Client: Private residence in Sweden

Overview

This was the artist’s first laser cut steel pieces. It is a Corten steel piece (it rusts and then the rusting stops and the steel remains rusty only on the surface). It is only 10 mm thick, above ground it is 2.5 x 1 meter. It is placed outside a private residence in Sweden, you can see it in the aerial photo.

I has not moved at all after many huge winter storms. When it is really windy it gently sways back and forth. The placement of this piece is ideal, because it has the open landscape behind, where it creates a shadow against the yard.

A lot of people, who have come to the house have been fascinated by this piece. It is probably some of my best work. They ask who the woman is. I normally don’t tell.

Goals

Why do I paint faces and eyes, or sometimes only sections of a face? I guess I am trying to see beyond the surface. Subconsciously we can recognize joy and sadness, maybe even a subtle lie – but are we really aware of what we are seeing?
Often, I paint from old photographs of people unknown to me. This facilitates freedom in my depictions because I am not trying to capture what I know about the individual, but rather what I see. Some of my paintings inspire the viewers to create their own stories, their own perspectives. This thrills me.

Process

My faces and landscapes are painted in oil on untreated plywood and other types of wood first. The unique wood grains become a part of each painting – often in serendipitous ways. Every painting is truly a work in progress to the end - I never quite know what the colors, the material and the picture will communicate until I am done. The process and the result often surprise me, and I like to surprise the viewer as well. Imperfection is often found in my pictures – a crack in the plywood, trickles, scratches, roughness – and I welcome this aspect