London!

Mattias was invited to speak at ELCAF, East London Comics and Arts Festival, and the rest of us tagged along, Rosa, Olivia and Olivias friend Julia. Also Jens, Mattias' publisher/graphic designer, joined us for a couple of days. We all stayed in this fabulous former-church-now-apartements in Camden. We found it via Airbnb, great if you want to rent an apartement on your vacation instead of staying at a hotel.  

 

 

View of the nice pub across the street from Olivia's and Julias' bedroom

 

 

Walking to Camden Lock Market

Mattias sold and signed his books Second in Line and the newest one Larger than Line at the festival. Both books sold out! So he didn't have to lug 25 kg of books back home again...  Larger than Line was fresh from the printer (Jens brought them with him, Mattias hadn't seen them yet).

Shopping and eating

Fish and chips

Chipotle (Mattias is one the illustraters for their bags, but apparently only the American ones, not the British).

 

Rosa and I tried a cyber sushi restaurant, but it was so complicated, cold inside and expensive, we ended up leaving... 

 

Desserts at Belgos!

Museums

Grants museum of Zoology

 

Victoria & Albert, the Fashion exhibition, I especially liked the shoes

A paper dress from the 60's

Tate Britain. Here we saw one of the most inspiring exhibitions ever: British Folk Art. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photographs of that exhibition. Phyllida Barlow was also amazing, her monumental pieces very impressive.

 

Next was Tate Modern. We took the boat there from Tate Britain - nice view from the water. Louise Bourgois' sculptures are fascinating, I didn't know of her prints and textiles. There was a whole exhibition with drawings, prints, textile collages and paintings. Wonderful!

One evening we dropped the girls off at the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Mattias and I ended up at Covent Garden, sipping bubbly wine and listening to a quartet play live classical music. Both parties were very satisfied with their evenings.

 

The full moon shone into our apartement. Felt like a huge eye watching over us. 

Ah, London, can't wait to go there again...

 

sweet little things

My birthday was celebrated last Monday, and as always I'm greeted at breakfast with a card from Mattias. And he also knows exactly what I want for my birthday!

In the evening we brought the girls and my mother to a Persian restaurant of my choosing, Shahrzad in Stockholm were we had a lovely - and extremely generous - dinner. Sadly we didn't have room for dessert... Must go again. Wonderfully attentive service, I highly recommend it! Asta did not come along, but I had to post her here, since she is also a sweet little thing :)

I was not aware that it was chocolate ball's Day last Sunday. Luckily Olivia was better informed and made exquisite chocolate balls for us all. Apparently there is a day for cheese and muffins (yes both on the same day) on May 27th. Hm!

What a thriller!

I have been quiet here on the blog for a few months. This depends on different reasons, one of which is due to the following.

In November (2013) I was selected by the Stockholm County Council Cultural Administration to do a parallel sketch assignment for a public art commission for New Karolinska Solna, NKS, Swedens largest-to-be and state-of-the-art hospital that is under construction. We were two artists competing to make an "artistic sculptural creation in relation to seating groups in the main entrance" of the hospital.

Three months later, after many hours spent thinking, mulling over ideas, then searching the internet for all kinds of different suppliers, having to think every tiny little detail through, and lastly spending a comparatively small amount of time making an example of an object in the correct size and a model of the artworks placed in the room. I was extremely relieved when I left my project for assessment, satisfied that I had made it on time, proud with what I had accomplished. Also because things have been a bit out of the ordinary at home these last months.

Then followed a few days of tense waiting. This happened to be during Easter break, so we, Mattias and I decided to go with our oldest daughter Olivia on a minicruise over one night to Åland, just to to get out of the house and think of something completely different. Our youngest, Rosa, was away visiting a friend. We had a lovely 24 hour mini vacation, the sun shone from a clear blue sky, the sea was ever so calm, we ate well and had a happy time together. 

The morning after, while having breakfast on the boat,  I got the call - saying that I got the assignment! I am so happy and thrilled and looking forward to working on this project for the next 2,5 years!