Art News Artblog

Merchandise...On-demand manufacturing...

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:37:20 +0100

Someone once told me that putting reproductions of art on sweatshirts, or carry-on bags is to bastardize artists' work.
Bastardize!
Last time we met I told you about my Art Portals.
Phase 2 of my Art Portal project is to bastardize every single of my art works on the Art Portals.
Bastardize is - as you might have guessed - not at all my favorite term for this.
I call it merchandise.
I could not agree less with the phrase bastardize.
I call it to communicate the essence of a good art work to as many people as possible.
So Phase 2 of my Art Portal Project is to create merchandise products based on my art works.

Now I needed a piece of software:
that could help med create merchandise products
that could exhibit my merchandise products
that could allow me to exhibit the merchandise products on my Art Portals
that could receive orders and payment from the customers
that could allow the customers to customize the merchandise product
that could produce the customized merchandise product on-demand (...let us call it on-demand manufacturing)
that could send the product to the customer.

Until now my Art Portals have dealt with on-demand printing.
My ambition to create merchandise products on-line for sale on the internet presumes on-demand manufacturing.
I want to create T-shirts, mugs, posters, greeting cards, postcards, hats, bags ties aprons, ties, mouse pads, stickers, bottons etc. based on existing art works.

I have been looking around.
In Europe.
In Asia.
In Australia.
In Africa.
In South America.

And of course I found my piece of software in North America.
In The United States, in San Jose - in Silicon Valley.
This piece of software is made by real computer nerds.
Technically it is second to none.
It's called zazzle.com.
My new name is zazzle.com/lonvig*
The users of zazzle.com are young creative people with a substantial computer background and as far as I can tell most of the users are from north-west United States and south-west Canada.
I can use the technical superciliousness of zazzle.com and make it user friendly by integrating it into my Art Portals.
I found zazzle.com on 13 January 2007.
So far I have made 700 merchandise products and integrated these products into my Art Portals.
My goal is 1000 merchandise products.
No more talk.
Let me show you some samples.

I hope there are no rules aginst using shockwave-flash technique here - so, let's take advantage of being on-line!!!
The PANELs below are the PANELs shown on each of my Art Portals.
The merchandice products in the PANELs are shown with the most popular product first.

Aarhus City Art Portal with 7 motifs.
See the th 55 or more merchandise products in San Jose
and in the Panel below

Shanghai Chambers of Commerce Art Portal with 2 motifs.
See the 7 or more merchandise products in San Jose
and in the Panel below

The Dansih Parliament Art Portal with 6 motifs.
See the 26 or more merchandise products in San Jose
and in the PANEL below

The Guggenheim Museum Art Portal with 3 motifs.
See the 18 or more merchandise products in San Jose
and in the PANEL below

The BG Bank Art Portal with 7 motifs.
See the 26 or more merchandise products in San Jose
and in the PANEL below

The Children's Museum (...my fairy tale characters) Art Portal with 26 motifs.
See the 131 or more merchandise products in San Jose
and in the PANEL below

Finally for your entertainment (US citizens only)
Zazzle.com is authorized to approve US Postal stamps.
So far I have made 50 or more stamps for all you guys in The US.
I would be very happy to know if any of you US citicens intend to use my stamps.
See them in the PANEL below
and you might order the stamps in a sheet of 20 in San Jose

You might have seen 5 stars under a motif in the PANELs above - that's visitor's ratings.
If you want to see more PANELs you have to explore them yourself on Art Portals.
Or you might explore them on an extended version of this blog entry on my web site.

Thoughts
I know I have to be aware of my own fascination of technically good software due to my past as a software engineer.
zazzle.com is technically good software.
I have to see the software as a tool and only bring is along if it is possible to make it user friendly.
I look forward to see what happens with Phase 2 of my Art Portals project.
Phase 2, which implements merchandise by on-demand manufacturing.

My User Portal Concept...

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:39:50 +0100

A user portal is a portal for one specific user,
a country, a city, a municipality, a museum, a company etc.
It shows and it has links to those art works that might be relevant to that specific user.
The User Portal logo is the arch of Septimus Severus in Forum Romanum, Rome.

Why User Portals?
The short and simple answer is to serve my customers better and to seve customers that are not familiar with computers, with internet etc.

I'll show you a User Portal.
I am building the Aarhus City Portal right now.
Aarhus City is the second largest city in Denmark.
Aarhus City has 225.000 inhabitants.
So, this user portal intends to serve 225.000 users.

The first thing to do is to create motifs that describe Aarhus City.
I went to Aarhus and found buildings and landmarks of Aarhus, that I could use.
The new museum, the city hall tower, the queen's summer residence, the Theater, a house in the Old Town, the cathedral and finally the old cathedral office in St. Clemen's Courtyard.

Today I finished these motifs:

I load large files of all the images to print on demand contracting parties in Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Francisco Bay Area. The images are approved at once in Salt Lake City and Seattle. In San Francisco the images might wait for approval.

First of all I use a User Portal logo.

The logo is of course a portal. In a matter of fact it is a very specific portal. It is the Arch of Septimus Severus, which was erected in the Roman Forum in A.D. 203 by the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus.
You can't study Roman history without visiting the Roman Forum once.
You can't visit the Roman Forum without passing through the Arch of Septimus Severus.
In this logo a BETA will shown in the big arch. That is because the 40 different User Portals, that have been launched so far are being tested.
The Aarhus City Portal is marked with a BETA, too.

See the Aarhus City Portal.
The motifs are presented. Here 7 motifs. You might see an enlargement by clicking on an image.
Then there are 3 sections. 1, 2 and 3.

1. The user must have some free titbit. So I give him the possibility to download three Word documents of each motif. Word documents that can be printed on the user's own printer.
I have to be aware of different formats in European and American standards. The European standard is A format and the American standard it is Letter format. The Aarhus City Portal probably will only be used by Europeans - therefore the A format is offered.

2. Here I guide the user to order print at print on demand contracting parties. One in Salt Lake City, one in Seattle and one in San Francisco Bay area.
By guiding to 3 print on demand contracting parties the users are offered a variety of sizes, prices, qualities and surfaces.
At the same time I keep track of what happens in this market.

The prices are kept low - the user only pays the base print price and internet costs. The user can order prints in sizes from 3.5 x 5” to 40 x 60” on paper and canvas – and some other funny surfaces like T-shirts, mugs, tote bags etc. etc. The print contracting party handles ordering and payment. The printing of course and the prints are sent directly to the user.

If the user wants to see some of the my other 750 images for print there is a link to the main pages in Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Francisco Bay Area.

3. If the user wants something special. A painting. Limited edition prints. Signed prints. A huge print on canvas larger than 40 x 60" - no problem, he just has to contact me.

A brochure is available to each User Portal.
The brochure is of course used for initial presentation of the portal.
You can download the brochure Aarhus City Portal from the portal.

Thoughts.
Now what is the most important to succeed with these User Portals.
Is it to do excellent motifs? No!
Is it to simplify the User Portal? No!
Is it to make an extremely eye catching brochure? No!

It is to communicate the User Portal Concept to people that are not familiar with computers, with internet etc.
I can not do it myself.
I know too much.
Or!!!!
You might as well say I know much too little.

But.
Journalists know how to present this kind of stuff to their readers.
This week Ny Hedensted Portal and Ny Vejle Portal will have press coverage.
Tomorrow I'll translate the Aarhus City Portal into Danish and find a jounalist at the Aarhus newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende.

Article Racing Cars - The Art Dimension

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 11:49:32 +0100

Exhibition at Aros Art Museum, Denmark

Fairy Tales in a new Medium - Fairy Tale Posters...

Wed, 31 May 2006 09:34:57 +0200

The concept is quite simple.
One language at a time.
One main fairy tale character.
The text of the fairy tale with illustrations.
That's it.

The Fairy Tale Poster lives side by side with the internet version
of the written fairy tale, which can be downloaded in a Word document and
form a tiny children's book.

I'll show you 5 samples of Fairy Tale Posters:

Tall Charlie is the name in English of the yellow giraffe.
Céline Maeder, Paris has done the translation into French.
Céline Maeder has made new French names to all my fairy tale characters.
Tall Charlie is called Sophie Moyenne.
Sophie Moyenne is a fairy tale character in "Au zoo avec Sam et Lucca",
"In the Zoo with Sam and Lucca".
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

The fairy tale "Happy Traffic" is about children's safety in traffic.
This Fairy Tale Poster is in English.
A baby is the main character.
He is on 12 traffic signs in 12 different languages.
The traffic signs have the text "HI - Drive Carefully".
The traffic sign in Danish "Hej - Kør Forsigtigt" has been tested
in 3 cities on more than 20 streets.
People have told me that they work according to the intention.
I write the fairy tales in English. My English is checked by Ann Watson, Florida and others.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

This is the Hebrew translation of "Octo-Pus the Cuttlefish and
Crab-Mac-Claw the Crab".
The Hebrew translation is done by Yochanan Dvir, who lives in the kibitz Lehavot Habashan in Northern Israel near the Lebanese border.
Yochanan Dvir translates the fairy tales and put them on his own site in Hebrew www.sefer-li.net.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

Francesca Fancini from Milan, Italy has translated
"Octo-Pus the Cuttlefish and Crab-Mac-Claw the Crab" into Italian.
The story is called "La Seppia e il Granchio" in Italian.
Green, white and red are the Italian colors.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

The fairy tales are translated into Chinese by Ni Duan, Hangzhou, China.
Hangzhou is the capital of China's Zhejiang Province 120 miles south west of Shanghai.
A small Chinese city of 7 million people!!!
Ni Duan and Jan Engberg, Shanghai are helping me to find a Chinese publisher.
See it ready to print on demand at ArtWanted.com.
See this Fairy Tale Poster enlarged.
See the written fairy tale on the internet.

Translation into Japanese and Danish has been finished.
Translation into Spanish, Persian and Hebrew is in progress.
When this project is finished I think there are 50 Fairy Tale Posters.

Thoughts
Fairy Tale Posters.
Why?
Any use?

Article Fairy Tales in a new Medium - Fairy Tale Posters...

Wed, 31 May 2006 09:33:26 +0200

Publidhed 31 May 2006 on WWAR ART NEWS.

Article "Digital Print on Canvas???"

Wed, 24 May 2006 14:47:10 +0200

I would like to ask your opinion.
Once an art work has been digitized you can print it.
Usually you print on paper.
Or cloth.
Or plastic.
Or....

On this huge printer I can print in nearly any size.
On several surfaces.
One of them is canvas.

One day I printed the motif "1 Cathedral Square" on canvas.
It seamed unreal, it seamed unfair, I felt as if I violated some basic rules.
Unreal because a canvas usually takes hours and hours to paint.
Unfair because all the troubles you have during the painting process had disappeared.

But it was amazing.
The quality of the print was that of a serigraph.
The paint layer was thick giving you the color depth and not least the color fastness of the serigraph.
And I felt this smell of quality serigraph colors drying......
The smell in the room was like when you print silk screen prints.
Another thing is that canvas is much more durable than paper.

I would never be able to paint this motif so perfectly.
My son Morten paints much better than I do.
He might be able to do it.

This tiny close up photo of the print on canvas tells the whole story.
The close up is of a basement window.
And as you can see the texture of the canvas sure is there.

The visual differences between a painting and the print on canvas are:
In the painting you can see the brushstrokes.
You can see the painter's shaking hand.
From a technical point of view you might prefer the print?
From an artistic point of view you might prefer the painting?
Of course there is a difference in price.
A unique painting is more expensive than a print.

I was lucky to win The World of Art Award 2006 competition.
This competition seeks to attract artists, galleries, museums who are redefining standards of art excellence challenging existing trends
and tendencies in art and culture.
To celebrate this I'll market editions of 100 prints on canvas knowing that it might be controversial.

See my efforts.
And - if you like - you might visit my new web site lonvig.biz with vision and prices.

I'll continue my investigations, just now we are printing huge canvases for Lauritz.com auctions.
And then one large "Blue Sky - Guggenheim" to a North Atlantic customer.

Thoughts
I think people who like to have a print on canvas and not a painting on canvas should be offered the possibility
as long as there is no doubt what so ever which ones are printed and which one is painted.
For instance by writing number/edition in the lower left corner and by printing "Digital Art Laboratory" in the lower right corner below the signature.

And
I can't resist this opportunity to show you my work from last week - text posters:

Article "Digital Print on Canvas???"

Wed, 24 May 2006 14:47:10 +0200

A National Gallery, a Dutchman called Rembrandt and HIGHLIGHTS - in Spanish

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:39:02 +0200

Una Galería Nacional, un holandés llamado Rembrandt y MOMENTOS CULMINANTES por Asbjorn Lonvig

New Article: Huge sculptures in spectacular places - How?

Mon, 3 Apr 2006 12:43:56 +0200

A member of a council of commerce asked me to design a motif for plastic bags.
The intention was do promote the city.
To visualize the city.
At the same time a major motor way was under construction.
A motor way that passed by this city.
I told the member of the council of commerce that it might be a better idea to erect a huge metal sculpture close to the new motor way.
Sure it would be a much more expensive solution than the plastic bags.

I would never suggest this to the council of commerce.
But.
You yourself can have 15 minutes to tell the council about the idea at the next council meeting, the council of commerce member said.

I told the council about my idea.

I had done a photo of the spectacular place where the sculpture was supposed to be erected.
I had made a tiny draft.
I showed a large computer image with the sculpture already erected.
I showed the tiny draft.
The sculpture was 75 feet high.
The diameter of the sculpture tubes were 21".
I told the council that 40,000 people passed by this spectacular place every day.
I told about my inspiration - and what the sculpture might symbolize.
And so on.
And so on.
I talked and talked for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes the chairman of the council said,
We must erect this sculpture.
What's the price?
Usually potential customers do not mention these two sentences i the above order.
Usually the first sentence after a presentation of an idea is "what's the price".

Well, OK.
Peace of cake.

I started my forklift.
I found some tubes in my backyard.

I went to my studio
and welded the sculpture.

I brought the sculpture
to the spectacular place
on my lorry.

I got a brush
and two bottles of paint.
One with red paint
and one with blue.
And.
Here you are!!!
"2H"

But.
It is not that easy.
Don't believe this.
The council of commerce story is true.
But it is far more complicated and demanding to build a huge metal sculpture.

Presentation
Huge metal sculptures are expensive.
Therefore it is of the greatest importance that you can present the sculpture in an image exactly as it will be seen in reality.
At the exact spot seen from the exact angle.
You must photograph the spectacular place.
You must do a draft of the sculpture and put it into that photo.
Here a computer is indispensable. This is the key activity in the whole project.
If this part is not done in a proper way there is no project.

Permissions
First of all you must have permissions from a lot of authorities.
The Road Directorate
The County Council
The Nature Conservancy
The Municipality Council
The Police Etc.

This is of course dependent on in which country you want to built a huge metal sculpture.
In Chicago I once suggested a huge metal sculpture in Lake Michigan and we had to add Civil Aviation authorities and the Military.

Calculations
It is important to consider building of a huge metal sculpture as an ordinary building project.
It is important to do the ordinary engineer calculations concerning the construction.
Of course the construction must be able to resist any storm and any hurricane.
Of course the construction must be able to resist any fall of rain, snow etc.
Of course the construction must be able to endure temperature fluctuations.
The construction must resist any force of wind.
Sounds obvious.
What is not obvious is that a wind force 1 might be dangerous to the construction - but a wind force 10 would not.
That's because high constructions might rotate at low wind forces.
This rotation can harm and destroy seemingly strong constructions.
Therefore the most important engineer calculation is concerning rotation.
It might be necessary to place some kind of stabilizer equipment in the top of the sculpture.

In the top of the "2H" sculpture there are oil bath stabilizers in both sculptures.

Construction
Don't be the entrepreneur yourself.
Sign a contract with one, one company to coordinate and to be responsible for all that has to be done.
Such as calculations, welding, painting, piling, concreting of base, erecting etc.

Painting
Don't paint yourself.
A construction like this is painted by an industrial painter, who can handle large subjects and lives up to high quality standards.
Then you can decide how often you want to dismount the sculpture for repaint. 20 years?

Projects right now

This draft is made for a tiny city called Yding.
42 feet high and a diameter of 21".
The sculpture has been shown exactly as it will be seen in reality.
Presentation ended in a decision to proceed.
One company to coordinate and to be responsible for all that has to be done has been pointed out...

Suggestions

First I went for a walk in Forum Romanum.
Then I did the painting Septimus Severus.
Inspired by the Arch of Septimus Severus
erected A.D. 203 in Forum Romanum.
It was granted the World of Art Award 2006.

Then I did this draft.
A draft of relatively thin red and blue tubes
forming a huge sculpture.

On a trip back from Napoli to Rome I did this photo through the front screen of the bus
driving on the motor way at the entrance to Rome. Sorry for the toned windows in the bus.
The draft and this photo participated in the competition JUXTAPOSITION 2006 at Artrom Gallery in Rome this February.
The sculpture is called "Entrance to Rome" and is supposed to be erected as a south and a north portal of E45, which is the number of the main motor way in Europe - connecting my home in Denmark in Northern Europe with Colosseum in Rome, Italy - and more of course.
David Genovesi Artrom Gallery, Rome: "Your E45 Entrance to Rome proposal is great. We know some people in high places, and we know some people who know people in high places. We even know some people who know people who know people in high places. We showed the image to a few and asked them for some direction as to who to send the proposal to. We are awaiting their reply. So much money is given away for stupid reasons. I think yours has merit."

Other suggestions

Above are:
Sailing T in Lake Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Keep up the steam, Fredericia Railroad Station, Fredericia, Denmark
Sky of Navona, Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy
A Figment of the Imagination, Horsens Inlet, Horsens, Denmark

"T" stands of course for Toronto, depending on the direction of the wind the sculpture has an indefinite number of "looks".
Keep up the steam is an oversized train or ferry chimney with the Danish Railroads (DSB) logo on it.
This sculpture participated in the Artrom Gallery competition JUXTAPOSITION 2006, too. It was shown at The Artrom Gallery JUXTAPOSITION 2006 Winners' Exposition.
Sky of Navona is 4 huge tubes forming a roof over Piazza Navona.
I told the story about Tange Brook from the fairy tale "Farmer Jack". A bottle message dropped from the bridge over Tange Brook, which is a few yards from my house, would end up in New York, in Sidney or on The Galapagos Islands.
My sister in law said something like A figment of the Imagination. The sculpture is a few yards from her house.

Highlights
Show the sculpture exactly as it will be seen in reality.
Calculations must be made by an engineer who knows about wind rotations.
Sign a contract with one, one company to coordinate and to be responsible for all that has to be done.
Make sure an industrial painter is hired. Make the sculpture dismountable.
Have fun.

Photos by:
Martin Ravn, chief photographer at Danish newspaper Horsens Folkeblad, Horsens
Photographer Stephen Downes, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Asbjorn Lonvig

New Article: Two genuine Rembrandts found in Copenhagen...

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 10:19:53 +0200

The National Gallery in Copenhagen found two genuine Rembrandt paintings by the master himself in their archives.
Two paintings that have lived a life of obscurity in the collections at the National Gallery after having been rejected as genuine Rembrandts at different points during the 20th century.
Photos by SMK Foto (permission granted)

New Article "Search Engine Strategies for Success: 2006" by John Wooton and Asbjorn Lonvig

Wed, 1 Feb 2006 19:25:06 +0200

by John Wooton Author and Creator, The SEO Journal Blog and Asbjorn Lonvig.

Readers of my latest Art News Artblog have asked me to write about how I got a relatively good presence on the internet. Yesterday's statistics: 150,000 hits on Google.com and 100,000 hits on Yahoo.com on the search term "lonvig" and 64,708 hits and 1,176,552,123 bytes transferred per day on my web site www.lonvig.dk.

John Wooton: As you know, every year is always rocked by a plethora of changes in the search engine marketing world. The acquisition of smaller companies by the Big 3 changes the marketing landscape as we know it every month and with every update to the index that is made, we hold our breath and hope that we come out better (if not, the same) in the end. So when it comes to the new year, there are many things that we should look out for to stay on top of the rankings.

1. Quality Content: I say this so often and I cannot overemphasize this enough: Content is KING! Search engine spiders, crawl the net to find what? Content! Your site has information (hopefully) that you want the spiders to see and include in their index. By the creation and publication of quality content, you give the search engines more reason to return. You are feeding them what they want. In 2006, you should be finding creative ways to get your content noticed and viewed as well as finding creative ways to publish fresh content on a regular basis. A very good way this is done is through the use of message boards (hosted on your site) and by blogs (enabling you to publish more frequently).

Asbjorn Lonvig:

Tell a story. Every time I enter something on the internet, on my own website or another web site like an online gallery I tell a story. Like what Jose Dali said about my fairy tale character Crab-Mac-Claw or Alice Garibaldi's view of my computer drafts of sculptures in Rome. For search engine optimization and submission to selected search engines I use the software IBP Internet Business Promoter by Axandra, Germany. For check of meta tags I use the free Meta Tag Analyzer from Submitexpress.com. This is to ensure 100 % title relevancy to page content, 100 % description relevancy to page content and 100 % keyword relevancy to page content.

Don't focus on your web main page (index page) - focus on every page, only 1.56 % of my visitors enter through the web main page.

__________________

John Wooton:

2. Don't Overextend Your Link Exchange Structure: Backlinks were a popular way to increase your rankings fast in the search engines. The tradition holds: find a PR7 website and trade backlinks and you'll be indexed in Google within 24 hours. That strategy still holds true and is beneficial for new web sites. But in my opinion the days of tremendous link swapping are coming to an end. Many website have been founded with the purpose of allowing you to exchange links with other web sites. This has caused a massive influx of web masters who want to exchange a ton of links with the hope that it will help them in the search engines. But what really matters when it comes to links is the amount of quality one way backlinks that direct users to your website. You want the balance of links to be in your favor, that is what leads to success. Also, there has been talk of search engines taking notice of these "link farms" and penalizing those who take part in them. So if you do take part in link exchanges, please be moderate in respect to the number of exchanges you take part in.

Asbjorn Lonvig:

I do not concentrate upon links any more. I only make links that are relevant to my content. If I am asked to link to a Kangaroo farm in Canberra, New South Wales, Australia, I sure will do it. Now and then I run a Link Popularity Check on my online galleries to check their degree of presence on the internet. The Link Popularity Check program is free and it is from Axandra, Germany. Absolutearts.com has the highest link popularity of all online galleries.

__________________

John Wooton:

3. RSS and XML: Two new technologies that have begun to take center stage especially in 2005 include a programming language that has been around for several years called XML. XML is short for extensible markup language and is a derivative from HTML. The main difference is your ability to create descriptive tags for your data. This has led to the advent of RSS or real simple syndication. RSS is a way for you to publish your data to an XML file hosted on your site. Users subscribe to your RSS feed via the XML file and whenever you make a changes to your XML file they are notified. It's become a major technology used by news agencies and bloggers alike as a simple method of publishing your information across a wide variety of platforms. XML has also proved useful with the Google Site maps program, newly released in 2005. The optional tags available with the XML site map allow you to be descriptive about the individual pages on your site including dates the individual pages were modified. There are some small things you need to pay attention to when creating this: namely you have to follow the Google xml schema, and you have to be diligent about tracking and fixing errors in the code. But if used correctly, it is a great way to help Google index the hidden pages of your website due to javascript or flash.

Asbjorn Lonvig:

I have made an RSS to all main pages on my web site and an RSS to every online gallery. I use the FeedForAll RSS feed creation tool to built my own RSSs. This way I have built 73 "hand made" RSSs. I use the following blogging systems for posting a lot of news and for automatic building of RSSs, ATOM feeds and RDFs: Blogger.com, Blogger.dk, Blog.com, Bloglines.com, Spaces.msn.com, Squarespace.com, Angelfire.com and Artday.org. Artday.org is Japanese. It is from Tokyo. And so is the image to the left. It's the Tokyo skyline with Tokyo Tower. The title is "Tokyo Moonlight". All of the above RSSs, ATOM feeds and RDFs - both my own "hand made" RSSs and the RSSs, ATOM feeds and RDFs generated automatically by blogging systems - are submitted to selected directories and search engines with the software RSS FEEDS Submit from rssfeedssubmit.com - if you need an introduction to RSS news feeds, you'll find it on rssfeedssubmit.com. I have built one site map in English and one in Danish.

___________________

John Wooton:

4. Stay away from Flash and Javascript for the time being: Flash and Javascript are very powerful tools for creating dynamic and eye catching web sites. The most prominent problem with the two technologies is that the spiders can't index through them (at least not yet). This limits your ability to have the search engines index portions of your site. Many have speculated that the Big 3 are working on solving this problem, but for the time being, avoid or limit your use of these technologies. 5. Avoid Unethical SEO: There are a lot of programs out there that help you to achieve maximum link back ratios in a very short amount of time. Some of them are good; some are bad. In fact, some of them will waste your effort trying to post trivial comments on blogs or trying to maximize your link exchanges. In my opinion, you should seek success in SEM the right, ethical way. Seek out honest web companies to exchange a moderate amount of links with. Post only relevant comments to forums and blogs because that behavior leads to lasting link backs. Also, don't try to manipulate your website to make it appear to have a higher PR than you really do. Google sees that one!

Asbjorn Lonvig:

I stay away from Flash and.....
I stay away from unethical SEO.

_____________________

John Wooton:

6. Last, but not least, Articles: There is a little bit of controversial talk about whether it is right to post articles for free use in directories. In my opinion, you are providing a well needed service to web masters and I don't see this one as a potential loss for 2006. Information is valuable. And web sites that need content (especially fresh content) desire what you do to make their efforts a success. So it is natural for your web site rankings to benefit through backlinks from those articles. It's a win win situation. One other thought on this subject. Right now, the search engines can punish web sites for having duplicate content, and that is an argument that many will propose. But, the search engines will usually only punish you if the html format of a web site is similar, not a couple of articles. So posting articles is safe for now. But be cautious. Many lucrative methods of ethical SEO can be turned into a problem when too many people attempt to abuse the technology. So that's it. Short, but informative. SEO is both an art and a technology that we have to use correctly for the right type of success. Who knows what the year ahead may bring, but playing your cards right, you can achieve success and avoid any pitfalls that may come.

Asbjorn Lonvig:

This Art News Artblog article is an example of Articles. I write articles to as you know WWAR/Absolutearts, to Editorial Qroquis - a printed art magazine in Buenos Aires (translated into Spanish) and ADN World ArtNews in Tokyo. Furthermore my articles are published on selected RSSes of my own, on all the blogging systems mentioned above and on the online gallery ArtCad.com in Paris. To keep track of the effect of my efforts to have a relatively good internet presence I use a server based statistic system on my web hotel called InSite. I use Google Alerts to continuously inform me what new things of mine have been indexed. Occasionally I check presence on Yahoo.com. And then I check the online galleries. January 2006 WWAR/Absolutearts topped with 73,000 hits followed by ArtWanted in Salt Lake City with 21,000 hits. Other online galleries like Yessy.com in Denver Colorado had 17,000 hits and a new online galley in Paris - ArtPourTous - had reached 4000 visitors. "Grand Maitre" to the right - that is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - is of course exhibited in Paris. I'm working hard to produce decent traffic on all online galleries.

__________________

Asbjorn Lonvig:

Thoughts. Your sales has nothing to do with your artistic talent, with your exhibition at Chicago Athenaeum or with nice words written about your art in a French book on "How to communicate through pictures". It's all about your internet presence???

Thanks. I want to thank John Wooton Author and Creator, The SEO Journal Blog for permitting me to use his article "Search Engine Strategies for Success: 2006", which I read 5 January 2006 in Entireweb Newsletter.

Questions. Ask all the questions you like in comments to this entry.

2006 - a happy new year...

Mon, 2 Jan 2006 10:32:18 +0200

Good morning - it's 1 January 2006. Yesterday I performed all traditional Danish rituals in order to enter 2006 in a happy way. In order to make 2006 a Happy New Year. A splendid seafood dinner, serpentines, table bombs, funny hats, lots of rockets etc. Except one traditional Danish ritual. I was not drunk. No beer. No vine. No drinks. No champagne. Lots of mineral water. My entrance to 2006 was vertical. Not horizontal as it often was. I have no hangovers. I have cleaned up my domestic domaine and I am ready to write.

I have decided that 2006 is a happy new year... A wise man - a philosopher from Copenhagen - said at the end of 2005: Don't put your life into an account. Live your life now - passionately. Don't commit yourself to any New Year Resolutions. Don't exercise. Don't loose weight. Don't quit smoking. Don't... Don't put your life into an account. Live your life now - passionately. The wise man of course said this with a smile. But I sure see his point.

Here is how I'll try to live my artist life - now - passionately:
- Weekly domestic art initiatives.
- The World Wide Days project.
- The revival of the poster project.
- The Auctions project. - Monthly interactive lecture in Lille Fejringhus Gallery.
- Monthly article to online and printed Art Magazines.
- Fairy Tales.
- The book Museums of the world.
- Education, education and education.

Weekly domestic art initiatives.
Is about continuously being in touch with the domestic market.
By personally presenting new art works to potential buyers.
It's about earning a living.

World Wide Days.
Is about continue building a network of online galleries worldwide.
It's about optimizing existing exhibitions.
It's about adding new art works to the exhibitions.
It's about monitoring new exhibition possibilities.

Revival of the poster.
It's about marketing the print on demand of my art works.
Print on demand ordered online at my print partners in Salt Lake City, UT and Raleigh, NC.
Print on demand - prints on paper or canvas - ordered at Asbjorn Lonvig Digital Art Laboratory.

Auctions.
Is about auctioning art works on ebay.com, kunstverket.se and other auctions.
It's about maintaining skills about how to do it.
It's about optimising use of online auctions.

Monthly interactive lecture in Lille Fejringhus Gallery.
Is about deciding myself where and when to do interactive lectures.
Lille Fejringhus Gallery is the perfect place.
An interactive lecture is mentally exhausting, so only once a month would be nice.

Monthly article to online and printed Art Magazines.
Is about being on the move, about telling the stories, that an artist must tell.
It is about a kind of relaxation.
A visual artist relaxes when he expresses himself literally.

Fairy Tales.
Inuit Circumpolar Area culture and especially Greenlandish culture are the inspiration to a series of new fairy tales in children's books.
The Laura-project it is called.
I'll visit Greenland in 2006.
The fairy tale series the Lucca-project has been translated from English into Dansih, German, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese.
In 2006 a bilingual edition in English and Persian (Arabic) will be published.

Museums of the world.
Is about Editorial Croquis, which is a printed art magazine and a publishing company in Buenos Aires that has run some of my articles about art museums in Spanish.
The director and editor of Editorial Croquis Martin Enriques Gil has recently asked me to write a book "The Museums of the World by Asbjorn Lonvig", published by Editorial Croquis in Danish, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
And I have answered: I'll do it, I'll find out how. In 2006 I'll do something about it. Layout. Edition sizes. Sponsor contracts. The first visits to museums etc.

Education, education and finally education.
Is about using computer and internet in art and art marketing.
I have to continuously improve my skills in this area - even if I originally was a trained IBM software specialist.
In 2006 my skills concerning using Adobe Illustrator CS2 must be raised to a professional level.

Thoughts.
Some years Artprice.com - the leading art information company in the market - pronounced that the art market would increase to 3,5 times the existing art market because of computers and internet.
Since then I have concentrated 100 % on using computer and internet.
During this period of time I have got a lot of condescending response.
I believe the whole art market now is realizing that Artprice.com was right.

In 2006 condescension will be replaced by acceptance???

The article "Matisse and Louisiana..." by Asbjorn Lonvig published in Spanish

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 22:58:43 +0200

The article "Matisse and Louisiana..." by Asbjorn Lonvig published in Spanish in the Art Magazine Croquis, Buenos Aires.

New Article: Revival of the art poster...by Asbjorn Lonvig

Fri, 2 Dec 2005 07:15:21 +0200

Thoughts:
If you use the Danish definition of poster, which is any kind of reproduction of art works, you sure can announce that computers and the internet have caused a "Revival of the Art Poster..." in the sense that they have made print on demand posters a major tool in future distribution of reproductions of art works world wide.

New Article: "A whole playground of playhouses..."

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 11:24:24 +0200

Last time I wrote to you it was about a playhouse inspired by Gaudi.
I asked why not build a Picasso playhouse?
A Miro playhouse?
A Matisse playhouse?
Do you know the Austrian painter Hunderdwasser?
A Hundredwasser playhouse would be great fun.
And a Salvador Dali playhouse?

Ed Baron from Baron Conservancy in Wonder Valley near desert oasis city of Twenty Nine Palms, a few miles east of Los Angeles wrote:
"Can't you just see a whole playground of Playhouses? What a wonderful art project. It would certainly tie in with our purpose of preserving Art and Human Nature. Perhaps volunteers will agree to come erect them at the Baron Conservancy?"

First I asked Ed Baron if he was serious?
He answered: OF COURSE I AM SERIOUS.

In order to describe this project to sponsors I have designed a number of new playhouses inspired by the great masters.

Pablo Picasso
I do love very many of Picasso's works.
Once I visited New York I was at MOMA.
In my photo album there is this amazing photo of one of my sons and the Picasso She Goat.
The She Goat is a fairy tale character in the fairy tale "The Baby Carriage and the Sleep Sheep", too.
A staircase up to the door and two windows.
The playhouse you can see to the left.

Leonardo da Vinci
Everybody knows Leonardo da Vinci. Everybody knows da Vinci's masterpiece at le Louvre in Paris.
I have been in Paris a couple of times, last time to see Biblioteque Forney, where they have a collection of my posters.
But I have to visit Mona each time.
This time you were allowed to photo her.
As I returned home I made the Colorful Mona Collection.
You can have Mona in a canvas, in a paper cut-out and now in a playhouse version.
The height is supposed to be 15 feet.

Andy Warhol
I have seen Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans here and there. At AROS Museum of modern art in Aarhus, Denmark I saw an original.
The height is supposed to be 18 feet.

Michelangelo
I saw his renaissance fresco "Creation of Adam" (1508-1512), which is a part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling decoration in the Vatican Museums in Rome. In my opinion God's right hand and Adam's left hand are the essentials of the fresco motif.
I have worked with these two hands in various contexts.
Now these two hands have become a playhouse design.
The height is supposed to be 15 feet.

Salvador Dali
Since I saw Dali's soft watches for the first time I have been fascinated by them.
He was crazy. Really crazy.
I met his son in Rome, we exhibited at the same place, he was a nice, humorous fellow painting nice aqua color motifs from his home city Venice, Italy.
"Like father like son" proved wrong.
The soft watch became the roof of a playhouse.
Height 9 feet.

Christo
Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon are famous for wrapping buildings.
Here a playhouse is wrapped in green and with a blue string.
Height: 10 feet.

Vincent van Gogh
Playhouse inspired by Vincent's chair.
Height: 21 feet.

Joan Miró
I sent all the above designs and a design of a Miró playhouse to Copy-Dan to clear intellectual rights (Copyrights).
All the above have been cleared, but my Miró playhouse was made with a gable painting that was too close to Miró.

______________________________________________________

A question to the blog readers about something else:
Editorial Croquis, which is a printed art magazine and a publishing company in Buenos Aires has run some of my articles about art museums in Spanish.
The director and editor of Editorial Croquis Martin Enriques Gil has asked me to write a book "The Museums of the World by Asbjorn Lonvig", published by Editorial Croquis in Danish, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
And I have answered: I'll do it, I'll find out how.
We need a sponsor for this project.
Do you have any suggestions??
______________________________________________________

Asbjorn, you are the ultimate artist!

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 07:24:22 +0200

On "Playhouse inspired by Gaudi..."
Making the world more beautiful and fun by creating our inner most expressions into reality! The child's wonderfully basic yet sophisticated view of life translates into the most amazing house!

Ellen Fisch
Long Island
New York
BA in art from Brooklyn College
MA in art from New York University

I AM IMPRESSED!!! Absolute unique, dedicated, brilliant, excellent.

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 07:23:15 +0200

Searching your web site I have to say that I AM IMPRESSED!!!
Absolute unique, dedicated, brilliant, excellent. I wish the see you. Are you living outside Copenhagen? Actually we are in Stockholm and London, we are passing throw Denmark in regular basis

Anticipate thanks
Petru Russu
Editor and publisher
World Of Art Magazine
Stockholm/London

Mörbylund 19, 9tr, 182 30 Danderyd, Sweden
17 Ringwood Gardens, London, UK

Article: "Playhouse inspired by Gaudi..."

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 19:36:43 +0200

In my family you do not buy a playhouse.
You design it and you build it yourself.
This one is for Morten's daughters, Lucca and Laura.
Originally our plans were a playhouse with 6 walls - a hexagon.
And a tower, from which you have a wide view.
A gazebo.
Morten and I were a little relieved when some strong female influence made the plans less ambitious:

A four sided house with a chimney.

Morten and I decided, that the playhouse design should be based on the fantastic Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi's characteristically warped form - see about Gaudi below.
We have seen his work in Barcelona.
And.
Newly we had seen playhouses in Legoland,
see the article "Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!" for more about Legoland.

Lucca has decided the color scheme.
Yellow walls.
Red windows and door.
Green roof.
Her mother has decided the overall design criteria: No spiders.

Action
I collected all the plates I had in stock in and around Lille Fejringhus and went to Hinnerup in Denmark, where Morten and his family live.

Hello, granddad.
Would you like some coffee?
Yes.
And we started drawing.
Four pressure-creosoted posts in the corners.
Tilting walls.

A floor that is elevated from the ground. Remember, no spiders.
Spade.
2 hammers
4 kinds of saws.
And many more tools.

Blood.
Sweat.
And very few tears.
Some days later the house was ready to paint.

The shape of the windows are organic.
The windows are red.

There is a shop in the playhouse.
There is a counter in one window.
You can buy a cup of excellent coffee,
candy and much more.
And take a look at the small house
on a post to the left of
the playhouse.

It's a birdhouse.
Built by Morten's baby brother Jakob.
There is a triangular hole in the birdhouse.
A circular hole would have been
a non-Gaudi hole.
There is a perch with a bulb at the end.
That's sure a Gaudi-bulp and a Gaudi-perch.

And a chimney.< draft and said,
No, no, no, no,
a small fat chimney.
A Gaudi-chimney.
Morten knows Gaudi better
than I do.
There is a huge metallic sculpture by the
motoway, just at the entrance to the city,
where I live.
Lucca calls this sculpture grandad's chimney.
After having struggled with building the
Gaudi-chimny, grandad's chimney has got a new meaning.

The roof has the characteristically warped shape.

And the window in the gable
has a an exact Gaudi shape.
A shape Morten found in a book on
some of Gaudi's architecture.

The house is number "5".
Lucca has painted this number herself.
Morten had a long discussion with Lucca
about where the number should be placed.
I agreed with Morten that it ought to be
placed on a post at the entrance to the
playhouse.
But Lucca insisted: On the gable
to the left of the door.

The door is a red ghost
with two eyes.
When your walls are tilted
and the door must be a Gaudi-door........

Many have asked Morten and I if we consider
to enter the business of designing, building and selling playhouses?
Of course not.
And.
Of course.....

Thoughts
How could Barcelona accept Gaudi's architecture and his characteristically warped form?
How could anyone?
Was his style les controversial in those days - Gothic Revival?

If Morten and I entered the "playhouse business" - it might be fun to let one particular great master's style be the point of departure, be the inspiration.
Why not build a Picasso-playhouse?
A Miro-playhouse?
A Matisse-playhouse?

Do you know the Austrian painter Hunderdwasser?
A Hundredwasser-playhous would be great fun.

And a Salvador Dali-playhouse?

__________________

*) Antoni Gaudi
Was born in Reus in Spain 1852.
The son of a coppersmith.
Antoni Gaudi was born in Reus, Spain in 1852.
Reus is not very far from Barcelona. In Barcelona you find his major art works.
He studied at the "Escola Superior d'Arquitectura" in Barcelona and designed his first major work for the Casa Vincens in Barcelona using a Gothic Revival style that he never left. Over the course of his career, Gaudi developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement. With little regard for formal order, he juxtaposed unrelated systems and altered established visual order. Gaudi's characteristically warped form of Gothic architecture drew admiration from other avant-garde artists.&

Photos: By Asbjorn Lonvig

My article about New Carlsberg Glyptotek now in Spanish

Fri, 2 Sep 2005 10:19:47 +0200

Art magazine Editorial Croquis in Buenos Aires has run my article about New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Spanish.
See the article "Nuevo Carlsberg Glyptotek".
To the right one of several Gaugin paintings and a photo from the wintergarden.

New article "Matisse and Louisiana..." by Danish writer Asbjorn Lonvig

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 14:42:40 +0200

La Gerbe, 1953
The Spray UCLA Collection, Hammer Museum.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sydney F. Brody
© Succession H. Matisse / CopyDan, 2005
Press photo from http://press.louisiana.dk/

See the article in WWAR Art News, Columbus Ohio. About this famous artist in the wonderful Art Museum called Louisiana. It is in Denmark, Scandinavia. You know of course Louisiana in the United States, but you probably don't know this Louisiana, a Museum of Modern Art.

"But the photos might give you a hint of what my friend in Chicago meant".

See about the Louisiana Architecture and the Louisiana Collection at the Louisiana web site.

The Exhitition "Matisse - a second life"

Louisiana and Museé de Luxembourg in Paris have made a joined venture.
One day the Danish curator and Matisse expert Hanne Finsen asked the director of Louisiana for a cup of coffee.
Later the director offered Hanne Finsen numerous cups of coffee.
The director liked to know more about her idea.
The director is Poul Erik Tojner.

See the article

New article: "New Carlsberg Glyptotek...support the arts, but do it with caution...

Mon, 8 Aug 2005 12:42:08 +0200

This Friday I visited the New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen,
the capital of Denmark known for the statue of the Little Mermaid.

I came to Copenhagen very early in the morning.
I had dropped my son off at Copenhagen Airport for a transatlantic flight.
Copenhagen was still asleep.
Baresso, my favorite coffee shop, opened at 7.30 a.m.
So. I spent some time sightseeing before breakfast.

The Royal Castle, Amalienborg was wrapped.

The Parliament, Christiansborg was wrapped.

The City Hall was wrapped.

Christo???
The National Bank, The Tivoli Concert Hall and the New Carlsberg Glyptotek was kind of wrapped, too.
Might it be an art work by Christo accomplished over night?
What a surprise!
What an excellent idea!
Excellent.
Or?
Was it nothing but prosaic reconstruction, rebuilding, restoration, renovation.
I have decided not to ask.

I was stuck in an elevator in the parking house.
I totally panicked.
Baresso was not far away.
A double espresso and a focaccia bread.
And a double americano.
Was what it took to recover.

Carlsberg
Carlsberg's slogan is "Probably the Best Bear in the World".
If it is the Best?
Try it out.

I found Carlsberg's web site, and the title was:
Carlsberg.com - Probably the Best Website in the World.
Try it out.

The World?
You might have seen these Carlsberg advertisements....

I asked friends in New York, in Paris, and in Tokyo.
What is Carlsberg?
All of them answered : "A bear".

In 1847 Carlsberg's founder I.C. Jacobsen started the beer production in the first Carlsberg brewery plant, know as the Old Carlsberg.
In 1880 - as part of a fatiguing family drama - Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder, established his own brewery, New Carlsberg.
This fatiguing family drama is documented in books and has been the theme of a very spell-binding TV serial.

In 1887 I.C. Jacobsen died and Old Carlsberg and New Carlsberg were united in the Carlsberg Foundation.

And the Carlsberg Foundation
made
over the years
an awful lot of money.

New Carlsberg Glyptotek
However.
In one area I.C. Jacobsen and Carl Jacobsen were united.
They were both passionate art collectors.

The New Carlsberg Glyptotek was founded 1897 by Carl Jacobsen who created one of the largest private art collections of his time. It was named after his brewery, New Carlsberg, with the addition of "Glyptotek", meaning collection of sculpture. He was interested in contemporary French and Danish art, as well as ancient art from the cultures surrounding the Mediterranean. To secure the future of the collection, Carl Jacobsen and his wife Ottilia donated it to the public in two deeds of gift from 1888 and 1899. The Museum's buildings were created to house these works of art.

Collection of ancient art
Today, the museum houses the largest collection of ancient art in Northern Europe, primarily sculpture, from Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Italy.

Egypt Statue, 1403 B.C. - 1365 B.C. Diorite, H. 160 cm.
Greece Vase, Apulian Amphora, Trozzella 500 BC.- 475 B.C. Clay, H. 33.3 cm
Etruria Statue, from Chiusi, 500 - 330 B.C. H. 100 cm
Etruria Vase, Archaic 700 - 500 B.C. Clay, H: 47.5 cm
Rome Pompey the Great, 106 BC.- 48 BC. Marble, H. 25 cm
Rome Aphrodite, Roman Imperial Period, 30 B.C.- 500 A.D. Marble, H. 92 cm
Rome Alexander the Great, Roman copy (2. cent. AD) of Greek original (2. cent. BC). Marble, H. 36 cm

Collection of European, French and Danish art
But during the more than one hundred years of its existence, the museum has also expanded the collection of French and Danish art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
I was at New Carlsberg Glyptotek for the first time decades ago.
I was there together with my art teacher Jes Dueholm Jessen - a great art teacher.
It took my breath away.
Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Heni de Toulouse-Lautrec,
Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir...

Click on the above pictures to see New Carlsberg Glyptotek's comprehensive collection notes.

...and Auguste Rodin, Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Carot,
Gustave Courbet...
And then a Van Gogh, I never had seen a Van Gogh before.

Thoughts
At this visit at New Carlsberg Glyptotek the collection even had a Pablo Picasso.
Some years ago I saw the collection of European Paintings at Art Institute of Chicago.
Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Chagall...
and a thought popped up in my mind: "These masters don't belong here".
Before that I saw the same artists at Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands - no thoughts of that kind popped up.
Wandering around among the sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from ancient Mediterranean cultures at the New Carlsberg Glyptotek this thought popped up again: "These sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from the ancient Mediterranean cultures don't belong here".
Last summer I visited Rome and I wandered around among sculptures, vases, mosaics from ancient Mediterranean cultures at Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme - no thoughts of that kind popped up.

My common sense tells me to brutally neutralize these thoughts.
Of course citizens in US must have the possibility to see a van Gogh.
Of course citizens in Denmark must have the possibility to see sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from ancient Mediterranean cultures.

But...

Photos:
Photos of Amalienborg, Christiansborg, Copenhagen City Hall and New Carlsberg Glyptotek outside are by Asbjorn Lonvig
Photo of New Carlsberg Glyptotek inside is from Photo Archives at www.glyptoteket.dk
Photos of sculptures, vases, mosaics etc. from ancient Mediterranean cultures are from Collections at www.glyptoteket.dk
Photos of Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Heni de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh art works are from Collections at www.glyptoteket.dk
Photos of Carlsberg bear bottle and 3 photos of Carlsberg advertisements are from Media, Image Library at www.carlsberg.com.

Support the art
with caution...

Research in Copenhagen. See article "New Carlsberg Glyptotek"

Thu, 4 Aug 2005 08:19:03 +0200

Cristo was there?
What is "New Carlsberg Glyptotek"
Carlsberg is a bear - or?

The article "Who is Aros - who is Bill..." now in Spanish - printout of the art magazine Croquis, Buenos Aires.

Mon, 4 Jul 2005 09:43:04 +0200

Editorial Croquis has printed the article "Who is Aros - who is Bill..." about the art museum Aros in Denmark and about Bill Violas exhibition at Aros.

By Asbjorn Lonvig

Asbjorn Lonvig, artist from Denmark has debuted as correspondent for the art magazine Croquis, Buenos Aires.

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 09:22:26 +0200

The article "Who is Aros - who is bill" is on the front page of Croquis.
In Spanish.
See the front page on Croquis' web site.

The world's children become sculptors. See the article "Hi sculptor...I mean you!!!

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:24:58 +0200

Every single child in the world is encouraged to build a sculpture and send a digital photo of it to "Children's LEGO sculptures" - a brand new Art Gallery made for this purpose.
This project focuses on the magic psychological powers of the tiny LEGO brick to the benefit of the world's children.

"Exposure..." - A never ending visit to the dentist.

Wed, 25 May 2005 21:20:23 +0200

I hate to expose myself.
But I have to.
So, no fancy excuses.
I have to advertise.
And be aware of what I do - and why I do it...

Deadlines.

Fri, 13 May 2005 08:53:42 +0200

Jodi Melfi, the editor of World Wide Art Resources' Art News has given me the following deadlines: 30 May 2005 and 24 June 2005.
The article on 30 May will be on Interactive Lecture to small audiences.
The article on 24 June will probably be on Carlsberg and the New Carlsberg Glyptotek (a high quality art museum).

Sincerely,
Asbjorn Lonvig

These articles will also be published on
Artday Network World ArtNews in Tokyo, Japan
Squarespace, Inc., College Park, Maryland University, Washington D.C.
FullDigitalArt.com in Paris, France and on
blogger.com, blog.com, msn.com and bloglines.com .
The articles are sent Artsitrepublik.com's Asbjorn Lonvig Corner and to RedTram through Colorful New, which is an acknowledged news channel to RedTram News Search Engine.

"To moms, to dads, to grannies...". Take a tour in fairy tale land with your children or grandchildren.

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 11:42:30 +0200

New article: See the children's books. See the coloring books. See the mini-posters, see the slide shows, see the T-shirt transfer motifs together with your children or grandchildren.

Use an hour or so.....

Bravo Asbjorn for your wonderful take, in pictures and words, on the corporate world in which we live!!

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 19:36:13 +0200

On Tuesday, April 12th, Ellen Fisch said

All of art is storytelling. From the caveman to da Vinci to Picasso and on, the images that artists create reflect not only their vision and skills, but the times in which they live. Bravo Asbjorn for your wonderful take, in pictures and words, on the corporate world in which we live!!

Great blog....would that we all communicated with each other and our work...or through each other and through our art.

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:56:05 +0200

On Tuesday, April 12th, Ellen Fisch said
There is a time when an artist must speak up for him/herself. While promoting an excellent book by Alain Joanes, Abjorn Lonvig has included some of himself. Why not!! And writing in multiple languages adds texture and stimulation!! Loved the image, too! Great blog....would that we all communicated with each other and our work...or through each other and through our art.

New article...How to communicate through pictures...

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:09:16 +0200

Wouldn't any of us like to know how? An artist try to communicate. Through writing. Through music. Through movies. Sometimes he succeeds. Sometimes he does not. When his expectation are hight - he might not communicate at all. When his expectations are low - he might communicate exelently. Every artist has his own recepy. Mine is simple shapes and bright colors. Even when I write. Even when I ....... You can't alway believe what is written in newspapers. But if it is written in a book, you have to believe it. Or? I would like to tell you about a new book. It is written by the French author Alain Joannes, who lives in Paris. It is called "Communiques par l'image" - that' s French and means "how to communicate through pictures". It was presented at the prestigous "Salon du Livre" in Paris in March this year. To me it sounds like it's the new bible to artsits, designers etc. You can buy this new bible at Dunod Belive it or not, one of the chapters in this new book is about my painting "soul hurting still". I'll just show the draft of the painting and quote what the author writes:

Now run in ADN World ArtNews in Tokyo, Japan.

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:11:07 +0200

The article "Who is Aros - who is Bill" on Aros Art Musem in Aarhus, Denmark and world artist Bill Viola, USA is now run in ADN World ArtNews in Tokyo, Japan.
See it in Tokyo, Japan.

Sincerely,
Asbjorn Lonvig, columnist

Article to World Wide Art Resources Art News, USA and to ADN World ArtNews, Japan about Aros and Bill Viola.

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 21:08:07 +0200

Hi Asbjorn Lonvig
Thanks for ... magnificent article Thanks

Bjarne Bækgaard
Communication manager
Aros Art Museum
Aarhus
Denmark

Bill Viola's Visions - art exhibition at Aros Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 14:43:04 +0200

Yesterday I visited Aros.
Who is Aros?
What is Aros?
An operating system to an Amiga computer?
The best of Scottish Music, Books, Culture and Heritage?
A golf club in Västerås in Sweden?
An Amsterdam based sextet playing rhythmically compelling blend of jazz, classical and new music ideas?
A Danish insurance company?
Or?
Yes, all of the above.
But.
Aros is also the ancient name of the capital of a peninsula called Jutland, which is a province of Denmark.
Today the city is called Aarhus.
And Aros is an art museum.
I live near by.
According to the chairman of the board, Neil Kzokoss, Chicago Athenaeum, Museum of Architecture and Design, who visited me once, my house is located "in the middle of nowhere".

Well, your expectations to an art museum in the middle of nowhere in a province of Denmark might not be high.
Stay tuned.
Outside

And when you look at this art museum from outside it is nothing but a huge cube.
A huge box.
A huge brick.
Ok, there are a few architectural goodies when you look closer.
A ramp from the street to the lounge.
A lift in a tube.
Huge windows.
And according to well informed sources there is some very expensive
but unfortunately invisible masonry.
But.

Inside

At the moment you enter the lounge, your breath is taken away.
Where am I?
I'm totally confused.
Suddenly I am indeed not in the middle of nowhere.
I'm in New York.
And the architect is renowned Frank Lloyd Wright.
I'm at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street in New York.
1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street in New York is of course
the address of Guggenheim Museum.
Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece on Fifth Avenue was built in 1959.
Amazing how Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture is contemporary.
In Chicago I saw several of his houses that looked as if they were built yesterday.
One was from 1909.
Frank Lloyd Wright had a rare gift, sure.
Divinity?
If you did not know that Frank Lloyd Wright had passed away
and if you did not know that the architects of Aros were Morten Schmidt, Bjarne Hammer og John Lassen
you surely had any reason to assume that Aros was a Frank Lloyd Wright creation.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Advertisement

In my memory, Guggenheim Museum New York is white.
And the sky above is blue, blue, blue.
That's how I remember it from my visits there.
But I saw a picture of the museum recently.
It was sadly yellowish and the sky
above was smoggy.

To the left: "blue sky" by Asbjorn Lonvig
Acrylic on canvas
79.2 x 54.8 inches
US$ 12,000

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Who is Bill?

Bill is not the most successful police drama on British television.
Bill is not he who is known from Microsoft with the sirname Gates.
Bill is not Bill of Rights. Amendment I.
Bill is the former president of the United States.

Bill is Bill Viola.
Bill is a video artist.
Bill was born in New York.
He studied at the College of Visual and Performing Arts of Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, graduating with a B.F.A.
After that he worked with various projects.
For example he worked with an avant-garde music group.
The National Endowment for the Arts awarded Bill a Visual Artist Fellowship for his work in video. He received a Video Artist Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation presented Bill with a video stipend........And his biography goes on like this.........of course he has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Guggenheim Museum in New York, Berlin and Bilbao have shown his works.

This world artist exhibits at Aros.
The exhibition is called Bill Viola's Visions and it takes place right now at
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in collaboration with Guggenheim Bilbao,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York and Deutsche Guggenheim
Berlin.
On beforehand I read this in the catalog (....which actually is a book):

The five pieces comprising Bill Violas Visions strike
up certain fundamental themes that characterize
Viola's art, such as his fascination with birth, life,
death an rebirth. Inspired particularly by Buddhism's
concept of reincarnation, Viola treats existence as
a cycle where the human being is born, lives, dies,
and is born anew............................................
The next sentence I did not quit understand
but it might be explained here...........................
Bill Viola generates visions. He does so with visually
intense images, that wager our physically concrete
reality with an underlying metaphysical world.......

Or in short deep Bill.

I was ready to see deep Bill's art.
I too had seen an interview with a curator from Aros
in TV, she was fascinated by the technical aspects
of Bill's exhibition: Huge screens, high stereo sounds etc.

1. - Crossing

I entered the room.
No light at all.
With a screen in the middle of the room.
A screen that was not as huge as I was told
in TV.
I forgot everything about technical aspects as
a man began walking in slow motion far away.
Slow, slow motion.
I just stirred - totally forgetting how long the man's
crossing lasted.
As the man came close he stood still.
A tiny flame appeared.
It grew and grew an

2. - Going Forth by Day

Five huge screens in one room each showing a video film.
Stereo sounds from the 5 video films.
Watching 5 deep Bill video films in one time was a tremendous challenge.

The deluge
At the wall facing you as you enter the room.
The images are shown on the wall, like e fresco.
A door and 4 windows.
A beggar.
Furniture are being removed from the hose.
Pedestrians walk faster and faster.
Noise from the street.
Panic. People hurry out of the door. Some do not manage to get out before cascades of water catch
them and rush them out on the street, dead. Cascades of water from the windows.
High sounds of water.

The voyage
A dollhouse like house at the top of a hill. A dying man is in a bed. Two relatives are mourning. A watch sits outside.
Removers and a bargeman are loading a barge.
The barge is at the lake shore.
The lake is calm. No wind. It seams artificial.
The two relative leave the dollhouse. The watch leaves the hose. The relatives return back to the hose. The door is locked. The man in the hose has died.
Two elderly people say good by to each other on the lake shore. And they both enters the barge and sail across the lake.

First light
Rocks and a pond.
Exhausted rescuers load an ambulance with stuff.
The ambulance leaves.
(I have forgotten the chronology)
It rains cats and dogs.
A woman is offered a blanket.
Three men and a woman go to sleep.
A woman comes out of the pond and flies into the sky.
Surrealistic.

The path
People are passing by. In slow motion, all of them in the same direction. Going to or coming from a picnic.
Bringing things.
This goes on and on. The image is huge, it is on the long side of the room, from one end to another.
Surrealistic.

Fire Birth
The 5th screen was on fire every time I looked.
Contours of a figure emerged now and then.
A baby?
But only to fade away.

By the way - Bill was inspired by the renaissance master Luca Signorelli's Judgment Day frescoes
in Orvieto in Italy. Giotto has been of great inspiration to Bill, too. Giotto's greatest masterpiece is a giant 3-dimentional image, which you phisically enter - like Going Forth by Day.
Going Forth by Day lasted for half an hour.
Afterwards I had a feeling that I had to watch every single video film for half an hour,
but sure that's not Bill Viola's intention.
One half hour, period.
I had to take break.
Why?
It was too much.
Of what?
Can&ap and had a salad and two bread, a mineral water and a cup of coffee.

3. - Surrender

A single screen work.
A man in red.
His face is distorted with pain.
A woman in blue.
Her face is distorted with pain.
The man and the woman are reflected in the surface of a pool of water.
Now and then they bend forward and plunge.
The water run off their faces.
Tears?
Their expressions become more and more painful.
And.
They dissolve.

4. - The Messenger

More water.
A naked man in the water.
He is submerged in water.
He comes to the surface.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Bill has told us about a boyhood incident in which he nearly drowned.
Bill recalls the episode as a peace filled, poetic experience.
To suggest itself as a metaphor for human existence?
Messenger?
The man assumes the role of a messenger between the concrete reality and a reality beyond?

5. - Five Angels for the Millennium

Aross own installation.
5 projections.
Water, water, water, water and water.
Things, humans descend and ascend.
I can't say so much about these 5 works.
I had mentally closed down.
No more emotional bombardment for this day.
Some other day maybe.

After exhibition

I was tired.
Totally exhausted from concentration and impressions.
I went to to the information desk and introduced myself:
I have an appointment - I want to talk to the Communication Manager.
We had a cup of coffee in the Italian like Art Café.
We talked about Bill's exhibition.
About Bill's exhibition being exhausting.
We talked about Aros.
About Aros being a wonderful place.

People call it Aros.
I call it "Little Guggenheim".

Boy

Before I finish this story about Aros and Bill... I want to
show you something you will not see anywhere else.
It's the Aarhus Kunstmuseum landmark
"boy" by Ron Mueck
Height: 5 meters, that's 16.4 feet

photos by Poul Ib Henriksen and ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in collaboration with Guggenheim Bilbao, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York and Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin.

Beijing...Cambridge...Dallas...

Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:33:38 +0200

I'll tell you what "in Beijing" has to do with my new Corner Project, or we might more ambitiously call it my Channel Concept.
It is about writing articles and other news in a blog exclusively used by me and the visitors of an online gallery, newsletter, newspaper, magazine or some other portal. Comments and questions from visitors will then create an Interactive Lecture like situation. The first project is launched tomorrow at ArtistsRepublik.com in Cambridge, UK.

Yesterday I hosted a new domaine www.lonvig.org at Planet's in Dallas Texas. www.lonvig.org is primarily for promoting writings and lecturing.
Finally I'll tell you how I obtain back linking to www.lonvig.org.

I loved your Blog

Wed, 2 Feb 2005 21:33:00 +0200

I loved your Blog about one project leading to another & another & so on!! Am in the middle of a difficult project & your Blog encouraged me!! I also grew up on the Andersen fairy tales & love them dearly! Thanks for a beautiful, colorful & dynamic dose of encouragement!!!
Ellen Fisch
Long Island
New York

AbsoluteArts.com has got its own Art News Artblog news feed.

Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:08:41 +0200

The address of the new AbsoluteArts Art News Artblog news feed is:
http://blog.absolutearts.com/blogs/absolutearts.xml

See the button on Absolutearts.com.

Celebrating Hans Christian Andersen's bicentennial in 2005 - All his fairy tales in English for you!!!!

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 20:17:51 +0200

And to the readers of Art News:
To celebrate Hans Christian Andersen's bicentennial in 2005,
the Hans Christian Andersen Center at University of Southern Denmark at Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies
has helped me to guide you to
All Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales in English
by Jean Hersholt:
The Complete Andersen is a rather extensive collection of Andersen's tales and this is the most comprehensive edition of Andersen's fairy tales in
English (American) on the internet.

You have to notice, however, that Simple Simon is called Clumsy Hans
and Willie Winkie is called Ole Lukoie
in this collection.

Thanks to
Web Editor Lars Bo Jensen
University of Southern Denmark
Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies
Hans Christian Andersen Center
Campusvej 55
5230 Odense
Denmark
Web: http://www.humaniora.sdu.dk/

Once upon a time...run in Art News 26 January 2005

Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:05:50 +0200

An article to Art News.
A fairy tale about an Artist.
An Artist involved in creating Hans Christian Andersen motifs.
An Artist involved in creating Hans Christian Andersen motifs for use in 2005.
On the 2nd of April 2005, the most well known Dane in the
world, author Hans Christian Andersen, would have been 200
years old. The anniversary is being celebrated with a huge
cultural year devoted to Andersen, both in Denmark and worldwide.

Cerebral Thrombosis

Sun, 16 Jan 2005 22:58:51 +0200

The head teacher from Hedensted School phoned me recently about noon.
She told me, that my wife, who is a teacher at Hedensted School, could not
speak, she was paralyzed in the right side of her face and in the right arm.
The school secretary had called 911.

Improving my English

Sun, 19 Dec 2004 19:21:13 +0200

I get a lot of encouragements from people around the world.
I keep of course track of these - thoroughly.
And put them into my testimonials and critics on my web site for marketing reasons.
I really enjoy this.
But.
But.
But.
But.
There is a reverse of the medal.
Now and then I get really angry responses.
So angry that I can't understand that people can be that upset over art on a web site.
I got an e-mail from Sim Tack, who lives in Belgium.
In the subject of the e-mail he writes:
"you sir, are a disgrace to artists!"

Colorful News

Sat, 4 Dec 2004 21:18:44 +0200

I have a lot to tell you. A new exhibition in Paris with the "Bridging Europe" painting.
A new exhibition in Silicon Valley with "1080 Haight Street".
And then of course I must tell you about "Blue Sky" inspired by the Guggenheim building
on Fifth Avenue in New York.

"Thunderbird" from British Columbia Westcoast selection, "Via Sacra" that was exhibited in
"the International Contemporary Art Exhibition" in il Vittoriano in Rome last year, "grand Canyon",
the Noosa Queensland Australia selection , my exhibition in Madrid, Easter Island motifs and... stop, stop, stop, stop. It doesn't work. I have to do it in another way. Let me make a live art magazine for you, let's call it Colorful News.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Sat, 4 Dec 2004 21:16:57 +0200

Nice word!?
About.com says under Urban Legends and Folklore:
Paraskevidekatriaphobics - people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th - are no doubt pricking up their ears just now, buoyed by evidence that their terror may not be so irrational after all. But it's unwise to take solace in a single scientific study (the only one of its kind, so far as I know), especially one so peculiar. I suspect it has more to teach us about human psychology than it does about any particular date on the calendar.

Wise people like myself don't care.
Or am I wise?
No.

On Friday the 13th of August I published my first Art News Artblog. I had worked for days to present myself and my art in a live art Magazine to you.
And of course made a link to Colorful News.
But.
The link did not work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm a fool.

So I'll repeat the link to Colorful News: http://www.lonvig.dk/colorful-news.htm
and check it 7 times.
Sorry!

Be careful out there

Sat, 4 Dec 2004 21:15:42 +0200

I have this Commentary on online marketing: Cyberspace is loaded with junk.
Cyberspace is loaded with marketers trying to sell junk - and earn a fortune before sunset.
But you can see if it is junk right away.
Look at the design of a web page.
Look at the design of the e-mail with a fantastic offer.
It is like looking at an art work - trust your eyes - trust your own judgement.
Only you can feel if the sender has put some hard work in the effort to reach your attention.
A part of his own heart.

Interactive Lecture

Sat, 4 Dec 2004 21:14:06 +0200

The only thing I need is a projector and a fast line to the internet.
The only thing I bring is myself.
On the internet I have made 1950 web pages to choose from.
And as every image on these pages represents one or several stories my lecture can go on for ever.
In the past I have made a lot of lectures. In schools, in universities, in companies, in associations, in counties, in municipalities - you name it.
I thought the preparations were very time-consuming and boring, and I often did not use the pictures, the slides, the transparents etc. etc. that I had prepared.
Questions and remarks from the audience often altered the whole context of the lecture.

Christmas Mood.

Fri, 3 Dec 2004 20:00:45 +0200

Last year I wrote two wishes on my wish list and sent it to Santa Claus, who in my tradition lives in
Nuuk in Greenland. You might know his huge red mailbox in Nuuk.
He wrote back to me: Ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho,ho.
My son lives in Nuuk close to Santa's workshop, he e-mailed to me in November 2004, that Santa was still laughing.

1st wish was to have more than 250,000 views on my web site on one single day.
2nd wish was to have more than 1,000,000 views on my web site in one single week.
On 1st December I got mail.
E-mail from my son in Nuuk. Santa had stopped laughing.
See why.

Santa Claus had stopped laughing and had started smiling.
He wrote to me: "Now that you have that many visitors, would you please help me delivering Christmas Gifts -
I am so awful busy in the month of December".
"Sure, Santa" I wrote back to him.

I remember nothing after the Tsunami. Who am I?

Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:44:40 +0200

Who am I?
I have lost my parents.
I am in the Phuket Hospital.
I remember nothing after the Tsunami.
Do you know who I am?