north, west

hi. i just arrived at Korpúlfsstaðir, Reykjavík, Iceland, yesterday afternoon and i'm still not over the fact that life is amazing. for this residency i am staying in an old milk factory from the 20s that used to be the biggest dairy farm in all of Iceland. i have a sweet old room and there are about 40 art studios here, one huge one of which is shared between me and a few other folks who have yet to arrive.

my first impression of Iceland is that it reminds me of construction sites in the countryside, where there are piles of rocks everywhere torn out of the dirt, no trees anywhere and gravel roads in between. the ground looks like it is eating itself sometimes.

so, here are some photos from my last days in Hestmanvagen, as well as a few snaps of Oslo and what i did and saw. oh yeah and some pictures from the airplane, i couldn't resist

ps. i am not afraid of flying anymore

...


the same night i posted my last blog entry, a little bull calf was born in the pasture





his mom's name is Sveia, which means "Sweden" in an old language. his name is Petter Sveiasson



on a cow related note, here is an unflaterring photo of me milking a cow


here they are grazing by the sea after milking

one saturday, we went fishing.










a few hours later as i was going to pick up the mail, their neighbor, Carl Einar, invited me to go fishing with him and his daughter, Anne-Marie. i didn't fish, but just enjoyed the ride







herring, "the silver of the sea"







goodbye Lurøy kommun

Oslo



the first night i stayed with some punk/art school squatter kids. a dude named Bjørn showed me around town, including Vigeland sculpture park, Edvard Munch's house and the Blitz squat next to Munch's house






mural on the side of the house

i also went to the National Gallery and saw this work (one of the four versions) in person, alongside some other wonderful Norweigan painters like Johan Christian Dahl, and Theodore Kittelsen. his work From The Folk Tale Cycle Soria Moria, The Palace Beyond The Woods from 1900 was one of my favs



for the last few days in town i stayed with Ådne, a black metal guy really into olde tyme Norse religions. here he is preparing some whale for dinner


so un-p.c.


church near Ådne's


strange newspaper photo clips from the Middle East on the wall of the church. Oslo has a huge immigrant population, i felt like i was in LA






on my last night in Oslo, i went to see Mt. Eerie/Phil Elvrum from Washington state, USA at the art school. about 4 songs into the set Phil made some comment like,"um, i'm only gonna play a few more songs because...everyone is just staring at me and when i say something no one responds and it's weird. maybe it's a Norweigan thing?" which was really akward and i felt like the Norweigans got slightly dissed there for a minute because they tend to listen politely and give undivided attention


anyway, Six Organs of Admittance from Oakland, CA (with Elisa Ambrogio from the Magic Markers) also played


they were really really good


thank you



the next day i caught my flight to Reykjavik, the northernmost nation's capital in the world.


approaching the coast of Iceland


swooping in on KEF

well, i'll be posting more often now that i'll have the net for the next month. i'm off to get this day started, anyway.


peace out !