60.96 x 45.72 cm . Watercolor . 2022
This is my first “most beautiful inkblot”. Please zoom in, otherwise it can look like barf.
The initial reaction for “Pus Seeking‘s” original inkblot was fear of destroying something that was not just beautiful, but “complete”. Quite contrarily, this one got me so fired up that I jumped right into painting without any plan, which was totally uncharacteristic and counter-instinctive. The end result was naturally disjointed, an incohesive bunch of ravens. “Message Request” felt like an appropriate title because I was waiting for some sort of sign or event to conclude it all. And into the drawer it went.
I’ve always joked that Odin lent me his horse, because my relationship with Arnie is too supernatural to define. Maybe Odin has really been helping out all along, because once I left this painting in limbo, all these birds started making their presence known. They like to remind me that they’re watching too, in perfectly timed photos, or by bulls-eye shitting on my head or open bag! On my first day in Norway when I felt like a walking natural disaster, I suddenly found a white feather by my shoe. Then on the last day, while feeling particularly happy, I found a black one by my window. Of course we can attribute everything to coincidence, but one tends to wonder sometimes.
So what was the message?
BE STILL so that another bird can fill your bag again with epic shit.
