New Article: "A whole playground of playhouses..."

Last time I wrote to you it was about a playhouse inspired by Gaudi.
I asked why not build a Picasso playhouse?
A Miro playhouse?
A Matisse playhouse?
Do you know the Austrian painter Hunderdwasser?
A Hundredwasser playhouse would be great fun.
And a Salvador Dali playhouse?


Ed Baron from Baron Conservancy in Wonder Valley near desert oasis city of Twenty Nine Palms, a few miles east of Los Angeles wrote:
"Can't you just see a whole playground of Playhouses? What a wonderful art project. It would certainly tie in with our purpose of preserving Art and Human Nature. Perhaps volunteers will agree to come erect them at the Baron Conservancy?"

First I asked Ed Baron if he was serious?
He answered: OF COURSE I AM SERIOUS.

In order to describe this project to sponsors I have designed a number of new playhouses inspired by the great masters.


Pablo Picasso
I do love very many of Picasso's works.
Once I visited New York I was at MOMA.
In my photo album there is this amazing photo of one of my sons and the Picasso She Goat.
The She Goat is a fairy tale character in the fairy tale "The Baby Carriage and the Sleep Sheep", too.
A staircase up to the door and two windows.
The playhouse you can see to the left.



Leonardo da Vinci
Everybody knows Leonardo da Vinci. Everybody knows da Vinci's masterpiece at le Louvre in Paris.
I have been in Paris a couple of times, last time to see Biblioteque Forney, where they have a collection of my posters.
But I have to visit Mona each time.
This time you were allowed to photo her.
As I returned home I made the Colorful Mona Collection.
You can have Mona in a canvas, in a paper cut-out and now in a playhouse version.
The height is supposed to be 15 feet.



Andy Warhol
I have seen Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans here and there. At AROS Museum of modern art in Aarhus, Denmark I saw an original.
The height is supposed to be 18 feet.



Michelangelo
I saw his renaissance fresco "Creation of Adam" (1508-1512), which is a part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling decoration in the Vatican Museums in Rome. In my opinion God's right hand and Adam's left hand are the essentials of the fresco motif.
I have worked with these two hands in various contexts.
Now these two hands have become a playhouse design.
The height is supposed to be 15 feet.



Salvador Dali
Since I saw Dali's soft watches for the first time I have been fascinated by them.
He was crazy. Really crazy.
I met his son in Rome, we exhibited at the same place, he was a nice, humorous fellow painting nice aqua color motifs from his home city Venice, Italy.
"Like father like son" proved wrong.
The soft watch became the roof of a playhouse.
Height 9 feet.



Christo
Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon are famous for wrapping buildings.
Here a playhouse is wrapped in green and with a blue string.
Height: 10 feet.



Vincent van Gogh
Playhouse inspired by Vincent's chair.
Height: 21 feet.



Joan Miró
I sent all the above designs and a design of a Miró playhouse to Copy-Dan to clear intellectual rights (Copyrights).
All the above have been cleared, but my Miró playhouse was made with a gable painting that was too close to Miró.


______________________________________________________

A question to the blog readers about something else:
Editorial Croquis, which is a printed art magazine and a publishing company in Buenos Aires has run some of my articles about art museums in Spanish.
The director and editor of Editorial Croquis Martin Enriques Gil has asked me to write a book "The Museums of the World by Asbjorn Lonvig", published by Editorial Croquis in Danish, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
And I have answered: I'll do it, I'll find out how.
We need a sponsor for this project.
Do you have any suggestions??
______________________________________________________



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Improving my English

I keep of course track of these - thoroughly.
And put them into my testimonials and critics on my web site for marketing reasons.
I really enjoy this.
But.
But.
But.
But.
There is a reverse of the medal.
Now and then I get really angry responses.
So angry that I can't understand that people can be that upset over art on a web site.
I got an e-mail from Sim Tack, who lives in Belgium.
In the subject of the e-mail he writes:
"you sir, are a disgrace to artists!"]]>

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

About.com says under Urban Legends and Folklore:
Paraskevidekatriaphobics - people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th - are no doubt pricking up their ears just now, buoyed by evidence that their terror may not be so irrational after all. But it's unwise to take solace in a single scientific study (the only one of its kind, so far as I know), especially one so peculiar. I suspect it has more to teach us about human psychology than it does about any particular date on the calendar.

Wise people like myself don't care.
Or am I wise?
No.


On Friday the 13th of August I published my first Art News Artblog. I had worked for days to present myself and my art in a live art Magazine to you.
And of course made a link to Colorful News.
But.
The link did not work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm a fool.

So I'll repeat the link to Colorful News: http://www.lonvig.dk/colorful-news.htm
and check it 7 times.
Sorry!

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I remember nothing after the Tsunami. Who am I?

Who am I?
I have lost my parents.
I am in the Phuket Hospital.
I remember nothing after the Tsunami.
Do you know who I am?

2006 - a happy new year...

Good morning - it's 1 January 2006. Yesterday I performed all traditional Danish rituals in order to enter 2006 in a happy way. In order to make 2006 a Happy New Year. A splendid seafood dinner, serpentines, table bombs, funny hats, lots of rockets etc. Except one traditional Danish ritual. I was not drunk. No beer. No vine. No drinks. No champagne. Lots of mineral water. My entrance to 2006 was vertical. Not horizontal as it often was. I have no hangovers. I have cleaned up my domestic domaine and I am ready to write.

I have decided that 2006 is a happy new year... A wise man - a philosopher from Copenhagen - said at the end of 2005: Don't put your life into an account. Live your life now - passionately. Don't commit yourself to any New Year Resolutions. Don't exercise. Don't loose weight. Don't quit smoking. Don't... Don't put your life into an account. Live your life now - passionately. The wise man of course said this with a smile. But I sure see his point.

Here is how I'll try to live my artist life - now - passionately:
- Weekly domestic art initiatives.
- The World Wide Days project.
- The revival of the poster project.
- The Auctions project. - Monthly interactive lecture in Lille Fejringhus Gallery.
- Monthly article to online and printed Art Magazines.
- Fairy Tales.
- The book Museums of the world.
- Education, education and education.


Weekly domestic art initiatives.
Is about continuously being in touch with the domestic market.
By personally presenting new art works to potential buyers.
It's about earning a living.




World Wide Days.
Is about continue building a network of online galleries worldwide.
It's about optimizing existing exhibitions.
It's about adding new art works to the exhibitions.
It's about monitoring new exhibition possibilities.




Revival of the poster.
It's about marketing the print on demand of my art works.
Print on demand ordered online at my print partners in Salt Lake City, UT and Raleigh, NC.
Print on demand - prints on paper or canvas - ordered at Asbjorn Lonvig Digital Art Laboratory.




Auctions.
Is about auctioning art works on ebay.com, kunstverket.se and other auctions.
It's about maintaining skills about how to do it.
It's about optimising use of online auctions.




Monthly interactive lecture in Lille Fejringhus Gallery.
Is about deciding myself where and when to do interactive lectures.
Lille Fejringhus Gallery is the perfect place.
An interactive lecture is mentally exhausting, so only once a month would be nice.




Monthly article to online and printed Art Magazines.
Is about being on the move, about telling the stories, that an artist must tell.
It is about a kind of relaxation.
A visual artist relaxes when he expresses himself literally.




Fairy Tales.
Inuit Circumpolar Area culture and especially Greenlandish culture are the inspiration to a series of new fairy tales in children's books.
The Laura-project it is called.
I'll visit Greenland in 2006.
The fairy tale series the Lucca-project has been translated from English into Dansih, German, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese.
In 2006 a bilingual edition in English and Persian (Arabic) will be published.




Museums of the world.
Is about Editorial Croquis, which is a printed art magazine and a publishing company in Buenos Aires that has run some of my articles about art museums in Spanish.
The director and editor of Editorial Croquis Martin Enriques Gil has recently asked me to write a book "The Museums of the World by Asbjorn Lonvig", published by Editorial Croquis in Danish, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
And I have answered: I'll do it, I'll find out how. In 2006 I'll do something about it. Layout. Edition sizes. Sponsor contracts. The first visits to museums etc.




Education, education and finally education.
Is about using computer and internet in art and art marketing.
I have to continuously improve my skills in this area - even if I originally was a trained IBM software specialist.
In 2006 my skills concerning using Adobe Illustrator CS2 must be raised to a professional level.



 




Thoughts.
Some years Artprice.com - the leading art information company in the market - pronounced that the art market would increase to 3,5 times the existing art market because of computers and internet.
Since then I have concentrated 100 % on using computer and internet.
During this period of time I have got a lot of condescending response.
I believe the whole art market now is realizing that Artprice.com was right.




In 2006 condescension will be replaced by acceptance???



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New Article: Revival of the art poster...by Asbjorn Lonvig

Thoughts:
If you use the Danish definition of poster, which is any kind of reproduction of art works, you sure can announce that computers and the internet have caused a "Revival of the Art Poster..." in the sense that they have made print on demand posters a major tool in future distribution of reproductions of art works world wide.

My User Portal Concept...

a country, a city, a municipality, a museum, a company etc.
It shows and it has links to those art works that might be relevant to that specific user.
The User Portal logo is the arch of Septimus Severus in Forum Romanum, Rome.

Why User Portals?
The short and simple answer is to serve my customers better and to seve customers that are not familiar with computers, with internet etc.

I'll show you a User Portal.
I am building the Aarhus City Portal right now.
Aarhus City is the second largest city in Denmark.
Aarhus City has 225.000 inhabitants.
So, this user portal intends to serve 225.000 users.

The first thing to do is to create motifs that describe Aarhus City.
I went to Aarhus and found buildings and landmarks of Aarhus, that I could use.
The new museum, the city hall tower, the queen's summer residence, the Theater, a house in the Old Town, the cathedral and finally the old cathedral office in St. Clemen's Courtyard.

Today I finished these motifs:




I load large files of all the images to print on demand contracting parties in Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Francisco Bay Area. The images are approved at once in Salt Lake City and Seattle. In San Francisco the images might wait for approval.

First of all I use a User Portal logo.

The logo is of course a portal. In a matter of fact it is a very specific portal. It is the Arch of Septimus Severus, which was erected in the Roman Forum in A.D. 203 by the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus.
You can't study Roman history without visiting the Roman Forum once.
You can't visit the Roman Forum without passing through the Arch of Septimus Severus.
In this logo a BETA will shown in the big arch. That is because the 40 different User Portals, that have been launched so far are being tested.
The Aarhus City Portal is marked with a BETA, too.

See the Aarhus City Portal.
The motifs are presented. Here 7 motifs. You might see an enlargement by clicking on an image.
Then there are 3 sections. 1, 2 and 3.

1. The user must have some free titbit. So I give him the possibility to download three Word documents of each motif. Word documents that can be printed on the user's own printer.
I have to be aware of different formats in European and American standards. The European standard is A format and the American standard it is Letter format. The Aarhus City Portal probably will only be used by Europeans - therefore the A format is offered.

2. Here I guide the user to order print at print on demand contracting parties. One in Salt Lake City, one in Seattle and one in San Francisco Bay area.
By guiding to 3 print on demand contracting parties the users are offered a variety of sizes, prices, qualities and surfaces.
At the same time I keep track of what happens in this market.

The prices are kept low - the user only pays the base print price and internet costs. The user can order prints in sizes from 3.5 x 5” to 40 x 60” on paper and canvas – and some other funny surfaces like T-shirts, mugs, tote bags etc. etc. The print contracting party handles ordering and payment. The printing of course and the prints are sent directly to the user.

If the user wants to see some of the my other 750 images for print there is a link to the main pages in Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Francisco Bay Area.

3. If the user wants something special. A painting. Limited edition prints. Signed prints. A huge print on canvas larger than 40 x 60" - no problem, he just has to contact me.

A brochure is available to each User Portal.
The brochure is of course used for initial presentation of the portal.
You can download the brochure Aarhus City Portal from the portal.


Thoughts.
Now what is the most important to succeed with these User Portals.
Is it to do excellent motifs? No!
Is it to simplify the User Portal? No!
Is it to make an extremely eye catching brochure? No!

It is to communicate the User Portal Concept to people that are not familiar with computers, with internet etc.
I can not do it myself.
I know too much.
Or!!!!
You might as well say I know much too little.

But.
Journalists know how to present this kind of stuff to their readers.
This week Ny Hedensted Portal and Ny Vejle Portal will have press coverage.
Tomorrow I'll translate the Aarhus City Portal into Danish and find a jounalist at the Aarhus newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende.
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