Culture? introducing Gunvor Rasmussen...

..Todays feature is the great norwegian illustrator Gunvor Rasmussen. I was first aware of Gunvor`s work when I read the "Eventyrboka" wich Gunvor has illustrated, and won awards for. The illustrations in the book are just great! Gunvor has answered some questions around her work, so enjoy.
...Here it is, your daily shot of art with Gunvor Rasmussen:

..Alice..

..Fucking finance-crisis fuck..

..My place, or your`s..

-Can you tell the readers a little bit about yourself, name, what country you live

in, age etc?

I grew up in Bergen, Norway, and now I live here again in a crooked wooden house. I’m 29 and I

have worked as an illustrator for four years now.

-What inspired you to start illustrating?

I have always been drawing and I grew up with parents that were both creative, so the choise was

never IF I was to work with something creatve, only what kind. It could just as well have been

designing costumes or being an art teacher or fine artist. But what inspired me to pursue a career as

an illustrator was that I saw that people enjoyed my little figures and that they made them laugh:) So

when I was 24 I quit all my jobs saying that if I don’t make it this summer before my 25th birthday

in August, I’m going to pursue something else. And WHAM I got a job illustrating a weekly article

in a newspaper after my first proper exhibition that summer. That was quite inspirational! Then I

started Visual Communication at Bergen National Academy of the Arts to learn how to do the job;)

-Is illustrating youre fulltime job, and if not, what else do you do?

It was for three years while I was a full time student as well. Pretty hectic, but I wanted it so bad to

work that it just did. Then with the financial crisis I lost the weekly assignment a few weeks before

my final exam as school. But I graduated successfully, even if it was quite a blow to lose your job that

sudden. I always knew I didn’t have a contract and that it might happen, but you are never really

prepared for it when it does. I went straight into working with an already planned childerns book

project for a publishng house a few day after I finished my BA, and it was published october the

same year. After that I continued working freelance for the same newspaper and a few magazines, but

never on a regular basis. So in the meantime trying to figure out what now, I started a designcompany

and webshop with Birthe Barbarella Rosson. We make fun houseware, and launched an event

agency that taught people to decorate cupcakes while drinking champagne dressed as Marie Antoinettes;)

Besides my diffrent (oppdrag) within illutration I teach courses in illutration for text and run

my own webshop: http://epla.no/shops/gunvor/ and http://epla.no/shops/husgeraad/

-Have you gone to art school, if yes where did you go and what did you study?

I went to a foundation course at Surrey Institute in Farnham, England. I started out wanting to

continue into fashion, but ended up in fine art. Then in a very strange way I got headhunted into

Graphic Design Central St Martins, which sent me to London. There I tried everyting from HTML

to film to printmaking, and worked as a bookbinder. I unfortunately ended up not liking London

or my school very much, I realize I was a bit blinded by the headhunting part, and figured out that

I was on the wrong course even if it was within illustration. So I moved to Paris to loosen up a bit,

and after a year decided to move back to Bergen and try to enrol at Bergen National academy o the

Arts. First round I tried Fine Art but they (fortunatly) didn’t want me, and then later I tried Visual

Communicaton and had tree great years in a course that finally suited me. I graduated specializing in

Motion Graphics, but continued on to work as an illustrator.

-Where do you find inspiration?

My major source of inspiration is in music. I think maybe some musicians do it he same way, that they

seek to visual arts to get inspiration. So there’s a greater chance you’ll see me in a concert rather than at

an exhibition. It works the same way with books, and different texts, and things I hear people saying or

talking about. But of course the best way to go from not being inspired to being inspired, is to work with

what I love, and once I’m on a roll that will keep inspiring me, and my brain usually goes into overdrive:)

-Do you have a favorite artist and if so who and why?

Oddvar Torsheim and Audun Hetland, because of their detailed work with pen and ink, their ability to

work with text in their imagery, and to make people laugh:) But I also have a facination for darker jugendstyles

like Audrey Beardsleys work, and the energy and crazyness in Ralph Stedmans inkblobs. In the

fairytale world I’m a big fan of Elsa Beskow and Kay Nielsen.

-Where can my readers see your work?

Portfolio and CV: www.gunvor.no

Blog: www.gunvortegner.blogspot.com

Webshop: www.epla.no/shops/gunvor