An August evening in 2006: A local artist stands silently looking at a red barn. It is ablaze, and burns fiercely to the ground. Sad for the farmer who owned the building, but incomprehensible to the artist - he had stored one hundred paintings there waiting for the opening of his first exhibition the following day. Tor went home and cried for a week. After that it was, as he says, "Okay. I just had to start anew."
It has been a journey in a rugged but fantastic landscape. Joy and mania. Standstill and vitality. All has left its marks in the images and texts in this book.
We who have followed Tor hope more will join the journey.
Naive Journey - Raku Pottery
Tor Rafael Raael (b. 1963) lives in Sande, a small town in south eastern Norway, with his wife Yvonne and three sons. He is largely self-taught. Over the years he has developed and refined a highly unusual and fascinating method of merging painting with digital manipulation.
The texts in this book are Tor's own notes.
- No matter where I go or what I see is there are important problems, encounters, light and shapes to be inspired by.
- I don't really know what stresses me, but I seem to function best if I train very hard and often. eat healthy food and get enough sleep. I suspect that my depressions come in waves almost regardless of what I do. All I know is that exercise, food and sleep help. And that I have this manic urge to create.
TREE BUILDINGS
When I was little I built tree huts in trees.
My own small world.
High above all problems.
I lived like a king up there,
with loaves of bread and a water bottle.
Tree Buildings 03 - Oil - 100x70 cm
CHILD PSYCHLING
The small child with the mask on.
So full of truth's purple spirit.
So easy to scare and shape.
Hurries along through childhood infinity.
Child Psychling 01 - Oil - 60x150 cm
Child Psychling 02 - Digital/oil - 50x50 cm
WINTER NIGHT
Life turns quickly.
We think everyone can see our winter night,
but outside there is sun and warmth.
The big bird does not see everything.
We have to live through our own winter night.
Winter Night - Oil/leaf metal - 100x70 cm
BIRD ABOVE CITY 2
All is quiet above the city.
Alone on a thin branch.
See everyone that moves.
All that happens.
I am alone up here.
Cultivating my own small flowers.
Bird Above City 2 - Oil - 80x60 cm
DEEP CONVERSATIONS
We met on the road.
The one passing under everyday life.
Down there we found each other,
in deep conversations.
Deep Conversations - Oil - 100x120 cm
FLOWER ANGEL
A virgin soul.
So clean and new.
Hovers over the flowers in the blue forest.
You are a flower angel.
Flower Angel 02 - Digital/oil - 80x50 cm
Flower Angel - Digital/oil - 80x50 cm
Lonely Show - Digital/oil - 65x40 cm
OUTCAST
I grow in my own garden.
Do my things my way.
You call me weird,
but try to turn the picture and see
who then becomes outcast!
Outcast - Oil - 50x60 cm
Light Light - The Child That Swings
Eatingcar - Old Faith - Landscape Runner - Respite with Beard
LANDSCAPE PAINTER
It is hard to understand,
but we are all landscape painters.
We design, form and paint them in our colors.
We can not begin to create our own pictures before we understand this.
Landscape Painter - Oil - 80x60 cm
Where Hearts Grow - Oil - 80x60 cm
GREAT WARRIOR
I am a thousand times more powerful than you.
I crush a hundred of your friends with the tip of my rod.
I put your country in ruins. I call it peace.
I am a great warrior.
Great Warrior - Oil - 117x89 cm
GOOD ADVICE
When two beings meet and exchange experiences
it is difficult to see who is the teacher and who is the student.
A small comment from an even smaller being may prove to have tremendous value.
Good Advice 01 - Digital/oil - 33x104 cm
Good Advice 02 - Digital/Oil - 60x50 cm
SIMPLE ANGEL
The best among us are fooled, humiliated, crushed.
The simple everyday people suffer in silence.
They are eaten.
When they die they become angels.
Simple, innocent angels.
Simple Angel - Oil - 80x50 cm
I did not see you, a worthless creature. You gave me your thoughts, your life. Now we live together. We are equally big.
Dialogue 02 - Digital/oil - 60x60 cm
You are small. I am big. You live in the air. I am on the ground. You eat nectar. I am a carnivore. We are happy together because we are different. Not because we are the same.
Dialogue 03 - Digital/oil - 70x75 cm
BLIND LOVE
The mystery!
How did I know it was you?
I saw you, but chose blindly.
We got a small piece of each other's hearts that a whole life has grown from.
Blind Love - Oil - 50x100 cm
LADYBUG ISLAND
When life presses from all sides
it is good to creep into one's own little house.
Tell the ladybug to fly to a quiet branch high above the city.
For a little while.
Ladybug Island - Digital/Oil - 80x40 cm
THE LOVE BOAT
We make plans.
Jump into the boat together
Forgetting that we have no oars
and that we are approaching a waterfall.
The Love Boat - Oil - 90x50 cm
PENGUIN DREAMS
When we let our young into the world we think of all the dangers out there.
But if an accident happens it is never what we worried about.
Penguin parents are afraid of polar bears,
But polar bears live on the other side of the globe!
Penguin Dreams - Oil - 120x70 cm
MIDNIGHT WALK (to Yvonne)
When the night is at its darkest you lift me up and take me on a midnight walk under the moon. You save me from the always gnawing earth monster.
Midnight Walk - Oil - 80x40 cm
THE DARK HOUSE
The forest is always dark. It eats light.
The only light reaching the house is the pale cold starlight.
The flowers that grow here can not stand daylight.
They are so delicate that the light will kill them.
I stay here occasionally, have almost forgotten that I lived here for many years.
The Dark House - Oil - 80x60 cm
Mask Mirror - Oil/leaf metal - 100x80 cm
MASK MIRROR
We stand before the mirror with our own ego.
Trying to see ourselves.
Looking for strength, but also mistakes and shortcomings.
Many have found it to be no use, for it is only our own mask that looks back at us from the mirror.
DREAM JOURNEY
The helmet is on.
I sit safely in my vehicle.
Wheels safely on the ground.
Steering
wheel between hands.
I am ready for the night's journey.
Dream Journey - Digital/oil - 35x50 cm
Shipwrecked - 15x60 cm
Eatingcar - 10x50 cm
Landscape Stealers - 10x50 cm
Outhouse - 40x10 cm
The Bird Flies - 35x25 cm
Resting Chair - 28x16 cm
ICON
A window, gold that reflects the sky.
The other side is always clear,
it is you who need to stop.
Turning your eyes to an icon and meet yourself on the other side.
Icon 01 - Oil/leaf metal/shellac - 80x50 cm
Icon 02 - Oil/leaf metal/shellac - 80x50 cm
MORAL DOWNFALL
Moral thoughts, what is right, what is wrong.
What do others think, should I do this?
When the head gets heavy, filled with moral thoughts the feet shrink so much that we in the end lose our balance.
Moral Downfall - Oil - 120x70 cm
UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
I live my life under the mountain.
I used to hold the mountaion up with my own arms. It was all I could.
Day and night I kept it away from my fragile house.
One day I could not keep it up anymore: Go on, mountain, just crush me.
I had to let it happen, but it did not happen.
Mount hanging there now and I live in it.
The mountain is hanging there still, and I live under it.
Under the Mountain 02 - Oil - 80x60 cm
THIN LANDSCAPE
We complain, we get too much, too little, too fast, too late.
We wade in wealth and abundance and forget that we live in a thin landscape.
Thin Landscape - Oil - 50x70 cm
Thin Landscape 02 - Oil - 40x80 cm
THE MOMENT OF FREEDOM
It has been a struggle, it has been difficult.
It has cost more than I knew I was able to pay.
The joy is indescribable when I realize that it's over.
When I am able to open my hand and let the bird free.
The Moment of Freedom - Oil - 120x70 cm
THE ROAD HOME
Turbulence! Why? What are we looking for?
Where are we going? We are moving.
Never a quiet day. Is this my landscape? Are these my colors?
It does not matter much.
You are always on the way home.
The Road Home 02 - Oil/leaf metal - 60x80 cm
The Road Home 01 - Oil/leaf metal - 80x60 cm
PEARLS
You came to me from the past.
Asked for a place in my painting.
It was a long struggle.
You could not just move in.
First I had to make you mine.
Pearls - Oil - 110x80 cm
LANDSCAPE BULL
So sturdy and strong.
He grows out of the landscape.
Between the big mountains and the whisper of the endless forest the landscape bull is an everyday god.
He comforts and supports all.
Landscape Bull - Oil - 80x60 cm
TIGHT STRINGS
We are stuck in our respective boats.
Past and future we carry with us.
Mountains of defeat, doubt and faith.
If we try to stand up, the tight strings divide us into pieces.
Tight Strings - Oil - 100x80 cm
BATHTUB PENGUINS
By us, every day is a party.
We are safe in our white polar landscape.
We bathe whenever we want.
Even on sundays.
TOILET PENGUINS
We have found our paradise.
Here we take baths and watch the sunset together.
It may not be polar environment
but it is good enough.
Also, we have peace and quiet,
no one envies us our little pond.
Bathtub Penguins 01 - Digital/oil - 50x35 cm
Bathtub Penguins 02 - Digital/oil - 50x35 cm
Toilet Penguins 01 - Digital/oil - 50x35 cm
SLEEPWALKER
Day and night intertwine.
Becomes an eternal twilight hour.
Fable creatures, now real,
mingle with the everyday animals.
The body is red and sore while one thousand pairs of eyes look down on you from the pink skyscraper.
Sleepwalker - Oil - 90x60 cm
PERESTROIKA
The old structure is so tired and worn, it cries out for renewal.
When we decide to leave it, we do not
until after we've landed in the new landscape
see that it is exactly like the old one.
Perestroika - Oil - 110x80 cm
NIGHTLY REHEARSALS, WORRYING
A slimy, large, cold snail crawls up my neck and rests on my head like a wet night cap.
A mad dog, a bird crashes into the ground.
Two trees that cast long shadows.
I'm out in the night, driving.
When I look down, the car has no steering wheel.
Nightly Rehearsals, Worrying - Oil - 80x60 cm
THREE TREES LEAVING THE HOUSE
The empty, strange feeling when the children move out.
They make their own reality.
Their own earth and their own sky.
Loss, but also joy.
Black worried strokes separate the sky.
Three Trees Leaving the House - Oil - 60x80 cm
HYPNOTIC MEETING
You seem small and irrelevant.
The meeting is surprising, suddenly you are right in front of me.
I suddenly stop,
it becomes a hypnotic meeting.
Hypnotic Meeting - Digital/oil - 80x60 cm
Evening Flyers - Digital/oil - 70x120 cm
FAST RIDER
We look for balance and content.
Think we live, but are lived.
On the back of the yellow horse we are bigger than the landscape many of us are so afraid of.
It is safe on the yellow horse.
Fast Rider - Oil - 80x100 cm
Family 02 - Digital/Oil - 80x60 cm
Family 03 - Digital/Oil - 50x35 cm
Family - Oil - 80x60 cm
THE BIRD MOUNTAIN
The road up is steep and bloody,
but with good helpers and good faith
life on the bird mountain
is full of meaning.
The Bird Mountain - Oil - 120x70 cm
Raku is a type of pottery developed in Japan in the 16th century. Originally used for simple everyday objects, including the cups that are a key element in the tea ceremony in Zen Buddhism.
- What makes the raku process so exciting for me is the extremes. The figures may burst in the oven or crack to pieces in the water. You never know how the glaze will behave, the distance between disaster and success is short.
- All the elements are involved: Earth / clay, air that the figures must have in order to dry, the burning fire, and finally the water bath to reveal the colorful glaze. The road from a lump of clay to a finished figure is slightly dangerous and very unpredictable, almost like life itself. I can have worked with a figure for a month and be absolutely certain that it will be fantastic, then it bursts in one second in the fire and all is over. But often I find a treasure.
Punk Monk - 28 cm
MASK FISH
Who are we, what does it mean to be honest, to be ourselves.
The further we move ourselves from our ego, the smaller we become.
When the conceptions are peeled off, we squirm like slippery fish.
We can not get our mask back on again quickly enough.
Mask Fish - Oil - 40x50 cm
CYCLE
The days pass, weeks, years, life.
An endless circle, growth and maturity.
The only thing I believe is the mountain.
It stands there in
its own quiet center.
When I Was Little I Built Tree Huts Page 1
