about me

Trivia about me:

Kids: Julie, born 1994 and Kai, born 2000.
Boyfriend/soulmate: Dagfinn Koch
Totem-animal: Giraffe

I like:

Autumn in Oslo
Swimming in freshwater
The smell of printing ink
Spanish food. (Well, food in general is more correct, I guess.)
Really small excavators
Pepsi Max, red wine, coffee, Berliner Weiße mit Himbeer, Tinto de Verano
Amelié from Montmartre
Too many writers and painters to even begin to mention
Sleeping
Taking pictures of people when they do something they like
Writing pop-lyrics
Nils-Fredrik Nielsens Tristesses: (Nobody can spread such darkness as the one who has seen the light)
Arto Paasilinnas humour, especially in "Collective suicide"
South Park
Cholcolate

I dislike:

Not being able to get the grasp of German Grammar
Paulo Coelho (apart from "Veronica")
Fanatic people (whatever they obsess about)
Unsharp pencils
Jellyfish
When the will to do something is bigger than the ability
Being touched in the belly button
Olives
Webdesigning
Speaking on the telephone

The world would be a better place if:

David Gahan would do the lead vocal on Rammsteins version of "Stripped"
Everybody drove their cars like I do
All the good things in life were free and healthy (such as wine, cigarettes, food, chocolate and painkillers)

Dagfinn makes the base coat layer himself of the painting that is to become the portrait of him: "Let me keep this moment".

Details from "I wanna be a writer"

Me and Kristin Rasmussen (Photo: Morten Fidjeland)

"Let me keep this moment" during painting, and then finished.

A little about me and my work etc.

My name is Malin Kjelsrud. I was born in 1972 and live in Oslo, Norway. For as long as I can remember I have drawn, written and painted. My dream has always been to study art in an academy, but it never came to that. My artistical "education" has been "arts and crafts" in high school, a course in aquarelle painting and two really good courses in painting at Vika Kunstskole, in addition to self-studies. My formal education is 9 years public school, 3 years in Business high school, 3 years University College (to become a nurse) HiO 1995-1998),1 year "IT-candidate" (Næringsakademiet 2000-2001), 1,5 year "office management for healthcare systems" (Utdanningshuset 2004-2005).

One is not supposed to be too personal online, and especially not if one is trying to be taken seriously as an "artist", but I still choose to tell a bit more about myself. Life hasn't always been so easy. But I try really hard to focus on what is positive and not give what's negative more space than needed. I am chronically ill, and have been so for many years. It has taken too much time and energy to fight against disease and its fears, the healthcare system and the social security system. I have, amongst other things, ME and arthrosis. This means that I can't handle much work or pressure before my body shuts down. The cliché "to live WITH a disease rather than FOR a disease" is my motto. It is, as I said earlier, about turning something negative into something positive, and for me that means to use those - unfortunately unpredictably present and unknown how long-lasting - moments that my body functions reasonably well for painting, drawing, writing and thinking.

I did put down all my ambitions for work and a possible artistic career when I got seriously ill, but I still kept on doing my stuff anyway. So the surprise was big when a friend from Germany - Dietrich Cassube, got to see my works and wanted to make an exhibition for me. I am extremely grateful that he had the energy to do a thing like that for me!

Most of my recent paintings have a base layer that can be used to write in.

"Wotans Braut" during painting and then the finished painting. Wotan is according to Wikipedia the same as the norse Odin.