MY CROSS

I do love my gold cross above that I carry ever so often. The design is great. It is tiny, tiny and measures eight millimeters. When I was eighteen and living in California for a year, I ran across a quote on a card in a bookstore, a card I have kept all this time. The quote goes: “I carry a cross in […]

LONDON CALLING

Being an architectonic freak, visiting London is always great fun. This week I really enjoyed learning both the names and the nicknames of some of London’s buildings that my good friend kindly taught me. It may be part of the famous British sense of humour, but Londoners tend to use unofficial names when referring to some of the landmarks that form […]

SHAKESPEARE MEETS VIGELAND

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare are most popular and some of them, such as Sonnet 18  (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day), is one of the most highly prized poems in English literature. A sonnet is a poem in a specific form, but the word is derived from Italian and means “a little song”. Last year on […]

THE COLOR BLUE

Photos: Kristin Bae Mysen I have always loved the color blue. To me it reduces stress and creates a sense of calmness. Maybe because it is an “earthly” color that I associate with bright blue cloudless sky and the endless ocean view. But not any blue.  My two favorites shades are the deep blue hue called International Klein […]

THREE STORIES

This oil painting Winter Night in the Mountains is a favorite of mine. In Norwegian it is called Vinternatt i Rondane, and a snow-covered mountain massif in full moonlight made such a strong impression on the Norwegian painter Harald Sohlberg who was skiing through the area, that he continued to work with the theme for 14 years. He painted a […]

MY GARDEN GNOME

Photo: Kristin Bae Mysen I got this homemade garden gnome (18 cm tall man made out of cement) as a Christmas present from my neighbour who loves gardening as much as I do. I probably looked like a question mark when I unpacked. Who was this Santa Claus look a like, ugly, little fellow? Now I […]

A CHANGE OF DIRECTION

Photo: Kristin Bae Mysen Recently I visited the great exhibition by the Swedish artist Jan Håfström (born 1937) at Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall in Arendal in the southern part of Norway. I specially enjoyed this black statue of Mr. Walker who was walking in all directions. It reminded me of the fact that it is never too late to change directions in one’s […]

MI DALÍ

  Photo: Kristin Bae Mysen Salvador Dalí’s famous picture “The Persistence of Memory” is a favorite of mine. It has many interpretations, but for me it simply says something about the small importance of time and age. And of course I love the great colors. The Spanish surrealist Dalí was once asked if Albert Einstein’s theory of special […]