Art has to me several dimensions. It is in a way private. My most important tool is myself, my intellect, my life experience, my aesthetic sense, my identity as an individual and as an artist. It is also of course my skill to create art. I had to learn to become more self centered. I had to learn to listen when something inside me whispered. From that speaking I still collect my most important ideas. I had to dwell with my feelings in a way which I hadn’t done before.

From where did I emerge into the role of an artist? What experiences inform the artist I am today? I was brought up as a farmer’s boy in the south west of Norway in the 1950’s and 60’s. That was a time when children were supposed to help, hands were needed on the farm. Farm production was much characterized by hand craft those days and I was destined by Norwegian law to take over the farm. However, serious allergies to animals meant that was impossible and I left the farm to pursue my education instead; the farm passing to my younger brother. I had some lofty ideas about walking the roads of the world and writing. Instead I became a father and married man. I had to earn a living. I studied to become a teacher. To guide the next generation to be a better one stood out to me as the most important work I could do. From teaching I went on to become a social worker and probation officer for some years before returning to education as a headmaster.

I experienced those years as very meaningful and rich. I addition to my professional work I engaged myself in left wing politics. Our ambitions had no limitations at all; in the 1970’s we thought we could really change the world. The old ways were no good. Wars and exploitation should be replaced with some quite different. We really believed this but it did not happen. As a young enthusiast I learnt a lot about the world and myself. I think of these years as an important part of my education. In my life, whatever I have done, I have done it because it felt it was important. There were times when I paid for my passion and outspokenness but I do not regret it. And I have the boldness to say that now that concerns my artwork.

My first paintings, made while I still was a student, were experimental abstract expressions. Nobody seemed to take any notice of them. After some years I decided to paint houses, animals, in short, whatever I came across, and suddenly people around me said “Oh Kjell, you really can paint!” Having got this confirmation, I went back to the abstract style. Abstraction is my perfect expression! I have huge freedom, and what is better than to express concentrated emotions than this abstract language? My best poems are of the same kind; short concentrated extracts often from a larger picture. I will never be able to tell the whole truth, I think, but what I do tell I want to be as truthful as I can make it.