Reflecting on my upcoming solo show – the result of a long solitary, introverted practice - I wish to also share a little about the other side of my art practice – the extroverted – and my use of art in connecting people …

I consider art a basic universal tool, a process, an activity. ‘Art’ is something I do, and ‘artist’ is my state of being.

Some of my most meaningful – and transformative – work has been using art process to connect with people. I work primarily with youth, displaced persons, and community groups.

The ethnologist E. Dissanayake (Homo Aestheticus: Where Art Comes from and Why, 1995, E. Dissanayake) has defined art and related activities as "processes that have helped people return to psychological and social equilibrium" over the millennia, and perceives art as "a normal and important activity for people on an equal footing with communication, work, exercise, play, socialization, learning, love and care".

One of the fundamental – and unfortunately also one of the most undervalued and overlooked – values of art – with an artist – is our ability to meet people on an equal level, and to enter the creative process together with people – guiding them from within – while simultaneously facilitating, creating a safe space, and supporting them from outside.

While I have been deliberately quiet for a while now, I am aware that there is an increasing systematic down-prioritising and undermining of art and the arts within society, from cuts within the school and culture school systems, to the way the (Norwegian) funding bodies have started to prioritise ‘quantity over quality’, ‘activating over creating and nurturing skillsets’, ‘voluntary over professional facilitators’ +++

This is something I care very deeply about, and in the months to come I will be redirecting my focus towards actively addressing this. In the meantime, I leave you with this, a rare glimpse into one of my Art Labs for adults (rare because usually I do not allow filming). This is the first Expressive Art Lab for adults I have run since I stopped facilitating my weekly labs in Oslo in 2020. A birthday gift to myself – and to those who wished to join me.

Thank you to Øyvind who had his Go Pro with him and made us this film. Thank you to those who took part and allowed me to share this film.

Camilla N, Atle, Kaja, Camilla T, Øyvind, Lena and myself.