Artist of the Month is an interview series where Tegnerforbundet each month introduces a member who is represented by 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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Ingvild Hudø Jørgensen (b. 1966) is a trained artist and geologist. The artist explores mankind's relationship with nature and the traces we leave in it. Her fascination with geology is clearly visible in her work, where the drawings are built up layer by layer, piece by piece. The constant forces of nature serve as an inspiration for Jørgensen. Her drawings are not limited by laws and rules, but rather a free expression based on her own technique and expression. In her drawings, Jørgensen shows a spontaneous working process. Geomorphology and archaeology are two themes that often recur in the artist's work. Jørgensen creates abstracted forms, but not to the point of unrecognizability. She builds up painstaking compositions, just like nature itself, small parts layered together to form a coherent image. The artist also uses strong colors to convey her messages. Jørgensen lives on Brønnøya and is a new member of Tegnerforbundet. We wish her a warm welcome.
TF: Ingvild, can you tell us a bit about your artistic work?
IHJ: Art has been a central part throughout my childhood. I grew up with art as my father was a visual artist with a studio at home. My grandfather was also a visual artist. I studied part-time at the Art School in Bærum (DTK) from 2015 to 2018. In 2018 I participated in a project with 17 works, mainly drawings for the book "Psicoterapia astrologia`y Destino" by Oscar Solis Arias (published in Mexico). The drawings in the book were in the form of expressive faces. I exhibited the same works in a solo exhibition in Stockholm the same year. In 2022 I was accepted at the Østlandsutstillingen with 2 large drawings. The same year I was contacted by a composer who interpreted one of my drawings into piano music. I have drawn a lot in recent years. Both with ink, pen and some charcoal. Previously I used a lot of oil pastels and mixed media techniques. I have also painted a lot, mostly with acrylics, but at the moment it is exclusively in the form of drawing.
TF: Why do you draw? Tell us a little about your work process.
IHJ: Drawing does not require the same premises and equipment as painting. Also, I am more comfortable with paper and not canvas. Drawing is a braver and bolder form of expression than painting as you have limited opportunities to correct a drawing versus a painting. I like the boldness of drawing. I like to work from an idea or a photo. I don't make a sketch in advance. Flow and forces are reconstructed. New ideas arise during the drawing process. I explore the controlled and the more spontaneous in the same drawing, often to music. Music gives me more room for spontaneity and boldness.
TF: What or who inspires you?
IHJ: Geology and art are closely related as geological deposits can be seen as the earth's own art. As a geologist, history, in the form of deposits, stratigraphy, fossils and traces, is something fundamental that I actively use in art. I am interested in man's relationship with nature. Visiting gravel pits and quarries gives me inspiration. The geological epoch we are now in occupies me in the form of how humans leave traces behind. In the beginning of my artistic work, I was most inspired by my father, Rolf Jørgensen. Then it was Inger Sitter, Per Kirkeby and Mark Bradford, to name a few. The photographer Edward Burtynsky is someone I am currently inspired by.
TF: What are you currently working on?
IHJ: I work with paper from my father that he didn't get to use up, in 92x64 cm, and I often split the sheet in half to halve the size. I explore past and present as well as contrasts and opposites. Like the hard rugged mountain against the softer elements. The feminine against the masculine in various forms, transformed and abstracted into landscapes, creatures and geological formations. It is with ink, fine line and charcoal.
TF: What does it mean to draw for you in your work?
IHJ: Drawing gives me a lot of freedom. I choose both the form and the content of the task and how I solve it. Drawing for me is not trapped in a series of restrictions of laws and rules, but is rather more or less a free expression, based on where I am in the process in relation to my own technique and expression. It is more about how I choose to draw in the process I am in. I have sole ownership of the process and that is a relief.
TF: Tell us a little about your work in Tegnerforbundet's sales department!
IHJ: The drawings are from 2021 in size 63x46 cm, which I have chosen to call "presence" and "diversity". I have used different thicknesses of ink and pen. I have not drawn the lines beforehand. A couple of areas are the starting point for an idea in the drawings. The rest have been created along the way. Stratigraphy, geomorphology and archaeology are some of the themes of these drawings, although the present and the past are mixed together.
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See available works by Ingvild Hudø Jørgensen in the online shop.
