(not) MY NORWAY
Artist's book
2019-2020
In 2019 my husband and I visited Norway with our guide and a little group of people. This little adventure stuck in my mind. When I was there, I could do nothing except thinking of giant mountain people whose silhouettes came up from big fluffy clouds and rain curtains. I was so full of quietness and silence and calmness while being there.
After coming home, I wrote some drawing ideas and couldn't start anything. A comic stories challenge helped me to come up with 5 panels about my feelings and thoughts. I added 2 stories more and the series was born.
This year we should be in Norway, but due to a pandemic it didn't happen. My hands took last year's drawings and made an accordion book of it, with freshly drawn cover. And, finally, the title came to me. NOT my Norway. Because I'm just a silhouette in the background of ancient fjords. Just a spot, erased like every visitor spot from pages of these stone mossy landscapes. I will not be a part of this place, I will always be an alien. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. I took silence with me, and I took melancholy and I said 'It was always here', but I was wrong. How could the motherland of vikings be so quiet?
After coming home, I wrote some drawing ideas and couldn't start anything. A comic stories challenge helped me to come up with 5 panels about my feelings and thoughts. I added 2 stories more and the series was born.
This year we should be in Norway, but due to a pandemic it didn't happen. My hands took last year's drawings and made an accordion book of it, with freshly drawn cover. And, finally, the title came to me. NOT my Norway. Because I'm just a silhouette in the background of ancient fjords. Just a spot, erased like every visitor spot from pages of these stone mossy landscapes. I will not be a part of this place, I will always be an alien. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. I took silence with me, and I took melancholy and I said 'It was always here', but I was wrong. How could the motherland of vikings be so quiet?
Mountain giants
The first meeting
Silence and The transformation
The dream and Summer
Giants
Hand carved eraser stamp
