Category: Art

Adventure, Arctic, Art, Awareness, Beauty, Chronic illness, Culture, DIY, Duodji, Everyday life, Hair, Health, Indigenous, Jewellery, Knitting, Landscape, Make-Up, Neurological, Outfit, People, Photography, Photoshoot, Quotes, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Self portrait, Sewing, Spirituality, Uralic

My creative energy

Ask the Mountains
Can I just say, this is the best photo anyone has ever taken of me? Susann, thank you for capturing my essence. Here I am wearing a headdress and silk liidni I sewed myself, and the gákti summer dress is made by Nadezda Johnsen.
Autumn wind…🧡🍂🙌🏼
Life is a lot of chopping wood and carrying water… I think that is how the saying goes 😉

“Your healing journey will, of course, include a consideration and use of all the best tools modern medicine can offer you, as well as the best tools holistic healing can offer you. From a deeper perspective, illness is caused by unfulfilled longing. The deeper the illness, the deeper the longing. It is a message that somehow, somewhere, you have forgotten who you are and what your purpose is. You have forgotten and disconnected from the purpose of your creative energy from your core. Your illness is the symptom: The disease represents your unfulfilled longing. So above all else, use your illness to set yourself free to do what you have always wanted to do, to be who you have always wanted to be, to manifest and express who you already are from your deepest, broadest, and highest reality. If indeed you have discovered yourself to be ill, prepare yourself for change, expect your deepest longing to surface and to be brought to fruition. Prepare yourself to finally stop running and turn and face the tiger within you, whatever that means to you in a very personal way. I suggest the best place to start to find the meaning of your illness is to ask yourself: “What is it that I have longed for and not yet succeeded in creating in my life?”’ (From Barbara Brennan’s book Emerging Light)

Adventure, Arctic, Art, Awareness, Beauty, Everyday life, Landscape, Photography, Photoshoot, Sápmi

Photo series: Arctic autumn, pt. 1

Ask the Mountains
Yellow birch leaves bathing in the sunlight. Ramfjorden/Gáranasvuotna.
Calm sea….
🍂
The yellow trees against the blue sky is a sight to behold. 💛💙
Very happy with this shot, was thinking for many weeks that I wanted to take this photo and feel like I nailed it just how I wished 😄👍🏻
This one is with phone camera, because I could not find my Panasonic camera (found it 2 days later, exactly where I put it!) Tinden / Sálašoaivi.
Another phone shot, but feel like I really captured the mood of the weather, even though it is bad quality! ☔️
Adventure, Arctic, Art, Awareness, Beauty, Dharma, Everyday life, Finnmark, Indigenous, Landscape, People, Photography, Poems, Relationship, Saami, Sámi, Self portrait, Spirituality, Uralic, Yoga

A thimbleful of light

Ask the Mountains

“Darkness, no matter how ominous and intimidating, is not a thing or force: it is merely the absence of light. So light need not combat and overpower darkness in order to displace it – where light is, darkness is not. A thimbleful of light will therefore banish a roomful of darkness. The same is true of good and evil: evil is not a thing or force, but merely the absence or concealment of good. One need not ‘defeat’ the evil in the world; one need only bring to light its inherent goodness.”

– Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Arctic, Art, Beauty, Dharma, Everyday life, Hair, Indigenous, People, Photography, Sámi, Sápmi, Self portrait, Spirituality, Uralic, Vajrayana, Yoga

The real you remains..

Ask the Mountains

Emotions make us act and feel in strange ways

But the real you remains unchanged

Experiences and challenges shape us, like pots of clay on a spinning table

Still, the real you remains untouched

Illness, pain and grief chip away our vital energy

Even so, the real you remains ever so vibrant

Death arrives, entering without knocking

Yet, the real you remains.

A poem I wrote today, while contemplating impermanence. ❤️

Animals, Anthropology, Arctic, Art, Awareness, DIY, Duodji, Finnmark, Heritage, Indigenous, People, Photography, Photoshoot, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Uralic

More special?

Ask the Mountains

“People wearing their national dresses symbolise unity. A research conducted on this subject showed that youngsters wearing traditional clothes, irrespective of western pressure, had fewer behavioural and emotional problems. The reason being that they are in touch with their ancestral culture, religion and traditions and thus not confused about their identity or who they are.” Makes sense to me; feeling like you belong and have a community is very important. Nowadays, I think many of us feel a part of many different groups, because we live in a globalised world, and clothing can be changed, thus changing your identity. Maybe that makes our traditional and national dresses even more special? ❤

Here is the link to the study for anyone interested. It also sheds a light on the dangers of not allowing indigenous peoples to use and wear their own clothings, as we have seen happen all over the world.

Sámi man in gákti with reindeer pants and mittens. The shoes are nuvttohat, skaller, nutukas.. many names for same shoe. Different languages and dialects. Photo by Lola A. Akerström
Kautokeino Sámis. Guovdageaidnu in Northern Sámi language. Wearing pesks and gáktis. With traditional shawls, belts, mittens and hats. Northern Lapland/Sápmi.
Khanty woman Kristina Neva and baby in reindeer clothing with decor. Summer on the Arctic tundra. Photo by Bryan and Cherry Alexander.

Both Sámis and Khantys are Uralic peoples.

Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, Beauty, Culture, DIY, Duodji, Everyday life, Finnmark, Heritage, Indigenous, Jewellery, Knitting, Landscape, Outfit, People, Photography, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Self portrait, Tromsø

The darkest, most colourful time

Ask the Mountains
My latest painting 🤍❄
A little hare lives close by…🐇
2021 in paintings 💙
My winter solstice and Christmas outfit. An Alta/Loppa/Kvænangen-kofteinspirered Sami dress. Sewn by Nadezda Johnsen, colours and fabric chosen by me 💙❤🧡💛
“New” wall decor.. My old sweater made by my grandma for me when I was little, and my old skaller.
Knits also by my grandma. This was before the polar night.
Amazing mosaic by Marit Bockelie in Tromsø.
A few sunrays below the horizon. Midday 💙🧡💛
Lights in the city.

December went by fast, only a week left of 2021. Today is Christmas eve, and we get to celebrate it with fresh snow, but most importantly; with our son, whose first Christmas it is. Wishing you all a peaceful and magical time, with lots of rest and good meals. Xx

Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, DIY, Landscape, Photography, Sámi

1 of 6 in a small series: Sky on Fire

Ask the Mountains
20 x 20, in daylight. Looks glossy from the wet varnish. No filter here, just sunlight 🌤🙏🏻
Indoors lighting, before I added a few more white details. I know it’s “bad luck” to make adjustments after signing it, but it was missing something! The top photo is the finished result 🤍

This is # 1 of 6 in a small series I plan to make, all same size.

Arctic, Art, Beauty, Duodji, Everyday life, Finnmark, Heritage, Indigenous, People, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Uralic

Our true nature

Ask the Mountains
Our sweet little boy 🖤 My wool sweater knitted by grandma.

Being a mama has really opened my heart, not just for our child, but for all children. I have always loved the little new humans obviously, but being a parent takes it to another level somehow. Truly an automatic bodhicitta practice; infinite love and boundless compassion – our true nature.

Here are some beautiful motherhood art pieces I really like. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 🥰

Art by Germaine Arnaktauyok, “Quiet Time”, 2005
Art by Mayoreak Ashoona, “Matching braids”, 1991
Not a painting or art print, but traditional Sámi komse (baby carrier). Truly an art piece in itself, with every woven band having a meaning.
Art by Emily Kewageshig
Art by Alanah Jewell

How has motherhood changed you? Has it opened your heart (more)?

Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, Awareness, DIY, Everyday life, Health, Landscape, Meditation, Yoga

How to relax

Ask the Mountains

For the past 11 years or so, I have been teaching myself how to relax and be calm.

I have always been quite a worried person, so I feel I had to learn this in order to simply have a better life with more control. I still sometimes forget how to, but each time I remember, I do the following:

An easy quick way to instantly relax the mind and muscles, causing bloodflow to spread more evenly in the body, is to do three things simultanously: relax the jaw and eyes completely, breathe deeply into belly for at least 8 breaths and move the inner gaze/attention to the feet or ground below. Get a sense of the Earth. Notice the effect.

Another way, if you have the oppotunity, is to lay down flat, do the same with jaw and eyes, and to focus on the in and out breaths in the belly. Take deep slow breaths. Imagine them as waves ebbing on the shore.

And lastly, going into nature of course has a calming effect too, even just for 10 minutes. If you cannot go outside, perhaps painting or drawing nature is an idea.

Hope this helps! I truly believe knowing how to relax and calm our selves is an important skill. Getting carried away by the storm can be both painful and result in regrets.

Acrylic on canvas, gift for a friend 💙
Art, DIY, Duodji, Everyday life, Heritage, Indigenous, Pregnancy, Sámi, Self portrait

Traditional Sámi bracelet

Ask the Mountains

Was so lucky to receive this traditional Sámi bracelet from my partner’s mum as a gift “for giving her the greatest gift” (our son, her grandson) 🖤

It is made from black leather, reindeer antler button and decoration, and the braids are traditional tinwire used in duodji/daidda. It is made by @tinntraadfruen on instagram if you want to see her work 💫

What was a gift you received that had a nice meaning behind it?

Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, Culture, Dharma, DIY, Dzogchen, Indigenous, Meditation, Photography, Quotes, Vajrayana, Yoga

The Copper Coloured Mountain: Pure land

Ask the Mountains
A little snow leopard put her print in the snow 🐾 Tara dancing in the snow next to it ❄
10 x 10 cm. Colours used: white, blue and copper/gold.
Our Christmas altar. Put my new painting there next to Vajrasattva statue.
‘During practice, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are omnipresent. They’re always here, but we don’t see them because of our obscurations. We practice in order to clear away the obscurations and to acquire pure perception—not with the eyes, but with the heart.’ ❤🙏🏻

The copper coloured mountain is also known as Zangdok Palri; Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava’s non-physical pure land.

Acrylic painting, Arctic, Art, Beauty, DIY, Landscape, Sápmi

Be more of an amateur!

Ask the Mountains
My favourite painting from last year 💙🧡💛💜 Acrylic on canvas.

“An amateur (literally means ‘lover [of something]’) is generally considered a person who persues a particular activity or field of study independently from their source of income/does not persue it professionally or with an eye to gain.” 🎨

#amare #amateur #amour ❤


Be more of an amateur this year ✨

Acrylic painting, Adventure, Arctic, Art, Chronic illness, DIY, Health, Landscape, Neurological, Photography, Sámi, Sápmi, Shop

First painting of the year finished

Ask the Mountains

First painting of the year finished!🌟🌟🌟

Visited the beach in Sandvika twice in oct and nov before polar night; once to take the photograph and once to try and paint outdoors, but it started raining so finished it finally now in the first day of January 😁

Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 cm 🌅
Colours used: blue, yellow, orange, purple, gold and white. Varnished with waterproof UV protection spray.

Acrylic painting, Adventure, Animals, Arctic, Art, Beauty, Indigenous, Landscape, Photography, Sámi, Sápmi

Always shifting

Ask the Mountains
“Just like water, snow and ice, life is always shifting, changing forms.” (This photo is from february 2017).
Beautiful texture and shapes in the frozen water.

One of my paintings inspired by the icy landscape:

Click to see bigger versions
My little pregnant polar bear. Wrote a post earlier about this painting 💜 Here she is framed.
    Arctic, Art, Beauty, Culture, Dharma, DIY, Dzogchen, Everyday life, Genealogy, Indigenous, People, Photography, Photoshoot, Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, Sewing, Spirituality, Uralic, Vajrayana

    Things that are yours to keep

    Ask the Mountains
    Traditional headdress by me, shawl hand-me-down. Photo by Sebastian Wilches 2020.

    Some things I truly believe are yours to keep, that no one can take from you:

    Your spiritual practice. In my case, it is vajrayana buddhism. It has saved my life in many ways – both in dealing with chronic illness, but also the normal existential stuff like finding purpose and joy 🙂🙏🏼📿

    Your ambitions and dreams (if they come from a place of pure motivation and love). In my case now, it has been starting a little family with children 💜🤱

    Your ethnicity and ancestry, no matter how lost or scattered it is in this modern world. In my case from my personal experience, I feel very connected to my home in the Arctic and being uralic/finno-ugric. I didn’t as a kid and teenager, at all, but now as I am older, I feel like I can “own” it more. I don’t speak any of the uralic languages, and feel a sadness about this. A disconnection from my own culture. And a feeling of not belonging to a community, when they can’t speak to me. I hope my son will not feel as disconnected. But I have found other ways to express this – primarily through art and duodji. Not all languages are of verbal nature, but are equally important, I think. 🎨

    Your creativity. Not necessarily arts, but anything you find a solution to that involves stepping out of the habitual intellectual mind and into a state of spontaneity and flow.🌊

    Your struggles. This sounds negative, but for me I mean that my struggles are valid. I have a body that has its big share of physical problems, and I don’t mean to whine. At all! 🙂 Just to express that this is my reality, and that chronic (perhaps invisible to others) illness can happen to anyone, any time in life.💙

    Your love. This one sounds cheesy but I think we all can feel love and that we have love as a basic human need. To receive it and give it. And we all have different ways of showing it. I like giving gifts for example.. but am not so good verbally expressing how I feel. I like receiving kind loving deeds, but not to be smothered. So understanding how we show it differently is important too. I also believe that as humans we have the capacity to love many at the same time. Whether it is friends or partners, plural. Romantic, familial or platonic.❤

    Arctic, Art, Beauty, DIY, Indigenous, Landscape, Outfit, People, Photography

    Complementary colours

    Ask the Mountains

    Did you know there is a reason why orange+blue and yellow+purple work together so well? 🧡💙💛💜 They are considered complementary colours! “Complementary colours are pairs of colours which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out by producing a grayscale colour like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those two colors. Complementary colours may also be called ‘opposite colours’.”

    Animals, Arctic, Art, DIY, Landscape

    Hibernation

    Ask the Mountains
    32 x 24 cm, acrylic on multimedia paper
    “Dvale”. Means hibernation. Only pregnant polar bears hibernate 💙 was hard to paint her intirely inside the den, so she is just laying at the entrance waiting for her cubs.

    “During the fall, if a polar bear is pregnant, she digs a den into a snow drift. She then climbs into the hole and stays there to give birth and care for her cubs for the first few months of their life. She and her cubs will not emerge from the den until the spring. Male bears and non-pregnant females continue to roam and feed throughout the winter.”

    One of the absolute top animals on my list I wish to see in my lifetime.. Guess I need to head up to Svalbard for that!

    Arctic, Art, DIY, Everyday life, Jewellery

    Mandag

    Ask the Mountains
    Ramma inn dette bladet jeg malte for litt siden 🍁🎨
    Plantene mine ☺
    Kunst.
    Gjorde en giveaway i påska, her er det lille maleriet mitt (til høyre) i sitt nye hjem ☺
    Fikk en fin håndlagd gave!✨
    Dagboka mi 🦄 Elsker å skrive og føler det hjelper mye å få ting ned på papir. Også er det er pluss om den er søt.
    Animals, Art, Dharma, DIY, Hair, Pets, Photography

    Onsdag

    Ask the Mountains
    Kom meg ut en tur idag i finværet 🌞 Fortsatt kaldt, men mye lysere og snøen har begynt å smelte for fullt.
    Anskaffet meg en fredslilje. De er kjent for å være luftrensende. Elsker å omringe meg med planter. Håper jeg klarer å holde den i livet 😄🌿
    4 små 15 x 15 cm lerret. Skal prøve å lage en liten sesongserie; et maleri av sommer, av høst, vinter og vår!
    Solskinn og et ikonbilde fra Bulgaria.
    Loke på sjeselongen 🐶
    Adventure, Art, Everyday life, Landscape, Photography

    Ask the mountains – blog upgrade, new domain

    Ask the Mountains
    Me and my little racer car, Laura.
    Grøtfjord beach.

    Just updated my domain and header. All in all, still the same blog with same content; art, photography, occasional personal thoughts and ideas, adventures, health related stuff and maybe some tantra/dharma. The name Ask the mountains comes from my favourite song by greek artist Vangelis and swedish singer Stina Nordenstam.

    Animals, Art, DIY, Landscape, List, Photography

    World penguin day

    Ask the Mountains
    Acrylic on canvas from last summer.
    Photo by @tobiasvisuals
    So cute. Widowed penguins in Melbourne.

    Some cool penguin facts for world penguin day:

    – There are currently 17-26 types of penguins, depending on definition (I read many conflicting definitions). Emperor, adélie and macaroni penguins being my favourites 😁

    – Male penguins searches their habitat for the perfect stone to present their chosen female. They mate for life and they both take care of their offspring.

    – Penguins are defined as birds although they cannot fly. Their wings are made for swimming. They are great in water, but a bit awkward on land.

    – Penguin feathers are shorter and stiffer than most bird feathers, which makes penguins more streamlined in the water and traps more air to keep them warm.

    Southern rockhopper penguin, native to the Falkland Islands. Amazing photo 😄👌🏻
    Macaroni penguins. The most abundant penguin species.
    Emperor penguins. Tallest of the penguin species. “These penguins nest almost exclusively on Antarctic sea ice, making them the only bird species that never sets foot on land.”
    My little emperor penguin painting. Mother and baby.
    Fairy penguins, native to New Zealand.
    Adélie penguins, small and fierce.
    Adventure, Art, Culture, Dharma, DIY, Everyday life, Indigenous, Jewellery, Landscape, Outfit, Pets, Photography, Sewing, Tattoo, Uncategorized, Yoga

    2019 in pictures

    Ask the Mountains
    The sun returning in January in Bukta on Tromsø island
    People greeting the sun
    Was in Tamokdalen to help with a photo project. Beautiful crispy day
    I made my first sámi silk shawl, in gorgeous yellow/gold
    And a pair of ankle wraps. Hand vowen
    …Kali liked them too!
    Got one new tattoo this year 🙂 Painting in the background made for my bff
    Met the cutest puppy!
    Look at that face…🧡
    Frozen raindrops outside my window
    My best friend got married in Brooklyn. Unreal and beautiful. First time in the US for me ☺
    Heidrun and me. Prettiest bride 🌻
    Me in my handmade coast kofte. What a day 💚💛❤
    In Central Park
    Time’s square
    Me being a total tourist ✌
    Time’s Square again. It was colourful and overwhelming 🙃🌈
    New York subway
    Kvaløya, beautiful as always
    Whale watching.. the sky was so pink that day
    Orcas
    Train ride in Oslo
    Little cloud
    Amrita Baba and me on retreat 🧘‍♀️ New Years eve 2018/2019
    Wales
    My lovely friend and sangha sister, Elizabeth from Louisiana. We were in Birmingham
    Retreat girls
    Ice skating on this lake that made the coolest sounds
    Kvaløya
    Kvaløya, cold day on the beach. Around 15°c
    Midnight sun 🌅 Håja mountain
    Did a giveaway on my facebook art page with this painting, got so good feedback, made me happy 🙂
    Made more of these small cute paintings
    Spain. I got very tan 🙃💛
    Was two days in France. Didn’t get too explore too much because of time, money and energy, but saw this lovely garden in Toulouse
    And met Blueberry the donkey!
    Tromsø catethedral
    Autumn was very pretty, as usual 🍁
    Got my hair cut at a salon for the first time in 2,5 years😍
    Paviljongen in Tromsø
    Autumn day in Tromsø
    Loke
    Anti racism event at the town square, as a response to recent violence against indigenous people
    My favourite painting from this year. Inspired by the Arctic polar night
    Went to quite a lot of museums and exhibitions this year
    Found this cool and weird coat on flea market
    Was butt naked in a commercial 😅
    Made an X-files painting for a friend 🛸

    I have sooo many more pictures from this year, but some of them I feel are nice to keep private 😊💛

    Happy new year, everyone!✨

    Art, DIY, Landscape, Poems, Quotes

    Northern sky

    Ask the Mountains
    30 x 20, I think 😄
    Close up reindeer.

    “The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable. As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled. Pale green and rose-pink, and as transparent as the most fragile fabric, and at the bottom edge a profound and fiery crimson like the fires of Hell, they swung and shimmered loosely with more grace than the most skillful dancer.” 🌌

    Art, DIY, Landscape

    Rainbow night

    Ask the Mountains

    My little late night creativity painting.. Couldn’t sleep last night so I thought why not just spend my time wisely 😄 A bit unusual colour choices for me, but I like how it turned out. Was unsure if I choose the right colour for the mountains but I can always change that later if the mood strikes me..🌈🎨

    This painting is 65 x 45. Acrylic painting.