In preparing for the exhibition due next year I am often asked the question, “Why do you paint the Danish political leaders?”

True to tradition I can’t help but include some indignation in my exhibitions, and the upcoming one – “The Candidates” – won’t be an exception. The next Danish general election is due no later than November 16th 2011, and I thought an exhibition would be a brilliant occasion to zoom in on the electoral options.

Who do we want leading this nation?

Power demands humility, but sadly, power has been wielded with anything but Humility in the recent history of this country. As the opposing virtue of the most deadly cardinal sin Superbia or Pride, Humility is a rarity among politicians who fight each other to become the prom-queen of Parliament. In other words, who can look more attractive and important to the electorate?

There is one candidate that stands out however.
Defined by Dante as “love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbour.” Pride is probably best witnessed when looking at the behaviour of the queen of a certain national socialist party a.k.a. The Danish People’s Party.
Since 2001 the DPP has had the unique power of being able to tip the scales, and thus possessed a strong bargaining position which it has not been slow to exploit at any opportunity to tighten the laws on immigrants and refugees. This can hardly be described as Humility.

For these deeds the leader of the DPP Pia Kærsgaard is awarded the sin “Pride – Superbia”, and will have her very own according portrait painted at the exhibition “The Candidates” in February.
Until then you have to make make do with a simple photo of her from the DPP campaign that is running at the moment. The painted portrait will surprise and delight, so join the exhibition!

Stay tuned to see who wins the remaining 6 awards:
Avaritia – Greed
Luxuria – Lust
Invidia – Envy
Gula – Gluttony
Ira – Wrath
Acedia – Sloth
…and who, if any, dodges the award…

Enjoy!

Continue to read about the Cardinal sin Wrath

The current way DPP shows off it's leader.

“In Charge” (Helle Thorning Schmidt and Stephen Kinnock), 200×140 cm., 2010, Oil pastel and acrylic on Canvas, 22.000 kr.

On Sep 16th. the Danish IRS exonerated Helle Thorning-Schmidt and her husband Stephen Kinnock.
It seems all is well that ends well. Except for the fact that our political system is still bancrupt and politics has nothing to do with fighting for the good of the people and everything to do with protecting power and income.
3 questions remain:
1. Why do politicians continue to bribe and slander when their energy should be spent listening and leading?
2. When will the press own up to it’s political leanings and admit when it’s pursuing agendas?
3. Why vote for any politician that has too much at stake not to have the balls to lead?

The current state of demoCRAZY is forcing any sane person to stay at home come the next election. Even though it’s a silent support of the incumbent, what is the alternative?
Left and right is now vying for the middle ground and taking turns bribing the electorate with any and all trick in the book. Government is bending over for the soap whenever they need the help of the national-socialists a.k.a. Danish Peoples Party to pass another state budget.

The term “Independent Press” has never seemed more like a charade. This was aptly demonstrated in the tax scandal raised against Helle T-S. The right-leaning tabloid BT brought the “story” to the surface while the left leaning former broadsheet Politiken fought to suppress it and defend Helle. The outcome of the matter became irrelevant when the two papers didn’t even have the integrity to admit their real political agendas. No wonder print is dying. Content and integrity is EVERYTHING.

Pointing the proverbial 3 fingers at myself (and the rest of the electorate), Why do we even waste our time going to the polls? Next election is due no later than november 16th. 2011. Will I believe next time that it matters? Will you? If not, this state has a serious problem.

Let me take this opportunity to promote an alternative. My next exhibition “The Candidates” opens in central Copenhagen in February/March 2011. Come, eat and drink, chat with friends, and most importantly VOTE for your Candidate. Each Candidate will be represented with their own painting, one of which is revealed above this text. More information will follow here on this blog as the date approaches. If you want to make certain you receive an invitation then sign up for the newsletter “Studionotes” in the top right corner.
Enjoy!

I don’t get out much these days, as I usually stay at home to take care of the kids.
Having finished a few paintings in the “War is Coming Home” series, something got me thinking about the lives of the Talibans or talibs if you will.

What are they like, and what’s the deal, you know – really… Some light research ensued and, tadaah!

So here goes – The top 10 list of things you probably didn’t know about Taliban:

10: The Taliban consists mainly of Mujahideen and as it were, former allies of the West.
9: Many Talibs actually do smoke, regardless of what Mullah Omar says,
8: The majority of the Taliban movement is made up of Pashtun tribemembers practicing the moral code “Pashtun Wali” which has hospitality as one of it’s cornerstones.
7: The Taliban established an Ombudsman in 2009.
6: While not in combat, the Taliban enjoy a good game of rock-throwing.
5: The Taliban numbered roughly 45.000 in 2001, 11.000 in 2008 and 36.000 in 2010.
4: Ahmad Shah Massoud (Leader of the opposing United Front/Northern Alliance) stated in 2001 that without help from Pakistan, the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for a year – Since 2001 Pakistan has received 11,5 bln. USD in military aid from the United States.
3: On october 4 2001, Pakistan refused an offer from the Taliban to have Osama Bin Laden handed over for trial on the grounds that Pakistan could not guarantee his safety.
2: Few Talibs have ever read the Koran, but rather learn it by heart verbally.
1: Since 2004 the Taliban has been known as the “Islamic Insurgency”.

I find myself just a tad better informed now, hope you do too.

The painting below “Forever after Silent” is the third in the series “War is Coming Home”. If you’re from anywhere around Copenhagen you might recognize the backdrop.

Enjoy!

Some days have passed since my last post.
I have been busy taking care of the twins + working my “day job” in the the Danish Defence. I earn my living there briefing up soldiers on cultural awareness and how to communicate in a manner that creates friends rather than more enemies.

I did find some time for a new series of paintings based on a piece I did earlier this year.
That painting was of Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, featuring a burnt-out Humvee in front of the parading Royal Lifeguards.

The point of this series is to try to imagine what it would be like if the theatre of war was Denmark rather than some remote country like Afghanistan.
To many people in Denmark, the conflict in Afghanistan is costly, and hard to understand.
It’s remote, and whatever news-stories emerge on the evening news are hard to relate to.

What would happen if every news-story related to a location in Denmark?
The second painting in the series is posted below. It’s titled “Power Disruption” and features Christiansborg – home of the Danish parliament, with a burned-out bus in front. Enjoy!

There was a time when a politician was a person you elected to lead your country.
You elected this person because of the ideals and principles she represented.
You elected this person because you wanted her to enact change.
At the end of the term, you re-elected her if you still believed in her.

There was a time when a politician was a person who wanted to lead the country.
She ran for election because she believed in ideals and principles.
She ran for election because she wanted to change the world.
At the end of the term she was re-elected if she had been true to her ideals and principles.

There was a time when being a politician was a vocation and a privilege.
There was a time when leadership was about doing what’s right for the country.
There was a time when fearing the judgment of the people made you unfit to lead.
There was a time when politicians were judged by their ability to lead.

What else do you need to know about your politician?

Getting to know Helle Thorning Schmidt

I have been a fan of Trey Ratcliffs for some time now. Trey is one of the pioneers of HDR photography, and he has been instrumental in making this sort of photography popular and known by the masses.

For a while HDR has been regarded as a sort of artificial or unrealistic school of photography.
It was frowned upon by the photography establishment and until now not seen as a legitimate form in its own right. Many such photographers thought that the extreme dynamic range possible with HDR made the photographs “unrealistic” and not true to reality.

Until HDR emerged, everyone was used to the fact that a taking a photo meant committing to a certain exposure. Anyone who has tried photographing outside from whithin a building knows that the final photo either shows a proper lighting of the interior OR the exterior. That is, either the interior darker details are visible and the outside is a white blur OR the outside bright details, clouds etc are visible and the interior details of the room are a dark blur.

Traditional photography means you have to chose. But in real life we don’t have to chose. The eyes adjust to the proper sensitivity according to where we focus. The combined experience is that we can see BOTH the details in the clouds outside AND the darker details of the interior room. HDR works the same way – you get the best of both worlds, and a photo that is closer to the experience that you actually had when you were there.

Trey is a nice guy with a mission to promote HDR photography. He runs a blog at stuckincustoms.com that has tens of thousands of visitors every day, but decided to help other HDR photographers spread their work and generate traffic to their sites. So he created HDRspotting.com which works as a traffic generation engine. It’s a community by invitation where members can upload and share their work.

I have posted numerous HDR photos to HDRspotting.com, and as a result thousands of people have now seen my photos of the fairy tale castles and landscapes that are so common in Scandinavia it’s almost hard to spot them. Here’s an example of what I mean: the lake pavillion in central Copenhagen. Visible from a unique angle this winter because of the prolonged frost that made walking on the lakes possible.

Enjoy!

As a result of Opposition leader Helle Thornings Schmidts tax scandal, her party has now lost 4 %-points (27,3% to 23,3%) in the course of a month. Before the summer holiday Helle stood to win the next election and oust the incumbent government. This ground has now been lost.
But fear not Helle, I am sure your party will be able to dig out some dirt on the incumbents.

I am moving ahead with the first of the contrafactual portraits of hypocritical danish politicians – the pillory series due to be finished next year. The series will feature the leaders of the major danish political parties.

As it is, the danish political climate is marred by scandals and personal attacks.
There’s little room left for politicians actually seeking to discuss POLITICS.
It’s a tragedy.

So much is threatening the wellfare of the Danish society: Financial crisis, unemployment, a failed public shool, crippled competitiveness in terms of exports and attracting qualified workers, a morally bankrupt immigration and refugee policy.

None of this is debated by the key “presidents” of each party as they fear losing their constituencies. Instead they focus on front politics meant to signal the party line and garner more votes and better polls. By the way, party lines are somewhat blurred now that every party is aiming for the middle ground.

I am revolted by the fact that NO SINGLE major politician has the discipline to adhere to principles and ideals. It has now become a battle for the lowest common denominator.

Stay tuned for more uncovering portraits as we move along the path towards the pillory.

I went exploring in Kings Gardens the other day, and found a nice view of the castle Rosenborg built by King Christan IV in 1606-1607.
Today it houses the crown jewels and the nearby barracks of the royal life guard.

Go see for yourself!

Pillory
Pronunciation: \ˈpi-lə-rē, ˈpil-rē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural pil·lo·ries
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French pilori
Date: 13th century

1 : a device formerly used for publicly punishing offenders consisting of a wooden frame with holes in which the head and hands can be locked
2 : a means for exposing one to public scorn or ridicule

I had been waiting for days when finally on wednesday I could get my hands on the trial print of the new series based on the TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) painting that was originally shown at the Bottom Out exhibition last year.

TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday)

I am pleased with the result, the colors are rich and deep, the paper soft like velvet.
Holding the print I am filled with a sense of joy and pride. I’m guessing many authors and artists have felt the same way when holding the first copy of their work. Somehow it get’s more real when I see it in real life. – I made this.

The print series will be limited, all signed and numbered. Stay tuned in the coming days to get the details on availability and pricing.