what I've been up to, who I've been meeting

I've settled into my apartment in Hjorring quite nicely, and I've started making quite a bit of work in various media. I also spent last night with some new friends eating some delicious food. Janice and Peter are locals who seem to be well-connected with everyone involved in the ceramics community in northern Denmark and Scandinavia, and Gregory introduced me to them as soon as I got here. Janice is a potter from Britain who has lived here for some time, and Peter is a Danish fisherman.
See some of Janice's work here:
http://www.janicehunter.dk/11_velkommen.htm

Also at dinner last night were Eva and Stefan Zethraeus and their children Anya and Albin, over from Gothenberg, Sweden for a short visit. Eva is a well-known ceramic artist who has exhibited all over the world, and Stefan is a musician and music teacher.
See Eva's work here:
http://www.go.to/evazethraeus
and see a few of Stefan's videos for his music here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/stezeth




Janice seems to enjoy hosting small dinner gatherings. She's been quite wonderful taking care of me, providing me with a useful bowl and some spices so I can cook and eat a proper meal in my apartment. In the background in Stefan and his daughter Anya.


Eva and Stefan are over from Sweden for a short visit with the kids. The little blonde guy is Albin.


Albin is 5 and Anya is 9.


Here is Stefan having a chat with Anya and Gregory's middle son Aiden.


Janice's house is another pottery heaven. She seems to know all of the regional potters and she has pots made by many of them.


Peter is a fisherman. He keeps his boat on the coast in Hirtshals and he fishes for Cod and crab, depending on the season.


Peter and Janice served up a delicious meal based on what he brings home in his daily catch. They served whole Cod, cod liver, fried cod stomach, fried sand eel, dried and salted flounder, amarinth with garden salad and some specially prepared hard-boiled eggs.


Everyone seemed to be pretty excited about the food, with the notable exception of Anya who doesn't much like fish.

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Here are the eggs and the sand eel. The eggs are died blue and filled with some tasty spices, and are apparently a Spring tradition in Denmark. The sand eels are actually little herring-type fish, and Janice fried them whole in hot oil. They are tasty little snacks, like fishy chips.


The cod liver was delicious. Peter boiled it with a bit of vinegar.



I have access to this studio 24 hours a day, and I simply walk out the door of my apartment and in the door of the studio. Quite exciting! During museum hours the doors to the museum are open, and I expect that later during my time here people will begin to pop in and out to see what I am up to. I've started on a number of interrelated projects, and I hope to get permission to construct some small installations in the little niche spaces in the museum. Really I am just getting started.


The studio is basically a room with some wall space and a nice little sunlit desk. You can see I brought most of my supplies with me, including all of my tools, drawing paper, and an adhesive-backed vinyl in multiple colors.


Here's a shot of the wall. I have been pretty busy using my spare time, working concurrently on several small projects that end up informing eachother.