An Art Work A Day

 Today is my birthday and I have now 365 days to Complete the "Things to do before I am 50"-list that I have not even written LOL. Even though I might not want to do rafting or jump in a parachute I am trying to broaden my horizen regularly. I try to make the best of the life and the days I have been given.

Lately there is a big discussion here in Norway about how we view ourselves. Many of us feel that we have become much much to self centered and egoistic, especially when it comes to how little we do to help Syrian refugees. The Norwegian flag is in Red, white and blue and have been very much celebrated since we have had a 200 year old constitution this year.

Unfortunately life is a heavy burden for many people whether it is due to practical, economical, political reasons or Health, depressions or worries. Today my thoughts og out to all that struggle with their burdens.  May life give them a nice surprice today, making the burden feel less heavy.

I do not think we can not solve the problems in the world due to lack of knowledge, but we seem all to be at least partly blinded when it comes to seeing the other side in conflicts. This is very much a problem these days in the Middle East.

Even worse those that fight seem blind to all the suffering of civilians as long as they are civilians from the other side. I grieve for the wounds on both sides.

 It being the holidays, I dream and plan of travelling.

Recently I have studied the situation for women in India. These days there are lots of demonstrations going on to try to do something about how especialle vulnerable women are treated. These include; poor, single, dadit (low cast/castless), divorced or widowed women. I have today chosen to focus on the widows.

Religious texts are used to give alibi to treating widows horrible. Even though the burning of widows has ended, in many areas and situations they are still considered only a financial burden. They are shunned because they are imagined to be bringers of bad luck. In contrast to Western tradition''s use of black for mourning, Indian widows wear white saries.

In interviews, they speak of becoming invisible, someone whom the society not wants to be seen, nearly a ghost because they are not supposed by tradition to have a life after the husbands death. Many end up as beggars. Their situation has inspired today's painting.

 

I am studying at the moment in an online course "A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior" at Duke University. In connection with that some of us meet on google+ hangouts (online kollokvie group). Today two of us discussed what makes some people look for negative things and wondered whether these people really believed in them, in other words do they use self deception. That inspired today's painting. Because these people we talked about almost exclusively see black (negative side of things) and not the white (the positive side of things and other persons) except from themselves of course,  and very rarely colors (all the variations in why people do what they do or why things turn out as they do) I chose to make a white on black image.

Sometimes we just have to defent ourself and say stop to people that are misusing us.

Happy Easter everyone

May love in most variations win.
 

High up in the nest of love the baby chick wait for mum to come home. 

In these modern times so many things have moved from the physical world and online - meeting someone too has for quite a few. 

19.3.2013 Sometimes Love is Found Online - Watercolor on paper 21x30cm $100 Free SH

Love is such a wonderful word because it can be used in so many ways and in connetion with so many things in addition to romantic love.

Today I am surfing the lovely happy waves created by my love of learning as I have joined a class and started studying something new and very interesting (se below for details). My feeling are in some ways fairly close to being in love even though it is not to a person. 

Conflicts and quarrells with close ones are the worst kind, those persons are the ones most capable of hurting us with their words and actions and they are the ones that most of all reduce us to the most childish behaviours. They are the ones we keep repeating old patterns with so that we nearly know all the scenes and lines by heart but still play them through even if we now we will not win this time either. And yet we know that life has to go on and the connetion too. Tomorrow and next week or month or year we will still be in the same relationship - still dearly love each other. In short, love means that we carry along some history with good parts as well as burdens.

16.3.2013 Sometimes Love is a Bit of a Drag - Watercolor on paper 21x30cm $100 FREE SH

It is said that it takes a whole village to raise a child and also it is cynically said that a mother can support ten children but ten children cannot support a mother. The common thread in these sayings is that love and care is best done as a thing done together both to complement each other but also to share responsibilities and sometimes the burdens that loving someone may also bring.