This summer, Professor Jamie Runnells had the exciting opportunity to attend an artist residency in Norway. She attended the Light Grey Art Lab, Norway Creative Residency in which she lived in a house in the woods between Bergen and Hardangerfjord. There, Professor Runnells explored Norway, and lead a workshop on “Importance of Creative Play.”
Two illustrators that I follow on social media participated in the residency in 2018 and it looked/sounded fantastic, so I decided apply. I have been teaching for 17+ years and have never participated in a residency. I’ve been interested in doing one for some time but with 3 kids at home it can be hard to work out the logistics for some of the longer residencies (some are a month or more). This particular residency is a shorter format, and while I would have loved more time, it was more accessible for me and the other working illustrators who were also participating.
This fall I am teaching Design Internship, an introductory Design course in Typography, an intermediate Design course, and I am the faculty mentor for a Graduate Student who is teaching an intro software course. I am also the MFA Coordinator.
That’s a tough question–I’m not good at picking favorites. I enjoy teaching all of my classes!
Well, I thought it was pretty fantastic that I got to swim in a fjord. And by swim, I mean jump in quickly and immediately jump back out (brrrrrrr). It was also really fun to learn about traditional Norweigan arts and crafts and trades like the history of the Selbu Rose (a knitting pattern), and rosemaling (decorative floral painting style). We visited a working museum that restores boats and makes ropes by hand using traditional tools and techniques (not many places in the world do that), they also built traditional Norweigan row boats and we got to row them across the Hardangerfjord. And of course the historic wooden buildings and stave churches around Norway are really unique and amazing–“Norweigan Wood.”
So many things! I always make it my mission to try foods that a country or region are known for. Walking up and down supermarket and farmers market isles is one of my favorite things to do when I’m traveling outside the US. I particularly fell in love with Norway’s cardamom buns. They have lots of variations on toppings and fillings but they are basically lightly sweetened cardamom flavored rolls/buns. The skoleboller or “school buns” are my favorite with vanilla custard and coconut. I ate them so much, I found this recipe when I got home and have made them a couple of times since! (http://www.northwildkitchen.com/skoleboller-norwegian-buns/) I also tried dried whale (yikes, I know), reindeer sausage, and brunost (Norweigan brown cheese that is a bit sweet).
I met some amazing illustrators who have exciting careers in visual communication. It was really interesting to learn about each participant’s practice, workflow, how they got their jobs, and what their jobs entail. As a teacher it is great for me to have a deeper understanding of specialties within my field as well as to have contacts within various visual communication specialties. I’m looking forward to sharing these new insights with students!
