Time flies. It is now 2023 and already February.
I want to share some thoughts and events that have happened recently. As I wrote in a previous post last December, I am participating in the Cultural Heritage Program here in Umeå, Västerbotten.
This program is an EU – De Minimis scholarship aimed at cultural enterprises. In my case, it's to support my vision of developing my artistic photography. Recently, I have given a great deal of thought to this ambition. Striving to be a "real" artist is not easy. I've been working full-time as a freelancer for some time now, and things are in many ways stuck in convenience and familiarity.
Venturing into the art world is both fascinating and terrifying. I have thought a lot about everything that has led up to this. One thing that influenced me a lot was when I first got to know the artist Mark Gibbs, now a dear friend of mine. We met online over a picture of a musk ox that I had taken. Skip ahead, later I participated as one of 15 artists in the extensive group exhibition – Adventures at the Rheged Centre in Penrith, UK. It was a fantastic exhibition finely curated by John Stokes. I was honored to exhibit my photos from the icebreaker service in the Bothnian Sea next to Mark's sculptures and paintings.
Why am I writing about this that happened so many years ago? Maybe because I've realized that certain moments in life can be meaningful, and in terms of my ambition in fine art photography, this is one of those times. Now I have several projects, and my dream is to get others interested so that I can continue to explore my ideas. Later today, I plan to buy some marking tape for my upcoming project: "TRAKT", a term used in forestry to denote forest stands of similar ages; It also means, in English, a local place, such as your home region.
At Scharinska villan after filming. The cheerful film crew from Bautafilm.
Speaking of which: I have to mention that as part of the program I participate in, I had the opportunity to have a short film about me made by Bautafilm here in Umeå. I felt a little uncomfortable in front of the camera, but overall it was a pretty exciting experience. It's so hard to have anything interesting to say for a short 2-minute video. Fortunately, I have not yet heard my voice. It will take some time to accept. However, if the result isn't too terrible, I promise to post that video on my site later.
Until next time. All the best,
Andreas