013-2020
Making art is the process of leaving something behind, to search for new knowledge, other ways of seeing, and challenges offering insecurity. Or frustration. Patterns of behavior are broken, and you find yourself in a limbo. Or at least that is how it works for me. And it works. One week at Awagami is worth a month at home, if …
I AM THE CROW
Artworks from my last visit to Awagami factory March 2020 I am the crow. I have been circling around for days. Under me I see Mother Earth. She is constantly changing. Areas covered with fog are now shining under me in vibrant colours. She looks confident on a distance, but when I go closer to get a rest in …
BREATHING IN AND OUT
It has been a while…and a lot of good things have happened. Like March 2018, I spent March 2019 at Awagami Factory, Japan, exploring the world of pulp painting. I will have to come back to that. Too much to include in one post. Back in my studio in Bergen, I picked up the printmaking tread. Full workout with pulp …
Interlude, between adventures
I am looking out of the window, and there are my tables, all empty. Last night I cleaned up my outdoors paper studio. Since June I have been working there, almost every day, seven days a week. It has been a flow, and I have been totally focused. We also had a really hot summer, and staying under the roof, …
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
Not my words! It is Picasso´s. This is what it is all about. Working consistently. Staying in the process, keeping the flow alive. Knock knock!!! Someone is on the door. It is Inspiration coming to visit. You better be prepared! According to my plan I would change approach, starting out from black, moving towards the light. Till now the …
I love factories – and Awagami Factory is no exception.
Days float like a river, sometimes calm and clear, and sometimes unpredictable. It is all about water. Pulp floating in water, linking together, making shiny, wet canvases to work in and on. Every day there is only one question, “what if I try….” No normal, daily life with all the disturbances. I enjoy the life in the factory, working side …
Questioning the pulp – reaching for the stars
As I did not understand the dialogue between the employees, or being able to talk much with them, I was having a kind of inner dialogue with myself, about clouds on the sky, wondering how it would work out to actually catch one of them, or freeze the blue sky and keep it for rainy days. Takuma Abe is the …
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