The above painting is one of many that was part of an exhibition
I was commissioned to paint for a gallery a few years back.
It's titled ''Dreamers arriving in New York.''
In my mid 20's my life was pretty much a mess.
Although I had two jobs, both well paid, my own apartment,
lots of friends, and free to do as I pleased, I was slowly becoming
a stranger to myself.
Most nights I would not get to bed before four o'clock in the morning
only to have to get up again three hours later to start all over again.
I drank too much, smoked too much tobacky and ''wacky'' tobacky,
ate too little, and slept way too little.
I knew I was burning the candle at both ends but seemed incapable
of being able to break free from my unhealthy lifestyle.
Often I would find myself dreaming of just jumping on a plane to
Australia and joining my family ''down-under''.
Start a new life, get serious about my music, but somehow
I just didn't seem able to save up enough money for the airfare.
Then one day I received a letter from my family informing
me that my younger sister was going to get married.
If I wanted to be present at the wedding
they would pay for my ticket.
As I had not seen my family for three years, I gladly although
also somewhat hesitantly, accepted the invitation.
My intention was to stay in Australia for six months, sort
myself out and then return to Sweden and start my own
jazz quartet.
That is not what happened.
After the initial chock of encountering blazing heat,
viscous deadly critters everywhere, (and I mean everywhere!)
the bluest ocean I had ever seen, swaying palm trees and
pearl white beaches subsided....I started to like Australia.
I was working in my folks restaurant, I had quit all my
bad habits, started to practice the piano in earnest,
and was living a much healthier life.
As the time for me to return to Sweden drew closer
and closer, I realized that I didn't want to go back there.
I wanted to stay. To do so I had to become an immigrant,
get a permanent visa, which I discovered, was not at all that easy.
To achieve this I had to file form after form, do interview
after interview, find guarantors, references, etc. etc.
But, eventually after many legal battles,
Australia said: Yes, okay then, you'll be right.
(This painting of a father and son arriving in America
is the image that lead to me being commissioned to prepare
an exhibition with the theme of ''American Dreamers''.)
As an immigrant having had ''dreams'' of moving to
someplace else, somewhere new, somewhere where I
could re-invent myself into a better self, I get the importance
of ''having a dream''.
The term ''The American Dream'', is a term I am familiar with,
so I named my exhibition ''American Dreamers.''
After two world wars with all the carnage, destruction and tragedy
that followed, mankind needed something to have hope in.
From what many of us Europeans could ascertain, America
seemed to offer the most possibilities for a new beginning.
(I mean, in the span of about 25 years Europe had gone
through 2 world wars. That's a lot of trauma, loss and
despair to heal from in my view. America on the other
hand, apart from Pearl Harbor, had not been mercilessly
bombed for days and nights on end.)
''The American Dream'' sounded good to many of the survivors
around the globe. Survivors who had been left with decimated
families, little more than the clothes on their backs and a bunch
of horrible memories to their names.
The above images are samples of some of the paintings
from the exhibition.
''Jimmy'', a little excited Chinese boy celebrates the 4th of July
''JFK'', son of an Irish immigrant
''Johnny sings cry'', Puerto Rican background
''The Babe", German ancestry
''The first TV set'', two German boys watches TV for the first time
''Native American medicine woman'' once, there were no
States, only country shared by many different tribes.
This medicine woman is setting the states ''free''.
For many, the idea of America, a country founded on
a declaration of independence, freedom for all, on democracy,
helped them endure the many struggles that came with
leaving their birthplace and finding a new home.
Today, things are different, but what is the same is
that there are people who still have dreams of leaving their homes
in search of new beginnings, new opportunities, more freedom,
and safer environments in which to bring up their families.
''Without a progressive vision men dwell carelessly.''
(Not sure who said this)
Having a dream for a better ------------insert here your own choice----------
is important because it can give your life a meaning, a purpose,
a direction, but perhaps most importantly.....
a sense of hope.
''Hope is that thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops....at all.''
(Emily Dickinson)
about the images: acrylic on large canvas
All paintings have the American flag as a backdrop.
If there was something as the Australian Dream,
the British Dream, I could just as easily have used
any of those flags as a backdrop.
However, for me
it's the Dreaming part that matters, not the choice of flag.
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