Artist of the Month is a monthly interview series where Tegnerforbundet introduces a member who is represented with artwork in our Sales Department. With this initiative, we want to give readers an insight into the members' artistic work and highlight the importance of drawing in their work.
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Solfrid Elise Lindblom (1998) became a member of Tegnerforbundet in the fall of 2023. She is educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tromsø and Einar Granum Kunstfagskole. Her artistic practice is characterized by themes related to nature and the mythical, with a focus on the Anthropocene. Lindblom explores the role of nature as an active actor in art, rather than a passive background, and questions man's position as the dominant species. Through her work, the viewer is encouraged to reflect on the ethical consequences of this dominance and see humans as part of a larger ecological network. Her use of materials also reflects these themes, with charcoal drawing often playing a central role. Lindblom is a "conlang" who has also developed her own written language, which is occasionally visible in her work.
TF: Hi Solfrid. Welcome as a member of Tegnerforbundet. Can you tell us a little about your artistic work?
SEL: I work with charcoal drawings in both small and very large formats. In my work, I alternate between the meticulous and the rough. This alternation keeps things interesting for me and challenges me in two very different ways. Lately, I've also gotten really excited about working with drawing as an installation. There's something really fun about combining the two-dimensional with the three-dimensional, sort of taking it off the wall and into the room. It's something I think I'll be working more with in the future.
TF: Why do you draw? Tell us a little about your work process.
SEL: I like the directness of drawing, and I think that's part of what keeps me coming back to this medium even though I'm trying new things. The fact that it's just the drawing utensil, the paper and my hand gives a nice flow to the work process, I don't have to break off to mix colors, or prepare the material. I think it helps me to be in the moment, because I can quickly zone out and lose focus during longer sessions, and then it helps to have as little as possible that takes me away from the here and now, from what's happening on the paper and with my hand.
My process starts with an ideation phase where I both discard and develop ideas until I feel ready to move forward. My sketching process is a very important part of my practice and I make quite accurate sketches. I often work collage-based at this stage, either digitally or with scissors and tack-it. The motif is largely created in the sketching process, but the technique comes as I work on the drawing itself. I work in layers with light and shadow, which gives me some time to find a good technique for the specific project.
TF: Can you name some artists/artists who inspire you?
SEL: Always a tricky question - there are so many, and I can often find inspiration in artists who are doing something completely different from myself. It's very inspiring to see other artists who are playing around with how to show drawing/painting, such as Francoise Vanneraud, Vanessa Baird and Tom Kosmo. Other artists I look to are Louise Bourgeois, Emma Talbot, Håkon Bleken with his charcoal drawings and the earlier works of Sverre Malling. I should also mention that I'm often inspired by the moods and aesthetics of films, with directors such as Lars von Trier, Andrei Tarkovsky and Roy Andersson.
TF: What themes concern you as an artist?
SEL: Thematically it goes in periods for me, but it often circulates around things that have to do with ecology, mysticism and time/tempo. These are three quite different themes, but for me they are linked by a common denominator, which is the Anthropocene Age, where the capitalist pace of our time towards the abyss is increasingly pushing us to consider ethical issues related to sustainability and ecology. "Mysticism has followed me all the way from when I started my art education, and there is something about the unknown and ambiguous that has always attracted me. I think that shines through in much of my art.
TF: What does drawing mean to you in your work?
SEL: I see drawing as a democratic medium. In the history of art, it has been seen as inferior to painting, or considered a medium for sketches and not "real" art. But humans have drawn at all times, in all cultures as far as we know. And we've all drawn in one form or another as children. When you see drawing, you can feel it in your hand, you can see the marks of the pencil or charcoal and you can relate to it. I also find it to be quite an honest medium, as there are only so many layers you can have. I think drawing can be engaging even for those who don't surround themselves with and think about art on a daily basis. Drawing is also democratic in terms of economics, since you don't need all the equipment in the world and can create good art with fairly simple materials. But then it's easy to get a bit nerdy about materials and stuff!
TF: Why do you want to become a member of Tegnerforbundet? What does such a membership mean?
SEL: I became a member of Tegnerforbundet in the fall of 2023, after I finished the Art Academy in Tromsø. It can be easy to feel a bit lonely as an illustrator in an art world dominated by painting and three-dimensional art, so it's a great motivation to have other illustrators behind you. Having others to look to for inspiration and learning, and not least, it's fun to get NUMER in the mail where I can read about what's going on in the field.
TF: Tell us a little about your work in Tegnerforbundet's sales department!
SEL: I now have three charcoal drawings and two lithographs in the sales department. Two of the drawings are from my second year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tromsø, and were part of a process of exploration, both materially and thematically. In the drawing Void of Words, I have integrated some sentences written in an alphabet I made myself. The sentences are in Norwegian, but only in my own sign language. For me, the picture is about the pain of having to express verbally something you don't have words for, just a feeling or sensation. Beneath our Feet, Within our Bodies is one of ten drawings in an installation I showed at Salongen Visningsrom in Stavanger this spring. There, I made a series of charcoal drawings showing close-ups of mushrooms and the insides of mushrooms, some of them in a process of decay. I mounted these drawings on white-painted MDF boards and hung them from the ceiling using nuts and steel wire. Between the drawings, I created a network of crocheted yarn so that the whole became a kind of mushroom world where the audience could move in and around. The two lithographs are also from the mushroom's microworld and are an extension of the same theme.
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See available works by Solfrid Elise Lindblom in the webshop.
