Bravo Asbjorn for your wonderful take, in pictures and words, on the corporate world in which we live!!

 

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See CORPORATE VALUES by Michael Juul Jensen at the end of this article.
Corporate values - it sounds boring. Corporate valuez..zzzz...
Storytelling has recently been the buzzword in management.
I went to a couple of storytelling seminars - zzzz..ztorytelling zzzz..zeminars!!!

Did you know that Pfizer Inc. has shown great interest in the combination
of corporate values and storytelling as a sedative drug for those who suffer from insomnia?

Managing director Henrik Thorning, president and founder of Fiberline Composites Inc.
had won the Danish Industry Initiative Award.
I always make an art work to the award winner.
I met him in his factory - I was searching for some inspiration.
He showed me everything - enthusiastically.
He told me everything - enthusiastically.
He had just finished a timeconsuming work of developing the corporate values for the company.
But they were not implemented, yet.
And.
As he saw the logo I had made to 1st grad at Hedensted school.....

Henrik Thorning was excited.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Make a story about SOFUS.
Exactly as pedagogically as the 1st grade logo.

Sure.
Sure.
And my very own storytelling concept had popped up.

A little bit of information to the reader:
Why a story about SOFUS?
Fiberline Composite Inc.'s corporate values focused on Samspil=Interplay, Ordentlighed=decency, Forudseenhed=foresight, Udfordring=challenge and Sund ?konomi=Yield a profit. The initials says SOFUS.
(......in English I still will call him SOFUS. Interplay, Decency, Foresight, Challenge and Yield a profit
says IDFCY....we couldn't call him IDFCY?)

for Fiberline Composites Inc., Denmark
Hi! My name is SOFUS.
My name has five letters.
They are the initials (in Danish) of five keywords,
that describes the values on which my company builds its business.

The first keyword is interplay.

Sofus Interplay

Here I am with open arms,
blue hair,
4 freckles,
large ears,
a big smile,
my very new overall trousers
and a red Shirt
inviting customers, colleges and cooperators
to play with me.
To work together with me.
Then it becomes more fun for me and more fun for you to go to work.

We will become more enthusiastic.

We will communicate better,
and what is most important,
we will be better troubleshooters concerning those problems,
that always will arise in an interplay.

Sofus Decency

Just for fun I have put on a halo.
I am not very holy.
I love beer and girls as everybody else.
But in a cooperation, I believe there must be some rules.
I keep what I promise.
If there are any changes in what we have agreed
we have to talk about it,
even if it can be difficult.

My intention is that whatever I have committed myself to,
will be achieved.

In this way I can assure myself and anybody else that my work will be done in the same way every time
achieving the highest possible standards.

Sofus Foresight...........

It is hard to foretell, especially about the future. Said the Danish humorist Storm P.
However we are not supposed to foretell.
We have to find all the elements, all the facts
that can tell us what the future probably will be like.
We have to keep a sharp lookout all the time.
We have to make good educated guesses.
We have to find out our goals.
Then we know which way to point.

We always try to achieve our goals.
If there is something wrong about our goals, if they are not realistic,
we will have them adjusted.

Sofus Challenge

Recently I was in the city of all cities, Paris.
I was in the Louvre where I saw Mona Lisa, I was
in Montmartre,
here I saw Place du Tetre with all the exhibiting and working artists, and
I saw the huge white cathedral Sacr?-Coeur.
And I saw everything else you have to see in Paris.
For instance the old Triumphal Arch and the new one.
I was at the top of them both. I had to use the stairs in the old Triumphal Arch,
but fortunately there was an escalator in the new Triumphal Arch.
The Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen has created a spectacular edifice.
Of course I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower, too.
But is is old.
It is rusty.
it is heavy, heavy, heavy
it must be hard to maintain.
When you are taking the escalator to the top it creaked and made disturbing sounds.
You almost believed that.....

I think Paris needs a new Eiffel Tower.
As I returned home I wrote to the Mayor of Paris:

Marie de Paris Bertrand Delano?
Hotel de Ville
5 rue de Lobau
75196 Paris RP

I told about the new tower, it is 50 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower is today.
It is erected in the park Champ-de-Mar on Place Jaques Rueff between the river Seine and Ecole Militaire.
The new tower is constructed of light materials free of maintenance and of very strong materials.
Splendid idea, Bertrand Delano? answered,
and asked for more details,
stressing that the architecture should be like that of Spreckelsens new Triumphal Arch.
Copying if possible some of the modernism and elegance of the new Arch in the Defence.

I went to my laboratory.
To invent the right material.
Concerning durability.
Concerning strength.
Concerning weight.
Etc.
And to find the right way to construct the new Eiffel Tower.
And finally to make tests.
As I had finished my work I showed the entire project to
Bertrand Delano?.
He loved the project and he was enthusiastic about implementing it.
SOFUS had invented a brand new modular system of building blocks.
It was world news.

The new Eifel Tower built
in Fibre Composites Materials.
Applying tomorrow's materials today. Next time you are in Paris, you must visit Champ-de-Mar on Place Jaques Rueff. Yield a profit Sofus........

I have put on my office clothes and I have had my hair done.
Now I am ready for talking about money.
To keep a business going it is necessary to earn some money.
Then we can still strengthen our knowledge and become less sensitive towards declining markets.
Our customers must be as satisfied as we are.
We must price our products reasonably, and sell reasonably,
so that we yield a profit.

And SOFUS became a hit
New SOFUSes and new stories were created


about Safety Sofus
about Angry Sofus and many more
As a tribute to the employee's children I made a coloring book in English, Danish and Italian
that the children can download and colorize
The story ...get rid og Angry-Sofus (in English) - the coloring book.
The story ...bliv fri for Vrede-SOFUS (p? dansk) - malebogen.
La storia ...LIBERATI DA SOFUS ARRABBIATO (in italiano) - il libro da Colorare. CORPORATE VALUES

By Michael Juul Jensen
Extracts from an article in e-newsletter INSIDER (www.insider.mondo.dk),
published by Mondo A/S.

Translated and edited by Asbjorn Lonvig.

The good story is met with sympathy in a time, where the
noise of messages is so extremely loud.
In USA the corporate storytelling is the latest tool in stakeholder-relations,
and in Denmark the attention to this tool is increasing.
In storytelling the company has the opportunity to illustrate it's potential,
a potential that is not shown in numbers and digits and
fancy business visions.
Storytelling is the opportunity to
communicate the values and goals of a company.

The good story is easy to remember and you want to tell it to others.
It is an efficient tool to communicate important messages to all
around a company - customers, suppliers, cooperators, competitors,
employees, the press, politicians
and not least stock-holders and potential investors.

In storytelling you have the tool to describe not measurable values and
the development potential of a company.
Concerning publishing these stories the corporate web site and e-newsletter
of course are evident. It's quick and relatively easy.
But it can as well be done by traditional means in the traditional media.
The point is to tell a story that makes it quite clear that
this exact company is something special.

Corporate storytelling started - not surprisingly - in USA.
Some years ago Scott Rosenberg, the managing editor of the famous
American e-zine Salon.com, wrote in an article "Story Time":

"a beginning wave of interest from the corporate world - which is beginning to see
narrative and storytelling as additional powerful tools in the marketing
arsenal. In a business environment where 'branding' has become a
mantra of power, many companies are beginning to think of
advertising as an opportunity to tell their corporate story to the world.
And marketers are looking for ways to capture stories from customers
about how they feel about a company's products and services.
Storytelling isn't just for kids any more - it's for CEOs, too."

PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the companies that soon found out
the impact of a good story on a more efficient branding. One of the partners,
Bill Dauphinais, have said to "Fast Company":

"Brands are built around stories. And stories of identity - who we are,
where we've come from - are the most effective stories of all. This is
a powerful way to bring them to life."

Coca Cola has established a storytelling center i Las Vegas.
In "The World of Coca-Cola" the company percents an entire adventure world
in text, sound and pictures based on the Coca-Cola-brand.
Director Channel Deborah MacCarthy, Coca-Cola's College, says that there
is a thoroughly prepared branding strategy behind this untraditionally initiative:

"We wanted to bring the brand to life, to tell the stories of Coca-Cola,
and to express Coca-Cola's core values: fun, refreshment, and
specialness in people's lives."

The director of IBM's Institute of Knowledge Management, David Snowden
says about IBM's increased attention on the possibilities in storytelling:

"Organizations are beginning to understand that storytelling is not an
optional extra. Stories are something that already exist as an integral
part of defining what that organization is, what it means to buy from it,
what it means to work for it. These are the early days in
understanding the use of stories in modern business. The results,
however, are sufficiently good that we now know that there are major
benefits to be achieved from the use of stories and from the
development of storytelling skills."

In the book "The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge Era
Organizations", Stephen Denning writes about how he - back in 1996 - discovered the power of
storytelling in motivating an entire organization to understand visions and bring visions into effect.
In his work as director of Knowledge Management in The World Bank,
Stephen Denning had for several years needed a better tool in promoting
new initiatives than numbers, reports, graphs etc.
At a meeting with the management he had the job to promote
a new information system.
For the first time he used storytelling.
Here is the story Stephen Denning:

"There was a health care worker in Kamana, Zambia, who in 1995
was searching for a method to treat malaria. The worker logged on to
the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and within minutes
found his answer. This story happened, not in June 2015, but in June
1995. This is not a rich country, it is Zambia, one of the least
developed countries in the world. It is not even the capital of the
country; it is six hundred kilometers away. But the most striking
aspect of the picture is this: Our organization isn't in it. Our
organization doesn't have its know-how and expertise organized in
such a way that someone like the health worker in Zambia can have
access to it. But just imagine if it had! We could get ourselves
organized so that professionals have access to the resources
needed. Just in time and just enough."

According to Stephen Denning this very simple story had an astonishing
response from the management. The importance of having all information
in one place only, accessible to everybody even in the remotest corners was suddenly
very clear to the management. The following year a 'organization wide knowledge sharing
program' was implemented. The experience was the point of departure of an intensive
interest in storytelling, and in 2000
Stephen Denning published the book The Springboard
on this subject.
Stephen Denning writes:

"The attractions of narrative are obvious. Storytelling is natural and
easy and entertaining and energizing. Stories help us understand
complexity. Stories can enhance or change perceptions. Stories are
easy to remember. Stories are inherently non adversarial and
non-hierarchical. They bypass normal defense mechanisms and
engage our feelings."

Stephen Denning writes first and foremost about "springboard stories",
which have the purpose to engage people in organizational changes. But storytelling can
have numerous effects inside the company - not least in relation to
strengthening employees engagement in the company.
At the same time Stephen Denning points out the importance of that management
listens to the employees' stories. These stories are very sensitive tools for measuring
good and bad vibrations and the degree of enthusiasm - or lack of enthusiasm - concerning
visions and the management's decisions.

Replies: 1 Comment

on Tuesday, April 12th, Ellen Fisch said

All of art is storytelling. From the caveman to da Vinci to Picasso and on, the images that artists create reflect not only their vision and skills, but the times in which they live. Bravo Asbjorn for your wonderful take, in pictures and words, on the corporate world in which we live!!

 

New article...How to communicate through pictures...

Wouldn't any of us like to know how?
An artist try to communicate.
Through writing.
Through music.
Through movies.
Through pictures.
Through........
Sometimes he succeeds.  Sometimes he does not.
When his expectation are high - he might not communicate at all.
When his expectations are low - he might communicate excellently.
Every artist has his own recipe.

Mine is simple shapes and bright colors.
Even when I write.
Even when I .......

You can't always believe what is written in newspapers.
But if it is written in a book, you have to believe it.
Or?
I would like to tell you about a new book.
It is written by the French author Alain Joannes, who lives in Paris.
It is called "Communiqués par l'image" - that' s French and means
"how to communicate through pictures".
It was presented at the prestigious "Salon du Livre" in Paris in March this year.

To me it sounds like it's the new bible to artists, designers etc.
You can buy this new bible at Dunod.
Believe it or not, one of the chapters in this new book is about my painting "soul hurting still".
I'll just show the draft of the painting and quote what the author writes:

The jubilation feelings given by forms and colors of Asbjorn Lonvig.
By Alain Joannes

"soul hurting still"
Acrylic on canvas 201 x 139 cm, that is 79.2 x 54.8 inches. Edition 5
Sold in Marcia in Spain
Inspired by Christmas 2002, North Jutland Art Museum where I saw Marc Chagall and Max Ernst, and by Native Art, American Native Art.

...the art of the Danish painter Asbjorn Lonvig communicates at the first glance euphoria in a rough state. A so intense euphoria that the glance can not move away from the piece of his art. Of course, the saturated colours are decisive in this very great glowing.
The coloured dazzling and the feeling of pleasure which prolongs it have multiple causes. As adequacy between artistic creation and the constraints of communication, the art of Asbjorn Lonvig illustrates an assumption of neurocognitives sciences: the neurons in charge of visual perception are first activated by patterns recognition, then by colors recognition, then by recognition of textures and movements recognition. In a piece of art like "Soul hurting still ", the sensory impacts of the forms and the colors are very strong and equal.
The pleasure comes from what the eye and the brain receive from the red, the yellow, the green and blue at the same time as they recognize the squares, the rectangles, the circles, the triangles, the straight and broken lines and even the letter “A”.
The glance thus filled by a profusion of feelings founds a generating mental state of pleasure. After and beyond the primary emotion, in a second phase of contemplation, the spirit endeavours to confer an overall significance on the table. It calls upon its repertory of already memorized forms. Then, the pleasure becomes ludic.
Functioning like a rebus, the chart of an unknown territory, a coded language or a mysterious diagram, the piece of art asks to the witness: " What am I ?" The many possible answers are mental resonances which give to the artistic communication a richness higher than all the other ways to communicate. This communication is intersubjective.
It organizes the meeting between the subjectivity of the artist and the subjectivity of the witness. The witness of the piece of art is free to refer to tropical sensory prints: association of a dominating solar yellow, sky blue, deep vegetal green.
He can also associate the table with an intimate collection of primitive art. He shall perhaps remember the geometrical abstractions of Kandinsky and Mondrian. Surely, the piece of art will be kept in the long memory space into the brain with all its resonances sensory, emotional, ludic and cultural. It is may be interesting to know that the joyfull impact piece of art by Asbjorn Lonvig is closely related to its is canvassed artistic.
High level data processing specialist then head of a software company, the painter found serenity in a pictorial creation which starts with digital drafts and finds its completion on a support – frame and fabric - entirely conceived and manufactured by the artist.

...and for the French in France, the Canadians in Quebec and Montreal etc.:
Formes et couleurs jubilatoires d’Asbjorn Lonvig.
Par Alain Joannes

...ce que l’art du peintre danois Asbjorn Lonvig communique dès le premier coup d’œil, c’est de l’euphorie à l’état brut. Une euphorie tellement intense que le regard s’en détache à regret. Bien sûr, les teintes saturées jouent un grand rôle dans cette jouissive rutilance.
L’éblouissement coloré et la sensation de plaisir qui le prolonge ont des causes multiples. S’agissant de l’adéquation entre la création artistique et les contraintes de la communication, l’œuvre d’Asbjorn Lonvig illustre une hypothèse des sciences neurocognitives, selon laquelle les neurones en charge de la perception visuelle s’activent d’abord sur la reconnaissance des formes, puis sur celle des couleurs, celle des textures et des mouvements. Dans une œuvre comme « Soul hurting still », les impacts sensoriels des formes et des couleurs s’équilibrent.
Le plaisir vient de ce que l’œil et le cerveau reçoivent du rouge, du jaune, du vert et du bleu en même temps qu’ils reconnaissent les carrés, les rectangles, les cercles, les triangles, les lignes droites et brisées et même la lettre A.
Le regard ainsi comblé par une profusion de sensations instaure un état mental générateur de plaisir. Au-delà de l’émotion primaire, dans une seconde phase de la contemplation, l’esprit s’applique à conférer une signification d’ensemble au tableau. Il fait appel à son répertoire de formes déjà mémorisées. Le plaisir devient alors ludique.
Fonctionnant comme un rébus, la carte d’un territoire inconnu, un langage codé ou un mystérieux diagramme, l’œuvre questionne le spectateur: « Que suis-je ? » Les nombreuses réponses possibles sont les résonances mentales qui donnent à la communication artistique une richesse supérieure à toutes les autres formes de communication. Cette communication est intersubjective.
Elle organise la rencontre entre la subjectivité de l’artiste et la subjectivité du spectateur. Ce dernier est libre de se référer à des empreintes sensorielles tropicales: association d’un jaune solaire dominant, bleu qui évoque le ciel, vert qui renvoie à une végétation luxuriante. Il peut aussi associer le tableau à sa collection intime d’art primitif.
Rien ne l’empêche d’invoquer les abstractions géométriques de Kandinsky et de Mondrian. Une chose est sûre: l’œuvre sera rangée dans la mémoire longue avec toutes ses résonances sensorielles, émotionnelles, ludiques et culturelles.Il est intéressant de savoir que l’impact jubilatoire de l’œuvre d’Asbjorn Lonvig est étroitement lié à sa démarché artistique.
Informaticien de haut niveau puis chef d’entreprise, le peintre a trouvé la sérénité dans une création picturale qui commence avec des esquisses numériques sur ordinateur et trouve son achèvement sur un support – châssis et toile – entièrement conçu et fabriqué par le signataire de l’œuvre.

...and for the Danes, in Danish as a service to my own folks:
Abjørn Lønvigs jubelkor af former og farver.
Af Alain Joannes

...det, som den danske maler Asbjørn Lønvigs kunst formidler fra det allerførste øjekast, er rendyrket eufori. En eufori, der er så intens, at øjet har svært ved at give slip. De mættede farvenuancer spiller selvfølgelig en stor rolle i denne glædens brillans.
Den flamboyante farverigdom og den følelse af glæde, der kommer i forlængelse heraf, har mange årsager. Hvad angår overensstemmelsen mellem skabelsen af kunst og kravene til formidling, illustrerer Asbjørn Lønvigs værk en hypotese fra de neurokognitive videnskaber, ifølge hvilken de neuroner, der er ansvarlige for synsopfattelsen, først aktiveres i forhold til genkendelsen af former, dernæst i forhold til genkendelsen af farver, strukturer og bevægelser. I et værk som ”Soul hurting still” indfinder der sig en balance mellem sansepåvirkningerne fra former og fra farver.
Glæden kommer af, at øjet og hjernen modtager rødt, gult, grønt og blåt, samtidig med at der sker genkendelse af firkanter, rektangler, cirkler, trekanter, lige linjer og brudte linjer og sågar bogstavet A.
Øjet, der således fyldes af en overdådighed af sanseindtryk, fremmaner en mental tilstand, der genererer glæde. Hinsides urfølelsen bestræber sindet sig i iagttagelsens anden fase på at give maleriet en samlet mening. Her læner sindet sig op ad det repertoire af former, der allerede har indprentet sig. Glæden får et anstrøg af leg.
Værket, der fungerer som en rebus, et kort over et ukendt territorium, et kodet sprog eller et mystisk diagram, spørger iagttageren: ”Hvad er jeg?” De mange mulige svar er de mentale resonanser, der forlener kunstens formidling med en rigdom, der er alle andre formidlingsformer overlegen. Denne formidling er intersubjektiv.
Den foranlediger mødet mellem kunstnerens subjektivitet og iagttagerens subjektivitet. Iagttageren kan frit referere til f.eks. tropeinspirerede sanseindtryk: associationerne fra en dominerende solgul farve, en blå der får ham til at tænke på himlen, en grøn der minder ham om frodig vegetation. Maleriet kan også få ham til at associere til sin private samling af primitiv kunst.
Og der er intet, der forhindrer ham i at komme til at tænke på Kandinskys og Mondrians geometriske abstraktioner. En ting er sikker: Værket bliver lagret i langtidshukommelsen med alle dets sanse-, følelses-, legeimpuls- og kulturresonanser.
Det er interessant at vide, at glædespåvirkningen fra Asbjørn Lønvigs værk er tæt forbundet med hans kunstneriske fremgangsmåde. Maleren (datalog på højt niveau og siden virksomhedsleder) har fundet ro i en billedskabelse, der begynder med digitale skitser på computeren og færdiggøres på et fysisk underlag - ramme og lærred - der designes og fremstilles helt fra bunden af maleren selv.

Thanks to....

Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.
Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.
Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.
Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.
Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.
Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.
Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.
Art News Artblog: How to communicate through pictures... by Alain Joannes and Asbjorn Lonvig.

 

Article to World Wide Art Resources Art News, USA and to ADN World ArtNews, Japan about Aros and Bill Viola.

According to the chairman of the board, Neil Kzokoss, Chicago Athenaeum, Museum of Architecture and Design, who visited me once, my house is located "in the middle of nowhere".

Well, your expectations to an art museum in the middle of nowhere in a province of Denmark might not be high.
However, stay tuned.

And when you look at this art museum from outside it is nothing but a huge cube.
A huge box.
A huge brick.

The world's children become sculptors. See the article "Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

  RSS with all Art News Artblog articles
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Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!
by Asbjorn Lonvig

I visited Legoland in Billund, Denmark this weekend.
As I do every year.
A family tradition.
Any in our family, who wants to go join us.
This year one worked at Greenland Home Rule.
One was busy writing a term paper at the University.
One was at work making sure Telia survives in the cell phone market.

The rest of the family joined our Legoland tour.
Grandma paid.
I go to Legoland for numerous of reasons.

My children and their children love it.
My children's spouses have to love it.
I love it.
My spouse has to love it.

I had just talked to someone in Minneapolis
about a sculpture.
The "M" in Minneapolis.

And I had talked to someone in Denmark
about a sculpture in Kolding.
The sailing sculpture "4K" in Kolding Castle Lake.

And it struck me that what I saw in Legoland were nothing but sculptures.
And after that I really did photo.
Photo-Fat-Dad, my family calls me.
A name I got in China by my sons - because of my photo enthusiasm.

Never mind.
I got my 150 digital photos to choose from.
I just had to join the laughter that arose as we saw "Photo-Fat-Dad" as we entered Legoland.
My family had no doubt in their minds, that I had posed for the LEGO designers and builders.

Photo-Fat-Dad really went crazy.
You might believe he was a Japanese. Japanese are known as enthusiastic photographs, too.

And little story from my travel in Australia springs up:
On a guided tour inside The Arts Centre in Melbourne, which is kind of Melbourne's Sydney Opera House,
a Japanese tourist was accidentally  trapped in one of the many huge rooms.
He was stuck for several hours.
As he was found, we asked him very caring:
Weren't  you afraid?
Weren't  you thirsty?
Weren't  you hungry?
But you needed to go to the bathroom?
No, my only problem was, I was run out of film...

Here are some of Photo-Fat-Dad's photos from Legoland:

              
 
       
 
         

   
 
               
 
    

...and all of this is built out of small bricks size 31 x 15,5 x 9,5 mm, that is 1.22 x  0.61 x  0.37 inches.
Millions and millions of bricks.
For the Bergen, Norway landscape there has been used 2.347.000 bricks.

Children's needs - and good old Marslow

I hear a lot about children's needs.
And the problems that arise if children's needs are ignored.
Some have problems concerning self esteem.
Some have problems concerning creativity.
Some have problems concerning learning.
Some have problems concerning social behavior.
Some have problems concerning stimulation from grown ups.

It's lack of psychological balance we talk about.

Good old Maslow - Abraham Maslow - is known for establishing the theory of a hierarchy of needs.
He says that the basic needs are physiological needs such as air, water, food, sleep etc.
My theory is that Marslow forgot one basic need.
LEGO.

When children build with LEGO under the guidance of grown ups
many of the above problems are avoided.

Building with LEGO is building self esteem and self confidence.
Their creativity is trained.
They exercise playful learning.
Building together with other children and grown ups improves their social skills.
Building with LEGO bricks brings peace in the children's minds - at least for a while.

How does LEGO built all those sculptures

One brick alone is...a brick.
Two bricks combined in some way - you have created a sculpture.
I'll show you how LEGO creates sculptures.

They have an idea.
They research.
They design.
They built.
They  exhibit.

Like the creation of every other sculpture.

I was invited to see the LEGO Studios.
To the right you see Fredensborg Castle in the LEGO Studios.
Ready to be placed in the Legoland park.
Ready to be revealed by the Crown Princess Mary and the Crown Prince Frederik. Fredensborg Castle is the Crown Prince Couple's residence.
The most amazing about the building of LEGO sculptures was a computer system, that transforms drawings into layers of LEGO bricks.
This system makes everything much easier to the builders.

The most disappointing thing was that inside the huge LEGO sculptures there were metal skeletons.
Of course from an engineering point of view the skeletons have to be there.
But.
I have deleted this knowledge from my memory.
It distracts my perception and fascination of the giraffe.
Never ever tell this to the children.
It's like telling them, that Santa Claus is just grandpa.

Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

You might be a parent, you might be a grandparent, or you might be a child.
Let us build sculptures.
Build a model of a sculpture.
Build whatever you would like with LEGO bricks in the colors you prefer.
Photo the model.
Send the photo attached to an e-mail to sculpture@mail.dk and I'll exhibit it on the world's largest online gallery, which is AbsoluteArts/WWAR - World Wide Arts Resources in Columbus, Ohio in USA.

Our new art galley is called "Children's LEGO sculptures".
See our art gallery logo to the right.
See the art gallery at http://galleries.absolutearts.com/galleries/lego-sculpture/
or click on the logo.

Tell me in the e-mail:
What's the title of your sculpture?
What's the height of your model in cm or inches?
What's your name, address, country, age, gender?
Where do you think it would be nice to place you sculpture?
More...?

At the same moment you send this e-mail you have become a sculptor.
Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

And
If you enjoy working at your computer and if your computer is a sophisticated game computer, you might  use
LEGO Digital Designer, which allows you to create 3D LEGO models. You can make a virtual version of a real model,  and then you can take a digital snapshot of your creation in .jepg and send it to the above e-mail address.  Or you can exhibit it yourself.
You can download LEGO Digital Designer here. 

I don't like PRIZES - but here they are
   
    

Everybody who sends an e-mail to sculpture@mail.dk ought to have a prize.
But.
As it is custom to give prizes to a winner, here they are.
The owner of LEGO was Gottfred Kirk Christiansen.
His wife, Edith Kirk Christiansen once visited Lille Fejringhus Galley.
She saw the two silk-screen prints, 80 x 80 cm, numbered and signed, edition 125 shown above.
And she burst out spontaneously: My goodness, that's LEGO colors.
Sure, she was right. I had never before thought about, that I consequently use bright colors
like LEGO.
I made my first LEGO sculpture at an age of 3.
Subconscious I might have picked the LEGO colors, when I want to communicate happy feelings.
Another proof of LEGO's psychological power of penetration?

I'll send these two silk-screen prints, 80 x 80 cm, numbered and signed, edition 125 to the winner.
But.
Maybe they a mostly for grown ups?

  
Therefore I'll send 4 signed CIRCUS motifs  42 x 30 cm, edition 300, too. Still in LEGO colors!!
The Clown, the Banana, the Parrot and the Clown's Shoe.

I'll ask the present owner of LEGO, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the son of Edith and Gottfred Kirk Christiansen if he would pick the winner, and I'll ask him if he might have some extra goodies for the winning sculptor.
And now the very careful reader thinks I have made a misspelling. Kjeld's "K" in Kristiansen.
It's not me, who have made a misspelling, but the misspelling is made by the clergyman, who wrote his birth certificate!!

My theory

Of course children must play computer games, which are not more dangerous than chess.
Of course children must have a cell phone, they have to communicate according to the trends of today.
Of course children must have all the fancy toys.

My theory is, however, that  any caring parent and any caring grandparent must give their children and grandchildren a christening gift consisting of a considerable number of LEGO bricks in different colors.

Not denying them a healthy psychological growth.
Not denying them the joy of becoming a sculptor.

My favorite LEGO photo


 
This photo is from Singapore Airport.
We landed in Singapore. We waited
there for several hours for a delayed
flight to Bangkok.
Soon my son Jakob made friends
with a Japanese boy and a girl.
Their common language was LEGO.


Photos:
Globetrotter
Danish village, Denmark
The Nederlands
Mann's Chinese Theater, Los Angeles
Bergen, Norway
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
Elephant
Ferrari
Düsseldorf, Germany
The Rhine, Germany
Mount Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota, USA
Mule, Western USA
The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, New York
Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, Denmark
Abu Simbel, Egypt
Japanese Portal
Scottish Castle
Arabic Castle
Singapore Airport
by Asbjorn Lonvig
Fredensborg Castle, Denmark
Giraffe
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen
by LEGO
  COPYRIGHT ASBJORN LONVIGsee Asbjorn Lonvig'sCopyright - Business Concept - Disclaimer Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig
Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig
Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig
Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig
Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig
Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig
Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig
Art News Artblog: Hi sculptor...I mean you!!! by Asbjorn Lonvig

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.

"Exposure..." - A never ending visit to the dentist.

quietness.
This is the artist's dilemma.
You need exposure but you hate it.
You need to earn a living but you disgust the exposure of yourself.
But.
If you want to be in contact with "the real world" you must give up some of your
needs for living and working anonymously, in peace and in quietness.

The world's children become sculptors. See the article "Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

Every single child in the world is encouraged to build a sculpture and send a digital photo of it to "Children's LEGO sculptures" - a brand new Art Gallery made for this purpose.
This project focuses on the magic psychological powers of the tiny LEGO brick to the benefit of the world's children.