My Artwork: Healing (2008)

These are not for the very faint hearted... I've tried to access feelings from the past that are still bothering me, so that hopefully I can finally be free... I am also mirroring issues that I sense in the collective right now. These handmade collages are all from the month of April-May 2008.. N.B that these are copyrighted, in other words you cannot use them without my permission :-). In the following some explanations regarding some of the images.

Me, Myself and I

Collage on paper 32x56cm. Hopefully healing towards a greater integration and a  sense of wholeness. In the middle a drawing by me in a Pippi Longstocking's picture book from 1970, above which are printed instructions in the original language: "This is where you can draw a picture of Pippi's suitcase full of gold money. And maybe also the thieves who want to come and take them. Or something else that you find exciting." However, the picture of Pippi is one of a sad Pippi. I was about 4 years old and of course I didn't understand the text, but nonetheless I found an interesting conflicting value or idea in the concept of this drawing, typical of my sense of paradoxes I might say.... Best viewed large... (copyright V-M C 2008)

 Innocence Revisited (Reclaiming What I Never Had)

Handmade collage on paper 21x30cm (copyright V-M C 2008). This collage expresses a look back to the time as a child when I would have liked to be 'the little princess' as girls often do... I am hoping to nurture my inner child and maybe reclaim my childhood in some sense. But it's also an excuse to indulge in opulence!

House of Cards

Collage on paper 40x40 (copyright V-M C 2008) Collage on paper 41x41 cm. As I found an old book with Pippi Longstocking pictures and space for drawings of your own, I thought some of the drawings were quite odd. The house that I placed in the middle of the picture seemed to resemble a house of cards. That lead me to think about how we 'build houses of cards', illusions that easily break down. This leads to feelings of great disappointment. Of course, some of them we can't help, especially when many sad things happen to us as children. In this piece I am trying to access the wounds that have come about from not having any help from adults to deal with my inner life as a child, and how I was always in for disappointments about life and expected the worst to happen. It also shows how I was trying to be a parent to my troubled parents. All these are also spiritual challenges, which the pack of tarot cards denote. 

Brave New World!

Collage and mixed media on paper 24x31 cm. This is a mix of feelings regarding the promise of a better day while the process can sometimes be slow and painful. This is a rescanned version, in two parts so I was able to include all the details to the sides! (copyright V-M C 2008)

 The Precarious Art of Balance - At a Knive's Edge

Handmade collage on paper 23x30 cm (copyright V-M C 2008) It is not easy to stay balanced on all levels of one's being, and centered in life situations that appear chaotic and emotionally overwhelming...

The Mystery Of The Feminine

Collage on paper 21x31 cm. In the background, employment for women in Sweden 1942 in a women's magazine - mostly maids of all sorts... E.g "ensam jungfru" means "´lonely virgin", an old way of indicating an unmarried woman who needs employment. "Troende flicka" means "Christian Girl". "Obemärkt flicka" means 'Unnoticable girl" and"Frisk flicka" means 'Healthy Girl". Femininity symbolises fertility but also death and rebirth... What will the true emancipation of women be like...? I feel women are well equipped to help dig out the skeletons from the closets ;-). When will women be considered whole people and not cut to form to fit a social agenda?(copyright V-M C 2008)