THE MIRACLES OF EVERY DAY LIFE

Once she painted cheerful and colorful faces. The colors were applied in thick pastosity presented in a sort of expressionism, in which the colors almost roared in competition. These were portraits of crooked/oblique individuals observed with loving and humorous eyes. These paintings, which in their own intense and life-affirming way, confirmed a desire to paint and a joy in letting the colors speak for themselves in their own wild and uncontrollable language.

But since then a lot has happened for Conni Bønløkke (Boenloekke) and her way of painting. It was her opinion that something new had to happen and that is when she started her education in art. This was just exactly the challenge she needed and suddenly a lot of new and pleasantly unexpected things began to show in the manner in which she painted.

We live in a rational era, where everything must be estimated and calculated. We must strive to be efficient and technocratic. We must preferably subject ourselves to the increasingly complicated rules of international politics and the power brokers’ need for awkward solutions. It is no fun – and above all terribly boring. People do not live on politics and rational solutions alone. At heart none of us wish to be only pawns in the big game. Life is something else and greater.

In such societies art plays a special part. Or it can do so, if it is intended to. It can be reduced to decoration or provocation – just to point out the two extremes. But, basically, none of these extremes are of interest to art enthusiasts, who prefer to return home with something else and more than just the decorative or sassy provocative art, which often loses its glow a few seconds after having made a first impression.

Art can also take us on a journey to the more miraculous and imaginative sides of reality. And this capacity is precisely what Conni Bønløkke has chosen to induce in her new artwork.

All the paintings bear the way to paint characteristic for Conni Bønløkke; the picture must be mysterious and appeal to our own wild imagination.

This unreality placed in the midst of real life is a contrast which is often illustrated in the artist’s paintings. Life is full of paradoxes and what is better than art to convey this message?

In this way every single painting questions what is agreed and recognized. And when this is succeeded in art, it truly becomes a focus of interest.

In the classic fairy-tale “Alice in Wonderland” it is exactly this magical transformation we meet all the way along – nothing is what it appears to be. Everything is transformed in a split second! It is scary and fascinating at the same time – but also thought-provoking.

It will be exciting to follow the artist’s further journey along the way into the many labyrinths of art.

Ole Lindboe
Editor of the magazine “Magasinet Kunst” and author of a series of books about Danish and foreign artists.