Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Artist statement - In spite of the sunshine

In spite of the sunshine and the smiles of the children, men dropped bombs.

About studies and themes of works:

I studied in art academies in France and Sweden and have both
studied and worked on various trips to India, Mexico, Greece, Spain, USA, France,
Uganda, Benin and several other places. Some of these working trips have been of great importance for the development of my work.

I work with paintings, lithographies, drawings, and murals in concrete or with other materials in a manner that would be called expressive-abstract. My work has often reminded people of the Icelandic nature but I know that even if its roots are in the Westman Islands with the rocky shores and the struggle with the Atlantic Ocean all around and the brushstrokes are somehow influenced by that, the different aspects of life with the variety of human culture and nature and the life and struggle of life in other corners of the Earth is also among its sources.

The wonders of creation, the restlessness, the power, and the struggle in nature and the interactions between man and nature are among the things I find myself compelled to depict. In fact, my work is no less a universal metaphor for human life on Earth.
Travels to distant corners of the world have had a great impact on me and served as reminders of how opposites in nature and culture belong, after all, to the same natural laws that hold everywhere on Earth. We are in fact all parts of the same creation which we ought to respect.

The paintings I am working on now are much influenced by my travels in recent years, such as to Mexico, Lebanon and Africa. Things happening in this world which can be so beautiful are constantly pressing on my mind.

The mixture of being like and unlike is an important component in all relations between humans, such as when enjoying culture and art, and in feeling friendship and love.

How have we humans come to divide humans on Earth into “we” and “other” and not respecting the rights of others?