Happy Mother's Day

This is a one foot-square mixed-media piece that I'm sending to my mom. It contains oil pastel, torn photographs, coloured paper, tempra paint, coloured pencils and love. Below, some detail shots.



The little grandmothers are tiny photographs of women I met in Cuba (I was there with my mom). I posted these portraits about two years ago: http://sveavikander.blogspot.com/2006/07/cuba-ii-tres-avuelas.html



In this detail, you can see some of the other photographs in this piece -- a cut-up shot of the Eiffel Tower and some fragments of the image below.

Tea Leaves (me breathless)

This is a Japanese tea-flower.







I wanted to get pictures of it unfolding, but it exploded before I could catch it. It tastes like regular green tea.

Beet Red Rain

This is a piece I did for a University of Toronto art show about four years ago. I took hand-made papers and cooked them with beets, which dyed them a gorgeous soft red. Then I stuck them to this board, along with some photographs, carved it up a bit, added some white paint... It looked great and I gave it away to a friend who wanted it; the next time I saw the piece, the paper had gone a putrid choral colour and the whole thing reminded me of dentistry. Here I've updated it with acrylic and tempra paints.

Street Art: Sevilla and Tetouan

...Not that they're in the same country, or anything. Sevilla = Seville, Spain. Tetouan is a mountain city in the north of Morocco. This is Ketamina; a variety of other recreational drugs were scrawled on this wall, but I like this one because of the magenta+orange combo.



I think this was a state-sponsored mural, left unfinished. It's better this way.



Does this (advertising) count as art? At first I thought it was for decoration, but they actually sell these oil lamps; the kid was playing soccer with his friend (outside of the frame)

Street Art: Granada

This guy must be the staple of the street-art world. His casper-like figure started appearing in Kensington Market maybe five years ago and when I got to Granada (off the bus alone, late at night, going the wrong way), he was such a comforting sight.



This lovely lady (and other large pieces) line the street up the 'back way' to the Alhambra Castle.



Cats in Al Bayzein, the Arabic/Hippie quarter.



'Moorish' architecture.

Street Art: Madrid

Imagina. I like the way that the artist has integrated his/her work into the decay of the building.




Madrid seems like a city of peeling paper -- layers upon layers, both preserved and destroyed. I had been thinking that and the next day I saw the Spanish film 'El Orphilino' (The Little Orphan Boy), which used the peeling-back-paper theme throughout.




Two and Seven. These are from the wholesale textile district. I don't know what the story is.

Street Art: Paris

Anarchist symbol on a bronze statue above the Seine.




The Rodin Museum gives these stickers as admission tickets. Hundreds of people chose this one pole for their very own public art. I love the 'natural distribution' of stickers -- most at arm-level with ever decreasing frequency towards the top and bottom of the pole. It's the bell-curve!




Lea, you are one lucky girl.

Portrait: Milena

These are two versions of the headshots I did for my talented friend Milena. A book publisher has contacted her about using the photo in a publication about unique headshots. I made her print and send in both. I really prefer the top one!

Jewelry: Nahanni Necklace

Also from the Organic Metal Gallery course, this piece was made using the lost-wax casting technique. It's sterling silver with copper wire accents, hung on turquoise leather.

Jewelry: Nomen Silver Cuff

I just finished what I'm sure will be the first of many metal-working class at Organic Metal Gallery on College St. I made this silver cuff bracelet with raised text. The text is a series of names: mis-spellings from my family's fifty years in Canada. I photocopied the original writing so that I could get as close as possible to the authenticity of human errata. Plus, it looks better.

VICTORIKANDER
V. KURDER
DIKENDER
VIRANDER
BICANDER
VUJABDER
VIKONOLER
VANDEKER
VIAKANDER
VANKANDE
VIHASDER
VICKANVER
VAKANTER
VIKKAUDER
VINKANDER
V. CONDOR

The first (Victorikander) appeared on a bill from Bell Canada. I didn't want to pay the bill so I almost didn't. It wasn't, after all, addressed to me. The last (V. Condor) is a contribution from my late grandfather, Yngve. It was typed carefully onto a 1955 doctor's bill; I can just hear him annoucing himself as Mr. "Vee-kahn-der" with his soft Swedish accent.









A few people have asked me why I didn't include "Vikander". Because I'll be the one wearing it, I didn't feel the need to. Also, I had to omit plenty of hilarious name variations due to space restrictions. And finally, there's something about the fact that this is an immigrant name; I feel that in a way this collection of names is a story of immigration. Although one of the misspellings did come from a piece of IKEA correspondence, the chances of a Swedish name being so regularly mangled *in Sweden* seem slim.
These are names other people have called us. By wearing them, I suppose I am drawing attention to difference (not just to my personal sense of being different, but also to the uniqueness of each spelling), and looking at the ways that we carry our words/names on our bodies. Our bodies, and the way we decorate them, contribute to our sense of identity, as much as a name does. Like the bracelet, it seems a bit circular.

The cuff is sterling silver, made by rolling an acid-etched plate across a flat silver piece. To create the acid-etched plate, one must etch into a rubberize surface, carving out the space that will be in relief on the final piece. The plate is then dipped into acid so that the spaces carved out can be etched/corroded further into the metal, and the rubber will completely disintegrate. Below, the acid-etched plate and the safety pin I used to carve out the details. The text is backwards because the end result is always a mirror image of your carving, much like a print. The safety pin has a bit of family memory in it, too. I found it on a beautiful dress that my aunt lent me. It was holding a seam together. A reminder of her early days as a Vikander!

NB: Carving 'N' backward is particularly difficult.

Jewelry: Gris

I've started to get into jewelry-making again. This is a pendant I made over a weekend glass fusing intensive at Nanopod Hybrid Studio (http://www.nanopod.tv/). Glass fusing is a process that involves cutting and arranging glass so that it can be melted and re-formed in a kiln. The top three photos show the piece in different lights; the bottom shows the back. I stamped the silver with GRIS, french for grey.

Jewelry: Belt Buckle

This is a belt buckle. It needs a belt. Photographing glass is really difficult. I don't think any one of these photos really capture the colours very well... It's purple, not brown. Like the Gris piece, the floating metallic piece is a gold-foiled piece of glass melted in.

Jewelry: Retro Pendant

I wanted this pendant to look a little bit like a retro sports logo... It really depends which way you hold it. With the lines vertical it looks like a flower/plant design; horizontally it looks a bit more sportif. Because I wanted to hide the silver post it's hanging on a diagonal. Below, another blue pendant; this one is bezel set (with silver backing and encircling it).

Sri Lanka: Veronika in Wonderland

This is Veronika, a good friend of mine from Spain. We met in the meditation centre and took off for a few days to explore. Look in the reflection of her sunglasses... It's a massive Buddha statue! Those are her clothes hanging to dry at Nilambe below, and some scenes we came across during our time together. We have a man on a train, a roadside sales shack that I planned to photograph for two months, and a three-wheeled taxi on the road to Galaha.

Sri Lanka: Night Portraits and Stones

My friend Karla and I went out in Colombo on Posson Poya, one of the major celebrations in Sri Lanka. A dry-law is in effect and the people flock to the ocean side, eating 'short eats' (fast food that usually contains some kind of dough) and playing in the moonlight. Below are some stones, probably once used for cooking.

Sri Lanka: Negombo

The first place I stayed in Sri Lanka was a small and touristed fishing village on the South West coast. These are photos from that time. From top: view of the Indian Ocean from a fishing shack (black and white), some ongoing renovations (in blue) and a plastic fence to protect some hotel flowers.

Sri Lanka: Cracked Walls

I saw this beautiful house from the seat of my bicycle, on the way to Matale. I made Veronika stop while I took 20 photos. Isn't it beautiful?

Sri Lanka: Staircase

It's a common understanding among travelers that "nothing" in India or Sri Lanka *works*. I hate to say I agree with this, but it did take TWO HOURS to be rushed to the hospital when I had an allergic reaction. The issue? The taxi needed to gas up... Half an hour out of the way. Plus, we were stuck behind a fish vendor's truck. In any case, here is a broken staircase.

Sri Lanka: Beggar Men

I was in Sri Lanka for three months last summer. It's a country that's always fascinated me, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go and stay in a meditation retreat cente. I also did some traveling, and most of these photos are from that portion of my trip. In Cuba I found myself drawn to the dignified old women; in going through my photos from SK, I found that I had taken just as many photos of elegant old men. Here are a few.

Sexy Knitting

My friend Nicole is writing an article on 'sexy knitting' -- the knitting trend's inevitable progression from the parlour to the bedroom. I took these photos for her piece.

Pink Jamaican Concrete

These are pictures of a piece of broken concrete off one of the piers at Shaw Park. I'm crazy about the colour, the cracks and the way the rust has seeped into the concrete. The last photo is just me playing around: I lowered the exposure and increased the contrast to get the edge (the part that had the most light on it) to stand out.

Pink

OK, this might seem obvious. Maybe it would be cooler if the word were 'boy' or 'link' or something -- but I've been pressing flowers under their colour designation in this very dictionary for years. Like, since I was a kid. And sometimes they fade and I find brown petals under 'violet'.

Taylor

Taylor is a friend of mine. We met while taking training in psychodynamic psychotherapy at TAC. She is a poet, a story-teller, a therapist and healer of all kinds, as well as being one of the most expressive people I have ever met. I was honoured when she asked me to do the head shots for her new site. She has such a beautiful, interesting face that I couldn't help getting a bit creative. I particuarly like the ones with her face half-lit.

Taylor in Colour

Tree / Trunk

La Vie en Rouge

Alors, je suis a Paris. Je trouve que la plupart de mes photos sont domines par le coloeur rouge. Ici sont quelques photos d'Anne, ma copine, avant de sortir. Il y en a aussi des photos d'une femme Parisienne (belle, comme toutes les femmes parisiennes!) et d'une porte avec un coeur, proche d'un restaurant franco-chinois. A bientot!

New Year's Day

I took these shots early this morning. The church is just north of College on Shaw St. in Toronto.

Rose Box

This is a piece that I made for a friend in the summer of 2002; it was her birthday. I had the flat wooden box from my grandfather's basement and I decorated it with dried rose petals, white eggshell housepaint, magazine images, feathers, found objects, etc. Inside were more rose petals and little notes saying the things I liked about her. Here I am, on the way to the party.

In other news, I have finally created myself a flickr account. Wanna see 123 of my photos? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sveavikander .

I am also in the process of setting up an online store through cafepress.com . Cafepress allows me to custom-design merchandise and sell it safely online. The site is in progress but you can check it out at: http://www.cafepress.com/svea .

You could, for example, buy this very serene mousepad.

Nature Walk

These are all photos of the same thicket of trees. I adjusted the exposure on my new camera(!) to get the warmer shades in the sky.

The Leopard and the Umbrella

This is Tessa in front of her leopard-print umbrella. Her face is so expressive! I should make all my models stand outside in the cold.

Corn Field

As much as I love the city, I think places like this are pretty darn beautiful.

Eyelashes

These are leftover from the photoshoot I did on Sunday. The shots of Kristen and Dave on LifeLines (http://www.onlinelifes.blogspot.com) are from the same afternoon. I think these would look better in black and white, but I've run out of time...

And here they are.

feathers and skin

I took these yesterday, too. They are self-portraits taken from the reflection off my glass-topped coffee table, which has a pink silk scarf and a dismantled (feather) burlesque costume inside it. The sun came in through my window for only a few minutes.

sunset/refractory

These are shots from the sunset the other night. It's the view from my west-facing window; the hanging glass piece is a rainbow-maker that I inherited from my alternative elementary school (Wondertree -- check it out in the sidebar link).

The first is out of focus, but I like the fuzzyness. I think it goes well with the soft evening light.

And here are some more, from yesterday.

Youn might notice the dirt more than the light, but it's still pretty.

For some reason this just hasn't gotten old yet. I love my view. Here are some more.




Maybe this won't end until I move out. Here are some more. They were all taken on the same solitary evening.

Mudra

Emily and I are talking about doing a series of yogic hand/body postures called 'mudras' (sp?). While I was photographing her scars, we took this shot. It's such a powerful pose.

Life Lines: The Scar Show

This is the invite for the show I've been working on. It's been such an intense experience, photographing parts that people usually try to hide. Sometimes it really is a mix of therapy and art... I've learnt so much about people and bodies, as well as the relationship between model/photographer. The photos will be up at Good For Her for the month of November; the opening afternoon tea will most be November 3rd from 2:00 to 5:00pm. As always, all are welcome.

Also, check out the Life Lines blog (http://www.onlinelifelines.blogspot.com) to see scar photos and stories.

Cabbage Cuff Monster

Maxi Boyd sent out a call for artists interested in contributing to his Monster Mail Artswap (http://monstermailartswap.blogspot.com/). This is what I'm sending to my new friend in Sudbury. It's a monster made out of cabbage.

And this is what my new friend, Martin, had to say about his monster:

Received my monster – it was most disappointing...You should inform participants if they are sending an inkjet pic, to at least make sure that there is sufficient ink in the cartridge and to use a half decent stock. I can barely even make out the image.

Sorry Martin!

Chere Cara (Dear, fr., Dear, sp.)

These are photos of my beautiful friend, Kara. The bowl holds icing sugar, which holds some personal symbolism for her. Plus, it photographs really nicely.

New Paintings

I've been posting photography lately, so here are some of my most recent paintings (a trilogy) to even it out. They are all in various stages of completion. The piece in these first three shots is about six feet high; I used a piece of cloth dipped in turquoise paint to create the spine-like effect. I've been wanting to do something with vertebrae patterns for a while. I'm not sure where it will go from here.