20/11/2008

Sweden

Turns out blogging wasn’t quite the breezy, weekly hobby Lisa had hoped. She’s been quite busy putting the shop online & scaling-up for some proper-size prints, so if you ever sense a change of tone, it's me (Edward) typing.

Admittedly, there's been time enough to visit fine friends in Sweden, where we saw the madly underrepresented illustrative work of Jane Bark. A weighty monograph, Jane Barks Bilder, covers the early paired-down exuberance of jobs for H&M, to the more pedestrian but complex style, where a handful of recurrent themes take disturbing shape.
1970s illustration of wild party-girl
Trying not to let customs notice our bulging luggage, we returned laden not only with Scandinavian ceramic goodies from the lopis (think car-boot sales with no the car-boots), but also two of these lovely prints.
Johanna Kalin lithograph
Produced by Johanna Kalin (one half of design duo, Och Studio), these lithographs utilise the shortcomings of the CMYK print process by over-laying and over-printing the re-fed paper stock to create random effects.
Moustache bars on Reynolds 531 Claud Butler frame
Also stuffed into over-head storage were these wonderful vintage Belleri moustache handlebars for Lisa’s bike, salvaged with the expert aid (and tools) of Daniel Rybakken from the scraps of a forlorn 'donor-bike'. Mmm, a pity that one shiny new part suddenly casts others in the shade.