Hilde Kramer - on visual communication, picture books and my own choices as an illustrator

Frida - Im blauen Haus meines Herzens

2011-09-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

Leonarda is living in Mexico City. Her sister Eva is seriously ill in hospital, and Leonarda feels responsible for her accident. One day she joins her mother to the blue house where the mother has a job as a cleaning woman, she opens a door where a woman with burning dark eyes looks at her from a bed surrounded by paper mache skelletons and strange paintings. Her name is Frida, and a strange friendship is about to begin...

Bjørn Sortland and I are happy to have our book Det hjertet husker, a fictional story about the fascinating Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo published by Benteli Verlag, Swiss publishing house.

Link to buy the book in German

This autumn I travel to schools nearby Oslo to talk about the process of making the book and demonstrate how I use Frida Kahlos own paintings as a reference in my own digital illustrations.

The Hare and the Indian

2011-02-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

Book cover for Med kråkenebb og kråkeføter( (Directly translated Crow Beak and Crows Feet) - a book about birds and other creatures

What I particularly liked in Per Olav Kaldestad's poems , is how he never tries to impose human attributes to animals. Yet he may give you the feeling of presense of both an animal and a person/child in a poem that stages the spring forests of childhood.

Twice in the book we meet the hare, first in the spring poem April: (My roughand brutal translation, please forgive me, P.O.)

Will you join me to the woods?

Maybe the hare

has changed its color?

Maybe an Indian

still is searching for a good place

to camp for the summer?

First photo collage as a basis for illustration to the poem April.

The poem made me remember childhood games in the woods. The smell of the forest floor steaming from melting snow, the almost metallic smell of soil and anemones of the green and white carpet between the bare tree trunks. The hare that may not have had time to change its fur to a summer suit if the snow has melted abruptly.

I put together a photographic collage as a starting point and began to work on the subject.

First version in Illustrator of the poem April

In this first version, I have not yet freed me from the photo. But since I knew I wanted the book less naturalistic, I decided to wait before I accepted this as the final version. Here you see the hare even in the winter, sweltering in the forest because it is all too conscious of their distinct color.

Then I remembered that I had a great textured sheet of wrapping paper. Here the white pattern could serve as representation for the flowers as well as the eye of the hare.

I returned to the forests of childhood. The feeling of absolute seriousness of the game; being Indians and cowboys in a fight for life and death.

Trying not to breathe to remain undiscovered by the enemy.

My heart hammering.

Recalled the smell of gunpowder patches, leather sheath dangling outside turned up denim jeans, brand 'Ola'. Or yellow-green, shining willow twigs and homemade bow ("It is not allowed to point or shoot at someone").

My tennis shoes turned into to soft moccasins while creeping up between the trunks of trees. A rubber band with feathers around the head.

Feathers?

Do they not resemble the ears of the hare pointing them stiffly forward in listening posture?

Indian Hare? Yes!

Thus the poem about the hare, April illustrated in the final version.

The other bunny must wait another day. Let the work day begin!

Awareness and drawing

2010-09-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

Pupil's study of a foot

Working as a drawing teacher on the side of my work as an illustrator is a valuable experience that widens my understanding of visual communication, and the possibilities that lies within creativity. For people who do not draw themselves, drawing may seem to be a mystical activity that requires a special talent.

It is my experience that any person may develop their skills in drawing, using a set of methods. Some of them are described below in this blog post.

I highly recommend two books: Drawing on the right side of the brain, by Betty Edwards, and The Natural Way to Draw, by Kimon Nicolaïdes.

But I find inspiration in other areas, far from art teaching. Recent developments in neuroscience and stress reduction has caught my attention.

The Norwegian /Danish covers of the two books mentioned above.

What kind of people have a talent for drawing?

As a drawing teacher I am in contact with ca 40 children and teenagers between 7and 17 every week. And in my classes there are all kind of children, they mirror the variety of children's personalities you will find in other areas. Extrovert, introvert, inventing, timid, rough and tender kids side by side. But as they grow older, it seems that those who stay within expressing themselves artistically are usually not the same who have outstanding skills on the sports arenas. Yet to achieve skillfulness in drawing, it is neccessary to have a close understanding of the body, of motion and space. Some of my pupils have special needs, and I use methods described in this blog in a therapeutical perspective. But it is my experience that all persons, young or old, may improve their skills in drawing, using the described exercises.

Awareness of the moment

I was recently introduced to Mindfulness Meditation, ie. exercises using yoga and awareness that immediately aroused my interest. Mindfulness Meditation is about learning to be being present and focused in the moment.

Many people use autogenic training to get relief from negative thoughts and feelings. But in Mindfulness the focus is in attentive presence in yourself, you learn to deal with distressing feelings and painful thoughts - not to be stuck in depression. You observe what you experience, which involves giving enough space for the steady stream of thoughts and feelings from an ever-wandering mind.

Sad and distressing thoughts and feelings may occurr during a meditation session, but by being aware the distraction from the meditation, you may lead your mind back to focusing on the exercise. Interestingly a scientific research programin Mindfulness Meditation produces demonstrable effects on brainand immune function. These findings suggest that meditationmay change brain and immune function in positive ways and underscorethe need for additional research.

Using more than your eyes while drawing

But where, you may ask, is the link between drawing and meditation? Especially the drawing exercises developed by Nicolaïdes bear similarities to mindfulness. His philosophy is about a presence, using of the senses during drawing that go far beyond the use of the eyes. The ability to sense and feel is a basic prerequisite for carrying out the exercises.

My own first attempt to make a contour drawing without looking at the paper, only seeing in the mirror and moving the pencil across the paper registering what I saw. Through repeating the exercise time and time again, the hand/eye/brains improves its co-ordination.

Contour exercize

Making contour drawings require an awareness that goes beyond seing, it requires an ability to imagine physical contact with the surface of model / drawing object. You focus on imagining your finger being in contact with the contour, and transferring that sensation to the pencil drawing on paper. It requires the training of coordinating hand-eye-brain, so you may keep eye contact all the time on the model, while the hand moves acress the paper.

A couple of week later the ability to co-ordinate has improved.

Retrieving body sensation

Retrieving the sensation of having a physical body rather than living in the head is a recurring subject in my blog http://kreativkommunikasjon.blogspot.com/ (You may use Google Translate to read blog posts). Modern life styles and technology remove us from experiencing physical mastery through work and daily actions.

Mindfulness Meditation is about an awareness, a perception of own body in lying, sitting, standing or motion exercises.

Pupil drawing focusong on volume and weight. The beginning of the drawing starts at an imagined core, and cotinues to build volume in all directions. Through the exercise it is vital to keep the concentration on what you are doing, not to automatically just fill in color. A teacher can notice when the pupils thoughts start to drift, the contour or shadow will get a different caracter, lacking the intensity of a concentrated drawing.

Nicolaïdes developed exercises that focus on experiencing volume and weight. One exercise focuses on imagining the core of an object, and vitually working as a sculptor would do when he builds a sculpture in clay. From the core you build volumes in height, width in the drawing - and with a focus on weight. As he correctly notes the history of art is filled with pictures of clouds can seem leaden, while large bodies seem to float.

(F.ex. Picasso's Mother and Child (1921) as an example of what I write about: the experience of gravity absent despite apparent volume. Both characters seem to float away at any time.)

Body scanning and map makings

In mindfulness, there is an exercise developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, where you start focusing on one foot and then gradually moving through body parts with intense concentration, scanning each part from within. There is also a focus on breath; to 'transport the breath' in direction of the part of the body that you are scanning in that moment. Particularly here I find a closeness to the methods of Nicolaïdes.

Kimon Nicolaïdes was educated a cartographer. Many of his exercises focus on understanding the model as a three-dimentional object, and he uses thinking from map construction.

My first job after secondary school was map making for the Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Authority (Statens kartverk/ Norges Geografiske Oppmåling). For one year I was being trained before being allowed to work on real maps, and many of the exercises resembled Nicolaïdes, though I do not think they knew his books.

I know that my own sensation of space developed through these exercises. I improved an awareness of changes in a three dimetional shape, of being able to imagine a landscape seen from above. When later learning the exercises of Nicolaïdes, I also developed a sense of moving within the model, with awareness of gravity of the material a model consisted of.

Pupil drawing of a body scan from the feet up, a similarity to exercises in Mindfulness Meditation.

One of the exercises I myself have developed, is sitting in a comfortable position and focusing on breathing, and then making a drawing/scanning from the feet and up. Another is using the flat side of a pastel to make indications of where in the body one can feel the contact with other surfaces (floor, chair etc), and which muscles are first sensing strain during a pose. A third exercise is letting another person pose, and trying to imagine where in the body that person feels strain during the pose.

My inspiration

Beside the inspiration I find in Mindfulness Meditation, I also take interest in new developments in science. At The Centre for the Biology of Memory (CBM) at NTNU in Trondheim researchers have discovered the intricacies of how the brain creates internal maps using grid cells in a coordinate system. Grid cells provide geometric coordinates for locations and help the brain generate an internal grid to help in navigation. Along with place cells, which code for specific locations, head direction cells, which act like a compass, and border cells, which define the borders of an environment, grid cells enable to brain to generate a series of maps of different scales and help with recognition of specific landmarks.

Read more here

Professor in neuroanatomy Per Brodal and the fysiotherapists Kirsti Fadness and Britt Leira have developed physical exercises after finding similarities in brain activity in persons suffering from fibromyalgia, anxiety, stress, exhaustion etc. Brodal says the brain shares a mutual network for pain, emotion and attention. When the network is consentrating one one thing, like sensing pain or anxiety, it may get overloaded, influencing the whole network. But by activating parts of the network in other tasks, like concentrating on a physical exercise, the brain may avoid the overactivity in the network.

A research experiment in Lancashire has explored Mindfulness for persons suffering from schizophrenia. There are many previous experiments proving this meditation form as beneficial for other groups, but this is probably the first that document an effect for persons suffering from psychosis.

When I use the exercises combining mindfulness, inner brain grids and drawing, it is primarely to help my pupils become more aware of the cooperation between eye, brain and body. But I believe it has a potential as a therapeutical method, and hope one day to be able to document it.

Rolf the Robber

2010-09-20T05:15:00.000-07:00

Do you keep your Spode china cups and your silver cutlery locked away in a safe place? If not, you'd better hurry, because tomorrow is the release of Rolf the Robber, written by Kristoffer Weltzien and illustrated by me.

Rolf is actually a failure as a thief. Out robbing he is concerned about the broken window panes that others might step on. And breaking into the bank his chubby body is too big for the window he is using to get access. All he wants is to make his beautiful wife Veronika happy. Because she is working so hard as a road constructor, and he dreams about buying her a red dress.

Isn't there another profession he might fit into? Rolf stumbles into a lot of situations where his skills are tested. Actually he quite a good cook. One day he is out skating, destiny offers a new chance...

The illustrations are made with a soft pencil on thin paper made for animation. I rather enjoy how it is possible to vary the contour and line on that paper. The coloring is done in a limited range of colors with dry pastels.

Welcome to the darkest corner of my mind ... moah-ha-ha

2010-08-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

Cover illustration 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.'

Due to the series design, the area left for illustration is limited to to bottow square of the illustration. Here I show a cover without typography and ornament; take a peek at some of the covers below and you understand what I mean.

In the early nineties the editorial house Gyldendal gave me a golden opportunity: To illustrate the covers for a series of books: Gyldendal Young Classics. Here they were: Robinson Crusoe, The Jungle Book, Oliver Twist, and more than 20 other releases that has delighted young readers for generations.

A most honorable mission! Many of these books had influenced my taste for reading in younger days. The publisher wanted a series that both gave hints of something classics as well as being page turners. And it was important to address young readers. How could it be solved?

A design grid was made by the publisher, to ensure the feeling of kinship was achieved. Due to the ornaments on both sides, and the typography, I was left with a narrow tall format to illustrate, and where the 'action' lied in the bottom square of the surface.

I looked at a lot of Norwegian book covers from 1930 to 1950's for inspiration. It was tempting to do a retro solution, for example, to imitate the limited palette caused by printing two, three colors as posters, book covers and advertising often did then. But the publisher wanted an expression closer to contemporary illustration.

My solution was making full-color illustrations in acrylic, with clear references to the work of Tamara Lempicka.

Tamara de Lempicka (1898 - 1980), Portrait de Madame M 1932

She was a Polish lady with noble blood in her veins and a talent for combining the sweet life with a dash of art. Paris nouveau riches queued up to be portrayed in her glossy version of cubism. Observant fans of the television series Poirot may recognize stylistic inspiration from her works, and even paintings done in her style.

Other sources of inspiration I found mainly in American illustration from the early 20 century.

NC Wyeth, 1911, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Howard Pyle Captain Kidd

Every now and then I had to fight for the solutions I wanted, the editors were anxious to keep an expression that fitted to the genre. Today looking back at my work, perhaps Jungle Book and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are among the covers I am most content with.

Anyway, browsing through these books feels like opening a herbarium, where each illustration represent memories from an distant era of my life.

East of the sun, west of the moon

2010-07-26T06:35:00.001-07:00

One of my first commissions as a picture book illustrator was an old Norwegian folk tale, namely East of The Sun, West of The Moon. The title brings to mind some beautiful images made by the illustrator Theodor Kittelsen, who illustrated The Polar bear King. The two stories probably have the same origin, but there are also differences. And Kittelsen, who I admire very much has chosen a slightly different angle. In his images the white bear have features that makes him resemble the trolls he has drawn several times and that served him the fame he later achieved.

The princess riding on the back of the bear is strangely anonymous, her features are so vague.

To me, the girl herself was essential and I wanted to show her development.

The story tells of a girl who is youngest of all her sisters. We hear in the story the sisters are out playing, so we understand she is probably under age when the story starts. Even so her poor parents promise a white bear to marry their daughter. In return they will have economical compensation that will end their poverty. A stormy Thursday night the bear comes to collect the girl, who much against her will has to depart from her family.

The bear installs her in his castle and in the night he comes to her in the shape of a man. The next day he is again a bear, and she must promise never tothrow light at him in his human shape. Despite a good life, she is homesick, and finally the bear agrees to letting her visit her family.

Her mother soon manages to get the full story of her life with the bear, and convinces her she should light a candle to see who he is.

Coming back to the caste she lights the candle in the night and immideately falls in love with the beautiful prince sleeping at her side.

Spilling wax from the candle on his shirt he wakes up, and in anger and sorrow tells her he now must part. Had she waited only three days he would have been a free man: Now he must go east of the sun, west of the moon, to marry a troll princess. Her mother has cast a spell on her so he has the shape of a bear in day light. The girl cries bitterly, and she wakes up the next morning alone in a green slope in the forest. This is the turning point of the story. Having been a passive victim of other peoples decisions, she now starts to take action and to accept the concequences of her choices. Through long struggles she finally travels with the wind, finding the troll castle. She negotiates with the trolls, and is reunited with the prince on the eveneing before his marriage to the ptroll princess. The trolls try to wash off the wax stains from his shirt, but every attempt just makes the shirt look worse. Finally the girl has a possibility to try, and she removes all stains until the shirt is shiny and white. The trolls explode in fury, turning to stone.

And the prince and the girl are free to leave - and marry.

About the illustrations

The commission was part of a serial Cappelen made in the early nineties. All the other boks were in colors, so they opposed the idea of making penicl drawings, as I had wished. I chose a technique that was both time consuming - and expensive:

First I made pencil drawings, photographed them, developed them on photo paper. The photos were bleached, sepiatoned - and finally retouched with aquarelle and oil colors. A very slow process, and I would never have don ehte same today! The drawing above is inspired by a place I am very fond of, in the valley Hemsedal. Seeing the drawing in my archive now, I immediately want to go back to this wonderful place.

Local hero

2010-03-23T01:29:00.000-07:00

Gunnar, as he appeared in 'Where is Mum?' (Hvor er mamma? 2007, Gyldendal)
Wednesday night: The chimney suddenly completely clogged with ash, smoke pouring into all corners of the house. Caughing and spitting, hardly seeing anything in the black smoke, we opened all windows and doors in the house and kept them open all night: Still the smell in the house was awful next morning. It will take me some days to wash those walls. Next day Marek shoveled half a meter of wet snow from the roof, and climbed the slippery ladder to the top of the chimney. Thrusting down a long metal rod tied to a rope several times made no difference, all though the whole house was shaking. Next tool is a sort of cannon ball also tied to a rope. Nothing helped. After a long fight half a meter of thick soot hammered to the ground.Phew! Where was I? Out celebrating the award for the Frida Kahlo book! But beware the gods punishment: Woke up with a sprained foot in the middle of the night (when did that happen?) Got up at 07.00 to pick up my car from the local repair man (no, no accident, he repaired the window wipers). A quarter of an hour later, silently driving home in a cicilized manner when the combination of rain and ice covered road made the whole car spin and wooooooom! Sideways I headed into a thick wall of snow. The motor choked at once by snow packed into the grill. No coverage on the mobile. At home Marie waited for me, I was only supposed to be gone some minutes.

Ahead of me 7 kilometer through the forest before imobile coverage ...
But I was lucky: Saved by a nice lady on her way to work. At home I called Gunnar , who appeared in my book Where is Mom (Hvor er mamma, 2007 Gyldendal). Last week the gasoline hose in Mareks car sprang leak. Who came? Well, the rescue car we called appeared after some time, but could do nothing. Once again, Gunnar came and fixed it all. As he does with felling trees, bringing hey to the sheep and several other things.

He deserved his own book, our local hero.

Silver award goes to The Heart Remembers in cathegory book covers for children/ young readers in Norwegian competition

2010-03-19T02:26:00.001-07:00

Årets vakreste bøker (This year's most beautiful books) is an annual cultural event in Norway.The event includes a competition and an award ceremony, and takes place in Oslo every spring.Its is administered by Grafill, association for graphic designers and illustrators in Norway, in cooperation with the National Library, the Norwegian Publishers Association andTegnerforbundet ( the association of draughtsmen ).

I was most honored to receive the silver award in the cathegory of most beautiful book cover for children books, and I hurry to say that I share this award with the excellent designer, Bernardo Providência who did the designing of the book.

Marie in the open fields of Skolimowski

2010-03-16T01:56:00.001-07:00

Sometimes people ask me where the initial idea for a book comes from. Is it possible to be absolutely sure about such things? Does an idea have one single origin point? Not with me. I've written before that one of the reasons for making the book Where's Daddy? was a desire to interpret the landscape that surrounds me on my farm. I look out the window I see often a fairytale: A paradise for birds, moose grassing in the sunset. Theodor Kittelsen, eat your heart out.

My intention was to create illustrations of this landscape avoiding the obvious clichées.

I worked in collage with prefabricated backgrounds, ie starting with colored Ingres paper as backgrounds. If you study how the story develops, the day goes from midwinter daylight getting darker and with a change of weather. This technical challenge was in itself an incentive and certainly helps to shape the story.

In my previous book, Where's Mom?, the father of the story was never mentioned. It's a semi-biographical storey, hence my neighbors started to give me peculiar looks, as the story is full of... men in all shapes and sizes. In my head everything was crystal clear: The father in the story was, as my husband would be in reality, at work in the city at that time of the day, so the people that enter the story are people who either have job to to on the farm, or come to deliver a parcel or they are good neighbors dropping by. But in order to avoid a local scandal, I found the only possible solution: I had to make a new book where the father would be the hero.

But the most important inspiration source I find in our family photo album from around 1961. In a series of amateur photos in black and white my sister, about 1 and a half years old, stands out. (I am probably an infant in a carriage, at least not visible in the pictures) She is wearing a white summer dress and straw hat. She turns and looks at the photographer with a mischievous look in the initial photo, and then moves further away into a thickening of tall grass and bushes. Each photo shows a more distant child, running away. In my childhood I sat with this album before me, and experienced a chilling suspense. The little running girl had - in my imagination - gone so far that she did not hear their parents cry, and disappeared in the long grass she walked in.

I used to stare at these pictures, with goose bumps on my arms. The fact that my elder sister was situated safely in the same room was irrelevent, the photo story I had created was so strong.

A lot of kids love that game of being chased. But sometimes the parent may - deliberately or not - ignore the initial invitation of the child. Apart of the danger that the child might actually get lost, or get into dangerous situations, the child often experience a sense of deep disappointment when they realise they are on their own.

My sister did not experience the feeling of being lost or ignored. But the intensity of my childhood fantasy was absloutely a triggering factor for making this book.

I think my own age at the time of making this book is another factor: If I should live to be 100 (Ojalá!) I am already past the first half part. I am curious to what might be behind the next bend.

My childhood story and the landscape that surrounds me today give me an existential reminder of the human challenge throughout life; to bravely walk into the unknown - alone. And to carry the hope that in life as in the fairytale it will all end well.

Speaking of the landscape; there are more people more than me who have found Enebakkneset, this white spot on the map, visually interesting. The Norwegian scenes in the film The Essence of Killing (director Jerzy Skolimowski) were shot in the same regions as Marie in my book, wander around in.

Final cover for the poetry book

2010-02-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

If you look at my previous entry in the blog, you see how I have struggled with optimizing the cover for this book. The illustrations are a mix of techniques, collages with different expressions. But the poetry are like haiku impressions of each animal described. Using Twitter, Facebook and blog I asked friends to give feedback to three sketches, and the final cover is absolutely a result of the opinions I got.

Even if parts of the poetry are naturalistic, most viewers preferred a stylistic/simplified version of the birds. The majority also preferred a typographic version that was easy to read.

It would have been interesting so do this more often, but I realise I am in danger of exhausting my network - so I have to use this poll-based design only now and then.

Thanks to all who participated!

The right cover

2010-02-05T00:30:00.000-08:00

O- o- o.

Finally it's that day: I have to chose between my cover sketches! I have worked now for more than half a year on a poetry book for children; poems and nursery rhymes by Per Olav Kaldestad.

It has been a joyful time in the company of various animals, birds and fishes. Even if the rhymes may have a structure of humour and nonsense, it is neccessary to understand what characteristic features each creature has to illustrate the poems. Behaviour, ways of living, how they move etc.

It seems that my digital originals tend to produce more sketches and copies than my manual drawings - and I tend to postpone the final decision. Since I have the possibility to make minor variations, it becomes gradually more diffucult to chose.

This book is intended for children. However, it will be adult persons making the choice in the shop. My own preference is in a minimalistic direction. But somehow it would not give a representative picture of what this book is about.

And so: I need your help. You see the three sketches on the top of the blog. By looking at some of the illustrations below;

would you please help me to chose the right one?

I would like to hear how you respond instinctively, not neccesarily a long rational explanation. You may either do that by sending me a mail at kramer.hilde@gmail.com, or make a comment below the blog. The poll will be open until Thursday 11.of February. Thank you!

Profession going extinct?

2010-01-24T02:44:00.000-08:00

As I started as an illustrator in 1986, the possibilities within visual communication were multiple. During our last year in Oslo National Academy of the Arts a group of friends decided to rent a studio together: We were illustrators, artists, graphic designers under the same roof. We called ourselves AD HOC.

Those were the days before internet, and only later did we find that a company working within PR had taken the same name shortly after us. And while we did not have the money to protect our brand, they did. But we caused some stir-up within the advertising business from far more prominent people curiously followed our actions. I may be wrong, but I suspect we were the first group of students to join forces that way, later a lot of other similar concepts popped up (but I think we were unique in the sense that we had pure artists among us; painters and draughtsmen aiming at an artistic carreer side by side with illustrators and designers). This was probably also our Achilles heel. We lacked a clear profile, our image was unfocused. We were anarchists and individualists, and did not present our services as a unified concept. However, I do not regret it; it was a glorious time, and some of us are still close friends today.

Still, there were plenty of other opportunities within the establishment. Every newspaper had an atelier of their own, with draughtsmen who made advertisments, or whatever required that a photo could not supply. Advertising agencies had illustrators in their stab.

There were indipendent comic strip artists, cartoonists and magazine illustrators. Those woth a foot within the rock&roll business got a chance to show their potential through record covers (even if payment was not always granted). There were studios providing logos and signs aimed to the local market, there was technical drawing, maps, crosswords and lots of other ways to use your skills if you fancied drawing. And in the local grocery shop you would find products with illustrated labels; the canned crabs, the coudberry jam, the mackerel in tomato sauce. All with illustrated motives to draw the attention of the client to the product. Today the situation is different. While the canned crab and mackerel have kept the same nostalgic labels (and are playing with the nostalgea of the clients in advertisings), most other labels are replaced with photographic representation.

One might of course say that a manipulated Photoshop image can be an illustration. But the evidently drawn label is now hard to find. Norway never had any strong tradition for using drawn illustrations on boards. I have always enjoyed being in countries like France, Germany and Great Britain, where one may occasionally find well known products presented with drawn illustrations.

Annual reports were once a source of income for those who managed to deliver the trendy stuff. Due to annus horribilis 2009 I suspect few collegues made their living in this field last year. When I meet people today calling themselves illustrators, they usually operate in the same field as myself: Within book illustration. Which is kept artificialy alive (though not enough to live from) though roulette donations from Art Council Norway.

The digitalisation is changing the whole media business, threatening to make more areas of illustration extinct. The CD cover is soon history, Kindle and E-books will no doubt alter the market of book covers. If the printed newspapers are completely replaced by the internet versions, will there be new generations of caricaturists, if they are not scared off by the Muhammad debate?

Recently a new trend alarms me: The absence of listing illustrator as a profession, even in areas one might expect otherwise. If you want to buy software, join internet foras intended for visual arts or use devices for sending big files on internet - you may not find 'Illustrator' listed at all. The screen print from Yousendit should illustrate my point. I fear that if the trend continues, one day I may have to introduce myself as a professional 'Other' to give people a hunch of what I do for a living.

Art Council Norway highlights a selection of Norwegian picture books

2010-01-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.kulturrad.no/sitefiles/1/Litteratur/BLA-kanpanjen/BLAplakat09.pdf

5-7th of February Art Council Norway and the Booksellers Association open an exhibition in Litteraturhiuset, Oslo (House of Literature). There will be an exhibition with prints from this year's selection of picture books, Authors and illustrators will be present.
The event is part of the BLA! Campaign, in order to make the bookstores and the public better acquainted with the new Norwegian picture books.

Friday 5th of february at 4 pm is the opening date of the exhibition of illustrations from BLA'-books 2009. The Heart Remembers will be among the books exhibited.

Book reviews: What the critics said about the Frida Kahlo book

2010-01-07T00:18:00.000-08:00

In an enquete between the literary critics of of the newspaper Aftenposten, The Heart Remembers, picture book about artist Frida Kahlo, is mentioned as the most potent picture book in 2009, according to Mette Hofsødegård. She continues: "Kahlo's amazing life story and paintings have inspired Bjorn Sortland and Hilde Kramer to integrate a fictional story with Kahlo biography and works. It is impressive how well the idea is implemented."

http://www.aftenposten.no/kul_und/litteratur/article3432074.ece

Another review in the same newspaper :"Through a vivid dialogue and close interaction with unusually strong images the reader meets Frida Kahlo tragic fate, her fascinating life story and remarkable images. (...) A book about life, death and love that it is worth noting."

Hilde Bjørhovde, Aftenposten

"Colorful and beautiful, with a sadness that suits the story."
Morten Abrahamsen, VG

"... Very solid work, and honest treatment of a central artist. It treats life and death, in a book that probably will work just as well for older readers as for children."
Gerd Elin Stava Sandve, Dagsavisen

"... Kramer does not try to imitate the famous painter, she creates her own stylish artwork. Bjorn Sortland's description of Leonardas fear is intense and believable."
Petra J. Helgesen, Bergens Tidende

"Finally, it must be emphasized that the illustrations in this book really is in a class bof it's own. Kramer shows respect for the original works yet she makes them her own. No easy job, but she carries out with a style and elegance that make art accessible and living for both children and adults. "

Kine Hult, Stavanger Aftenblad

The national broadcasting channel NRK rewieved the book 17th of November in the radio program Bok i P2 with the headline 'So beautiful it hurts'. Anne Cathrine Straume says:" 'The heart remembers"'is a book that requires time. And may be read again and again. It will certainly appeal to some children through the expressive images, but this is a story without action, without the easy humor, which are elements many children are attracted to. Instead it is charged with atmosphere, with feelings and philosophy. You may need to book a little help to reach a young audience. I would think it is well suited for reading out loud, there is plenty material for adults and children to discuss further on, together. Furthermore, the book stimulates the reader to to study Kahlo's own pictures and read more about her life.Sortland and Kramer's commitment to the artist radiates from each page, which by the way has exquisit paper quality and inviting to be touched, seen, smelt."

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/kultur/litteratur/1.6868105

Mette Moe reviews the book in Barnebokkritikk.no, a web site providing critics of contemporary and classical children literature.

"Despite the dramatic content, this is a very soft-spoken text, almost devoid of external action. One may almost hear the clock ticking on the wall and the taps drip in the blue house. Friendship between the bedridden artist and the young girl is portrayed as a kind of mutual destiny. They understand each other intuitively and can therefore help each other further. Quiet optimism ends the text's serious subject, with the simple but difficult message that life must go on.
Bjorn Sortland and Hilde Kramer say the book's epilogue that Frida Kahlo has been a big influence in their creative work, and that she is one of their favorite artists. It shows. As art project the book is very successful. As story The Heart Remembers is best suited for the patient readers that will not be intimidated by the cryptical dialogue and unexpected ideas.Nevertle less I encourage all readers to scroll slowly and enjoy the combination of the beautiful and the grotesque. Moreover, I believe the daily requirement of vitamins should be covered by the visual consumption of this colorful art cocktail."

http://www.barnebokkritikk.no/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=686

In autumn 2009 the book was nominated to a national award, The Brage prize. The jury commented: "In this strong picture book, we become familiar with and curious about the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. We get an outline of the life and art of her by a fictitious meeting between the artist and a young girl. Meeting points between the two is pain, grief and bereavement. This is a simple but powerful tale of love and the difficult life. With the close interplay between word and image, between the author and illustrator, the book works as both as fiction and facts."

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/kultur/litteratur/1.6846021

Blogger Jorid writes in Ord om annet: "The heart remembers written by Bjorn Sortland and illustrations by Hilde Kramer is at first glance, first and foremost a very beautiful and elaborated book. It is a lavish and attractive publication.
Upon closer inspection, the book is still as beautiful, but it is also much more. It is a strong story about art, life and death. This is not a book you just read through and be done with, it is a book for self reflection and inner journey."

http://ordomannet.blogspot.com/2009/11/fine-frida.html

Shortly there will be an exhibition of five Norwegian picture books in Litteraturhuset in Oslo. Among the five selected books is The Heart Remembers. The exhibition will take place between 21th and 24th of january 2010 and is arranged by the organisation of designers and illustrators in Norway, Grafill. The exhibition focuses on the process of developing a book from scratch; research, inspiration, choices and design.

The Heart Remembers: Exhibition of illustrations and research material in Oslo 21 - 24th of January

2009-12-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

Grafill, the Norwegian organisaton of illustrators and designers have invited five illustrators to exhibit their work in Litteraturhuset, between 21th and 24th of January.

The Heart Remembers will be exhibited together with following picture books/film:

Anna Fiske: Hallo i byen

Jill Moursund: Gjemmestreker

Øyvind Torseter: Spelejenta.

Endre Skandfer: Skylappjenta+animasjonsfilmen

http://twitter.com/HildeKramer

The importance of design in picture books

2009-11-22T07:46:00.000-08:00

In November the Belgian editor Marita Vermeulen met Norwegian illustrators, writers, librarians and students to speak about the Flemish picture books. The title of her lecture was "Thinking Outside the Box". She underlined the importance of working with text, picture and design in one process, and seeing each book as an individual concept. She claimed design has an increasing importance for development of picture books, and I agree. The best books show a defined attitude to these questions. Design can really give the book its individual character and underline the message of the contense.

An early sketch from January 2009. All communication with the designer Bernardo Providência is in English. He was situated in Spain, I in Norway. Even so the cooperation was very close.

Working with What The Heart Remembers I had one condition: I wanted to co-operate with a designer I felt confident with. Someone who really knew me and understood my intentions.

Being a renowned designer is not enough if you work with picture books - unless you like to work with this cathegory of books. It's difficult to define what it is, what I ask for. But the dialogue between the parts must be close, open, direct, playful - and to one must have a mutual ability to ask critical questions at the right stage.

Lemons and pomme granades were photographed in various positions, drawn, painted, cut in paper and drawn again.

I have cooperated closely with writer Bjørn Sortland and the editor, but there has also been a daily dialogue with the designer of the book , Bernardo Providência.

We were aquainted more than two centuries ago and share a fascination for antique toys, lanterna magica, paper surfaces, music boxes, flash animations and musical boxes among other things. Understanding eachothers visual taste is a good way to start a dialogue and to maintain a working climate where opinions may differ, but never create personal conflict. We feel confident that there is no wish to 'win' or cause harm to the other person, simply to through a close discussion get the best result possible. But is that possible if one person is situated in Spain and the other in Norway, as we happened to be? Well; that is the wonder of the digital revolution and social medias. We had daily communication on Skype, Messenger and gmail, using web camera and screen prints to show what we wanted and speak online. Only when the originals were more or less finished we met in Spain to check all originals before melting all Photoshop layers into one document.

The first task was defining what visual language would be suitable for an age group 9+. Teenagers often have a bigger demand for realistic visual langage than younger readers. In Paris last October I saw a lot of figurative grafitti that inspired me. And collage seemed appropriate to show Frida. A slim, tall format for the book was accepted by the writer and publisher. We started out spreading the Pantone fan, defining which blue color we wanted as a dominant colour. Thereafter yellow, orange and red matching that particular blue colour were found. One has to realise that even with a calibrated screen, the colours will be different in print compared to what you see on screen.

Whoever thinks a digital collage is easier than manual drawing; think again. I actually think it's much more time consuming. Drawaing a hand is relatively simple compared to finding a photographers angle that presents the hand as comprehensible and not too theatrical.

Having a good communication with the designer, the production person in the publishing house and finally a good dialogue with the printer is essential. Next step was to make a thumb nail storyboard. I put it into the InDesign document, and started to paste in Fridas paintings, photos, and inspiration elements, and from there the pictures developed slowly, like a metamorphosis taking months to develop. I made weekly updates in PDF to keep all parts updated, and going back in those PDFs I can trace the development of each spesific element in the illustrations.

The Breton quotation "The art of Frida Kahlo is a ribbon around a bomb" gave us an idea of how we could tie the whole book together from cover to end. Our thinking was very filmatic, we imagined a camera moving from the street outside the house into the patio and from there through the garden door into Fridas bedroom, where she at first doesn't even bother to turn around to face the girl who has entered. But that soon changes, and she and Leonarda enter into a dialogue that changes the situation for both of them.

Every part of the book has been discussed over and over again between Bernardo and me, much like the work between a writer and an editor.

The final original in RGB (note the difference to printed colour). Accepting the results in printing and co-operating with the printer to get as close as possible to the wanted result is crucial.

The close dialogue makes our work woven together. It is difficult to say where the design part stops and illustration starts. Could a text editor have done the same job? In this case I would say no, it would have been too demanding for that other person. I also believe that the competence won through actually working yourself with visual arts; drawing, painting, photographing and making layout gives you skills you cannot achieve through

theoretical art lessons. You have to have done it yourself to be able to understand the problem from the inside.

Coming back to Marita Vermeulen; she herself had taken art classes three years in order to enter the dialogue with illustrators, not because she ever wanted to become an illustrator herself. I look forward to see if the ideas she shared with us will be picked up by Norwegian editors.

Nomination to Brage Prize, Norwegian book award

2009-11-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

Got the news some days ago; The Heart Remembers has been nominated to a Norwegian award; Brageprisen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brage_Prize. Cathegory: Books for young readers .

I regard it as a great honor for our mutual work to have achieved this nomination - and no matter the final result it is a big inspiration to continue working with picture books.

The announcement of the winner will take place 19th of November.

10th of November: A fiesta to celebrate Frida

2009-10-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

The editorial house ASCHEHOUG invites you to an evening celebrating the publishing of The heart remembers on the evening of 10th of November. It will take place in Aschehoug situated in Sehesteds plass no 3 in Oslo between 6 and 8 pm. The author of the book, Bjørn Sortland and Hilde Kramer, illustrator will speak about the cooperation and development of the book.

We hope you will be able to attend, and ask you to kindly inform Mette Fjeldheim at Ascheoug before the 5th of November.

E-mail:mette.fjeldheim@aschehoug.no

WELCOME!

And so the book has arrived!

2009-10-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

Living in the countryside I usually receive the new copies of my books by post. Yesterday I experienced that strange and wonderful moment when you open the maibox and find a parcel, tear it open - and find the printed result of months of labour, thoughts , doubts, inspiration, sketching, testing, swearing and sweating.

The first second one has to get used to it: That what used to be a pile of drawings or a folder on the computer now lies in your hands. The smell of fresh ink, the surface of the paper. Am I content? Yes, this time absolutely. Of course the colors are deeper than they appear on screen, it is inevitable. But it is definitely very close to my intentions - and that is a relief.

Thank you Bjørn, thank you Mari and Irja; editors at Aschehoug, thank you Celine who was modelling - thank you, all people contributing to the project and finally: Thank you, Frida... Where would we be without you?

Printing

2009-10-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

Finally we have reached the production stage. Two days ago we watched the process of adjusting colors and the first shets began piling up. In a week the book should be expected from the book binder. I cant wait to see...

The Quay Brothers

2009-09-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Of course! Why have I not seen it earlier? The animated sequence in the Frida film after the accident was made by the Quay brothers, heroes from my student days in the animation studio in Krakow. My teacher, professor Jerzy Kucia introduced us to their work, and I still find it fascinating today.

I remember seeing this film in the film festival in Bratislava, short time before the break up of Jugoslavia...

The Frida Kahlo book - moustache or no moustache, that is the question

2009-09-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Frida,

Have you any idea what dilemmas I had in finding a way to portray you in the book? Being one of the most interesting women from the 20th century I can think of, I wanted so much to capture it, the mixture of intelligence, humor, the fragility and strength, femininity and masculinity in your face.

And in the photos the little shadow of a moustache only looks charming. But in drawing it seemed impossible to find the right balance. All too often my sketches would look like an illustration to Lou Reed.

Besides: This story is fictional. But the Frida and Diego, living in The Blue House are so obviously the persons we know from real life. Would the book be interesting to readers if that point was lost? (Well, I suppose it is rather obvious, but I did not dare to take the risk.)

After a long period of doubt I decided to use photos of her, and manipulate them in Photoshop. In Illustrator you have the live trace option, but it has a tendency of looking slick, in my opinion, so I decided that (even if it takes a hundred times longer to do it that way) to take parts from different photos and make digital collages, and sometimes use the pen tool to make line drawings based on her photos. In the climax of the story I change to her own paintings, to get the wild expression that she loved to portray.

But what about the girl, Leonarda in the story? If Frida was based on photos, what could I do with a fictional girl? Her name, by the way: Frida once said that Leonarda would be the name if ever she had a baby girl.

Staying in Mexico for only a short time there was not much time to look for a girl to model. And would the parents agree, if I found someone with the right face and character to fill her role? I did find a girl, and the parents agreed. However in that age, (the girl was 10 years old) being a model is only fun for 10 minutes. During the photo shootings it was obvious she did not feel comfortable. Coming home to Norway I had to take the difficult decision; I had to find a new girl.

Since there is a little colony of Mexicans in Norway, I was lucky to find a new model. She was very different from the first one, who had a dark, sulky expression that would have fitted well to the story. But the new model, Celine, was a much better actress, and she was willing to suffer through the hours of instruction and posing. I had made a little story board and she had a great ability to understand what I needed.

I am most grateful for her help.

But while being in Mexico, in the Blue House, I discovered a drawing i had not seen before. A charcoal drawing with Frida sitting nude, we only see her torso. It is an academic drawing, skillfully drawn. Frida had very little training in drawing. Her sketches are either personal notes for her diary or And what interested me was that in this drawing she looks shy, and her gaze was fixed on something distant, she was looking sideways. Very unusual. Frida, in both paintings and drawings, usually confronts her with her provoking eyes; see me. I am what i am, like it or not.

This drawing shows a fragile and shy woman, as some photos portray her. Frida had the same ability as Marilyn Monroe, and even Madonna; in front of the camera there was always a job to do; to be the most of what they want to be.

But when Frida is off guard, especially in younger days, there is a very different woman. I had hoped to meet one of the persons responsible for the exhibition and had communicated on mail previous to the travel. Arriving in Mexico, it appeared the person no longer had time to spare. Now what? I had a list of questions to ask, and now it seemed impossible to solve the situation.But I was lucky. My host, the cartoonist Antonio Helguera from La Jornada knew the director of the museum, señora Hilda Trujillo Soto. And she was kind to take the time to meet us, and to answer all my questions. I got a copy of a sketch Frida had made to a friend, showing a map of the garden at that time. I also got a lot of information from research on all the material found after opening the rooms being closed for 50 years after her death.

Without the assistance of my friend Helguera the whole expedition could have been a disaster. Luckily the influence of Mexican cartoonists open secret doors...

In the garden photos were allowed. But not inside any part of the house. However, we were invited to store the camera and the laptop safely at the entrance, and to come inside a small entrance beneath the steps coming from Frida’s room out in the garden.

Behind the steps is a small wooden door, almost unnoticeable, a door to a shed, for gardening or whatever. Entering there was surrealistic; a labyrinth of documents piled from floor to ceiling.. In between the paper columns people were squeezed into corners, sorting and researching the tremendous amount of papers that the locked rooms had unveiled. It will take decades to sort through it all. It is a strange thing, though: Frida has advanced from an obscure position as a local painter, the wife of the famous Diego Rivera, to being probably the most famous artist in the world during the last decade. Only from 2006 there was a noticeable difference in the streets. Next time you go to a street market; count the crucifixes, count the Fridas - that gives a clue, doesn't it? Somehow the authorities should realise that investing in the museum and its resources might be of benefit to the national economy.

It was a fantastic feeling to stand there among all these papers, imagining how they may throw new light on her life and her art. As we were to to go outside, señora Hilda turned to us with a secret smile and pointed to the floor, almost like Goya's duchess of Alba mixed with Leonardo's Mona Lisa: Looking down to where her finger pointed was a scribbled line on the floor: Frida had signed her name in the wet cement.

For a little moment I thought I heard it : Frida laughing at our surprise to her latest trick.

The Frida Kahlo picture book - research and choices

2009-09-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

Photo: Casa Azul - Frida Kahlo's house and garden, December 2008.

Illustrating a text is having to deal with multiple choices. What art technique will suit the expression of the text? The editor usually has a wish to address to a target group - what age are they, how does one meet their visual taste? How many details can an image contain without drowning in insignificant information?
Illustrating a fictional story about Frida Kahlo gave all these challenges - and more. First of all the story goes on in Frida’s house in Mexico City; on the other side of the Atlantic of cold Norway, where I live. Well, that problem could be solved, as I had been given a scholarship the same autumn that allowed me to travel. And so I did! I had visited her home once earlier, in 2006, not knowing I would ever get this illustration task.

From my sketchbook: Detail from the dining room. The details in the window, what could actually be seen through the window was the most vital information I used from this sketch.

Frida and Diego’s wonderful house is a magical mix of new inventions and history. They kept tradition when it suited them, and created new solutions where they needed – to fit to their taste, their artistic needs and to Frida's health.

From a corner in Frida's studio, with a portait of Stalin on the easel and her urne standing behind me. The door on the left page leads to the bedroom where the story takes place.

The story of this book goes on mainly in her bedroom. I would have liked to show as much of her things as possible, her furniture, her dolls and pets, pottery and clothes. Friends of mine in Mexico offered me to stay in their house – luckily very close to Frida’s house. That gave me a unique chance to do the investigations properly. I spent days in the house, drawing, taking notes (photographing inside the blue house is illegal) and searching for books and picture material showing the house as it looked in their time.

A map in my sketchbook; the Blue house is such a labyrinth I needed to have a map to keep a track of where the different rooms were situated. It took ages going through photos in books and on internet in Norway before going to Mexico. Ironically I later found that the Salma Hayek film had a very detailed model of the house in the additional info on the DVD...

But the book titles found in her library were useful for this illustration:

Here I have used titles from Frida's library to the books on her bed. Of course the books are also related to what the text is telling about in this spread; her sorrow over never aving had a child. Notice that the yellow bedspread is a comment to her painting What The Water Gave me.

But first of all I found out the house had undergone so many changes that it would not be possible to give a true impression of how they lived in the time the story goes on – the week before Frida’s big exhibition in Mexico City. Frida and Diego probably changed the house constantly; moving a chair, a picture, breaking pottery in a quarrel and one may imagine the monkeys, the cats and the dogs contributing too – and the house was alive, and no museum back then.

I also felt the text Bjørn Sortland had written was stripped of unnecessary details. Would it be a help... or rather a handicap to focus on all the interior objects?
I came to the conclusion the things surrounding Frida and Leonarda should be looked upon as theatre props. The objects in the pictures are all there for a purpose. Her real room was not blue inside, but I use the colors to tell something of how the atmosphere is – and how it develops.

A glimpse from the garden into the room where Frida spent her last time in the blue house.

The book is made in Photoshop and Illustrator, and I have tried to maintain a clear collage style. The book begins with a glimpse of the street sign I photographed outside her house, and then moves inside the yard, to the patio and garden on the title page.

The objects are simplified to such a degree a person who has not seen her garden may not realize that is what they see. But the collage is a deliberate choice of objects drawn, photographed in the garden (yes, that was allowed) and elements from her art, again after consulting with the copyright owners.
Blogs tend to be too long to read, and I have already written too much. However I want to dedicate one more text to the research about the blue house - next week.

The Heart Remembers: Picture book about Frida Kahlo by Bjørn Sortland and Hilde Kramer

2009-08-21T02:45:00.000-07:00

A year ago the phone rang. Bjørn Sortland, (author of The Dream Factory: Starring Anna & Henry (Carolrhoda Picture Books), Anna's Art Adventure etc) asked me promptly: Would you like to illustrate a book about Frida Kahlo? I think my answer could be heard in open air all the way from my farm deep in the forest close to Sweden to Bergen on the west coast of Norway where Bjørn was situated.
Frida has been a great source of inspiration ever since I saw her paintings the first time - 25 years ago.
As a young student taking my first steps into visual communication, I learned a lot from her - even if I have chosen a different direction in my own development.

Bjørn Sortland's books have a style, a literary signature that has always intrigued me. Making a book about Frida is a brave decision, and it requires a writer who understands visual arts.
Bjørn has written many books concerning painting, music, film etc and in all his works there is a deep understanding of other art expressions beside the literary - a profound knowledge that makes the cooperation a joyful experience.

There have been previous books for young readers about Frida Kahlo, but so far I have never seen books that portray her in all her complexity. Bjørn Sortland does not try to hide her darker sides. This fiction story tells about a girl who by accident enters Fridas bedroom, finding this woman marked by illness who resembles the scaring Judases and skeletons on the walls of the Blue House. Leonarda, the girl carries a secret too dark to reveal. But through their dialogue Frida unveils the problems and helps the girl to confront them. Leonarda on the other hand has an idea of how Frida may come to the opening of her own exhibition...

Where is daddy? Picture book about what happens when it's snowing, the electricity is gone and daddy is missing...

2009-07-21T13:44:00.001-07:00

In the previous book Hvor er mamma? (Where is mummy) published in 2007 we meet Marie and her mum and a lot of other characters. This is a semi-biographical story about trying to be a good mum and dealing with all the daily problems at the same time. As my husband - in real life - opened the book when it arrived from the editor, he commented: Nice book... but where am I in this story? To me it was natural that he would be at work, but I had forgotten to mention it. And so - I had to make a book for him.

In this story Marie is waiting impatiently for her dad to return from work by bus, because he has promised to fix electricity in her doll house. Outside the snow is falling and it's nice and cozy to be at home. Suddenly the dog is restless and wants to go outside.

All of a sudden the light goes out. Mum checks the fuses, but they seem ok. She wants to call the electricity company, but her mobile phone is out of battery. Marie is an independent girl, so she is not afraid to go out alone.

She decides to go to the barn to feed the sheep while waiting for daddy. But the barn is empty. The sheep have gone out. Where might they be? Marie decides to find out.

Following the prints of their hooves she passes the bus stop and realizes the bus has already been there, because she can see dad's foot print following the sheep. The snow is continuing to fall and slowly darkness is making it difficult to see the foot prints on the ground.

And what was that noise - could it be a wolf?

Then the light from a torch hits her eyes and its dad and Pinot who have found the sheep down at the beaver creek. Apparently the beavers have felled a tree causing the electricity to be broken.

As in Hvor er mamma? the illustrations are made in a collage technique mixing drawing and paper cutting.

Hvor er mamma? and Hvor er pappa? have the same formate and many of the characters are the same. Even so the two books have very different atmospheres.

My motivation for making this book was an excuse to draw the scenery surrounding our farm in winter. There is such a solitude beauty, but also in these huge fields covered by snow. Walking in the deep snow in the twilight I hear the music of Chet Baker inside me.

Hvor er pappa? was published by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag in 2008.

ISBN:9788205385269

Where is mummy? Picture book about dailylife in the countryside

2009-07-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

Where does a story come from? Well, sometimes it emerges from a well-known situation.

Some years ago we moved from the capital to a quiet place in the country. The thing was: We had a border collie... these dogs are known to be very active. After spending three years running through all the forests surrounding Oslo without ever exhausting the dog, we decided it was time he got to use his natural instinct: Looking after sheep.

We bought a small farm with sheep an hours drive from the city. At that point we couldn't differ hay from straw - but we soon learned. And shortly after we also had a daughter. Since this is rural area, I spent some years illustrating with one hand and rocking the cradle with the other, because there was no kindergarden to be found. It was a lovely time - but at times frustrating, and this story is a fictional interpretation of our daily life back then.

Marie arrives home and finding only the dog Pinot inside the house. She also hears the cat, but as if from far away. She calls for mummy but no answer is to be heard. Where can she be? She starts going from one place to the other searching for mummy. She enters the greenhouse, the barn, the garden and the chickenhouse - but mummy is no where to be seen. In each place she meets a new person for mummy. A neighbor wants to buy eggs, an electrian has arrived to fix a contact, the plumber to fix a pipe ...and they all need to ask mummy.

Finally Marie shouts at the top of her voice - and suddenly an answer is heard from the roof. Mummy has been rescuing the poor cat that was stuck. Now all problems are solved - and they all join in a big party in the garden.

There is only one problem... Where is daddy in this story? He isn't mentioned anywhere in the text. The thing was - in my head he was at work, since the story goes on in daytime. But I simply forgot to mention that tiny detail. So I got a lot of inquiering looks in the local shop in the months to follow - because the book is full of male figures. Well, there was only one chance to repair the damage: Give daddy his own book - which I did, the following year.

Technically both books are made in collage, combining my own illustrations with readymade paper and paper cuttings, a technique I am very fond of.

Hvor er mamma? was published by Gyldendal in 2007.

ISBN 9788205374485