My paintshelf in 2003-2004 This where my day start; deciding which colours to put on my palette. The names may seem strange to untrained eye: "Burnt Umber, Paris Blue, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red-Light, Zink White, Hookers Green (my favorite), and Indian Yellow Brown Lake Extra", just to mention a few.

Bruce Naigles and I, June 2004 This is a picture of my good friend (and sculptor) Bruce Naigles and I (see David's links for Bruce's website). We used to be neighbours studio wise, but then he moved to Florida for a while and when he returned, took a studio in Møllerbyen (Moss). We still often meet for lunch or visit each others studios. I truly enjoy this picture from the time when we worked close together. The sculpture he was working on here was called "The cello player," and was later purchased by the Oslo Symphony as a scholarship trophy.

Moss Avis photo, 2002 Photo: Geir Hansen, Moss Avis A year after I started painting, a large article was written about me in Moss Avis titled, " Thought I was Superman", in relation to my burnout and consequental severe depression. The article focused on how many young people today that suffer from "stress syndromes" and hit the wall. In the article, I stressed the fact that many hit the wall and make it back, but some slip into deeper depression which is an entirely different thing. The article also focused on my art which had become my main tool in helping me survive the ordeal. I look so different in this picture from now, untouched by years of anti-depressants, weight gain and other side-effects, hospitalizations and terrible angst. What happened? is my main thought looking at it now? The painting behind me in this photo (now owned by Kristian Svendsen in Oslo), was perhaps predicting the years to come. "The lesser light," I titled it, living in the gaze of the moon rather than the sun.

Moss Avis photo 2002 Photo: Geir Hansen The second photo in three-page article about burn-out depression and art. Here I show two of my first paintings: The first called "Depression Prayer" (featured in "oil paintings" on this site)--a near abstract expression of the pain I was feeling. The second, a far more figurative work was painted during a few days when I felt a brief pause in the tense emotional agany: thus adding a stripe of yellow in the darkness and calling it "A glimpse of hope" (Now owened by my dad and stepmother).