As a show of our appreciation to our summer applicants, we want to present this photo of a troll, posing as a rock, in winter.

Besta kveðja,
Melody

Troll fingers posing as a rocky cliff, emerging from snow blanket.

Image courtesy of Anya Rosen

Nes is calling for artists to take to the streets, to be engaged, to engage, to connect with site and people and place. We want urban/street artists, public artists, performance/live artists, interdisciplinary artists, musicians, and/or contemporary artists that investigate public space, community, permanance/impermanance/ephemerality, and work that breaks down the 4th wall and finds something special, that connects. We want to create a summer of artful streets in Skagaströnd.

The summer months in Iceland are an excellent opportunity for artists to approach the environment, walls, streets, or people outside and in full view.  The sun comes out, warmth hits our faces, and we bask in the 24 hour daylight. Out there. Sunlight peeking through our dresses at midnight. People in the street. Art creating pause and play. Intersection and interaction.

We are going public.

We are calling for applications for the months of June, July, August, and September 2013. These months are reserved now for artists that are interested in working with ideas of public, private, ephemerality, permanence, performance/liveness, urban art, or intervention works.  We are going public, and we are visible. We.Are.Here.

***Please do not apply for June, July,  August. and/or September if your work does not consider any of the above ideas. Your application will not be considered for these months. We encourage artists outside this theme to apply outside of these months. Artists already accepted to June, July, August, or September will still be accepted.

Applications for JUNE, JULY, AUGUST and SEPTEMBER will close January 15th.

Successful applicants will be notified by February 1st. Certain exemplary applications may be notified immediately upon submission.

APPLY HERE

Nes is interested in the advancement of contemporary and inter-disciplinary art directions. So we are making a pod cast about it.

October 13, as part of the North West Iceland Cultural Weekend, Nes will host an open discussion around the idea of inter-disciplinary practice, how we establish and understand this notion, what it means, how it works, and how it connects outside of art itself.

We are interested in the direction of interdisciplinary practice and the idea of collaboration and progression through research, process, and inter-connection between different fields.

We are interested to find the place in which things sit, how we thus engage, and furthermore extend into how they merge or become integrated as part of the larger design.

We are interested in the role artists play within a greater scope or the way that arts on the periphery, in remote areas, or outside of “things” becomes tangible and connected.

Join us with a cup of tea at the Nes Studios this Saturday October 13 to be a part of the discussion.  Podcast details will follow the event. Check back with us to get the link.

Besta kveðja,

Melody.

Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell

YOU ARE HERE.

We welcome you to start at Nes, Fjörubraut 8, Skagaströnd.

We will be open from 11:00 – 18:00, collect your art map and explore!!

Events at other places going until 21:00!

Artists, chefs, and locals are finding new ways to engage with Skagaströnd.  FIND OUT MORE ON OUR WEBSITE - HERE.

S.E.A.S – Site Exploratory Arts, Skagaströnd.
we.are.here.

Kántrýdagar á Skagaströnd!!

17,18,19 Ágúst!

Nes is excited about Kántrýdagar! With events like the flooding of the football field for muddy games and live music over the expanse of the town, we thought Nes would chip in and present the Freezer Film Retrospective, a retrospective of films made by artists during their time, or inspired by their time in Skagaströnd.

For the open access films (those on youtube or vimeo) we can send you a copy of the film program. Films that are private or still in the festival circuit will not be included in this pdf.  To grab a copy so you can have your own Skagaströnd Film Screening simply email Melody: nes@neslist.is

Pot-Luck Dinner í kvöld!

Nes Listamiðstöð is hosting our monthly pot-luck dinner, locals and artists will come together to share good food, stories, and good company!

Kl. 19:00 – Nes Fjörubraut 8 - Mánadagur 13 Ágúst.

Velkomin!!

Screen test. Rossella Piccinno and Christian Castaneda

We are celebrating film makers at Nes this month. As a part of the local town festival, Kántrýdagur, Nes will be presenting a 2 day exhibition and film reel of past Nes resident films. If you have been an artist in residence at Nes and made a film while here you are invited to submit that film via web link, upload a file, or express post a dvd of your film for presentation.

Film retrospective exhibtion will be August 16 and 17th during the Kántrýdagur festival.

-Film submissions close August 13th.
-Only past Nes artists in residence may submit films they shot here on site.
-Link must be from a reliable streaming site (youtube, own website etc), a small file upload to dropbox or similar, or an express post dvd copy that must arrive by August 13, 2012.

Contact Melody to submit your film – nes@neslist.is

Looking forward to our Freezer Film Retrospective!

-Melody

Í kvöld: kl. 19:00 á Nes Listamiðstöð – Artist Talks.

Vytautas Michelkevicius is currently visiting Nes while undertaking a case study of remoteness in Icelandic residencies.

Vytautas visits Nes following on from our May Symposium at Nida Art Colony, Nida, Lithuania where we discussed over 4 days the challenges, advantages, directions, and ideas surrounding artist residencies in remote locations. The members of The Remote Residencies Network across the Nordic and Baltic regions also discussed our position or site specific context within the arts, the periphery, and the communities in which we operate. Our  remote residencies collective are now facing the challenge of how to develop this network into a longer and more sustainable network.

Tonight at Nes we will be hearing more from Vytautas in a curators talk, alongside our new artists, who will present a short artist talk about their works or stay. All are welcome to join, we begin at 19:00 at the studios.

The collaborative artists worked from Nes over the month giving the international collective a chance to focus together in the same place and the same time, as members of The Peripheral Society are based in different countries or cities.

More information about their time here can be found on their public work-blog, Squatting In The Darkness, or further information on The Peripheral Society can be found on their website.

Artists works while at Nes can be found in our Alumni Gallery.

Nes is looking for 1 Icelandic artist and 1 Icelandic intern to work with us in September 2012.

Islensku

Bones for soup???

We welcome local residents to join our artists for a Pot-Luck dinner!

Bring a plate of food to share, and smiles to warm our hearts … see you there!

Nes Listamiðstöð

Fjörubraut 8

kl. 19:00

Miðvikudagur 11 Júlí.

We found it!

Við fundum hann!!

Artists climb mountains too.

More adventures and noticings while at Nes are found on Danielle´s blog here: http://daniellerante.blogspot.com/#!/

Ben Salter

BEN SALTER

Á Kántrýbær kl. 22:00, Föstudagur, Júní 29.

With support from Nes Artist Residency, Ben Salter will play a special guest set at Kántrýbær tonight (Friday June 29)!  Salter is a contemporary alt-country and singer songwriter from Australia, and has come from good stock by way of Australian band, The Gin Club.

To hear a taste of Salter´s swoon check here

Fjörubraut 8, Skagaströnd

"Leave a residency more enriched than when you found it!"

In recent discussions with Nuno Sacramento (Portugal/Scotland) at the Nida Art Colony Symposium of Remoteness in Contemporary Arts and Artist Residencies (Lithuania), Sacramento´s PhD. developed position of “Shadow Curator” was looked at.

Similar to a dramaturge or Shadow Minister position, the Shadow Curator exists to actively support the Curator in furthering his or her work professionally through discussion, debate, or alternate views. Nes is not looking for a Shadow Curator, however we are looking for an intern that is interested in discussion around residencies and futures, and for the benefit of Nes as a whole and as part of a greater arts movement.

In addition to the role of an intern being functional and working with the daily life of a residency, Nes is looking for an intern that is capable of thinking critically and is interested in the direction of art or artists in a remote or displaced residency context.

The role of the intern at Nes Artist Residency is one of equal functions: between practical and theoretical.  I want to offer our intern the opportunity to not just gain daily work experience at the residency, but to exercise one´s views and open a platform for change to happen within the residency alongside myself.

Since commencing the position of Director at Nes Artist Residency, it has become clear I have a lot of ambition and practical changes to make at Nes. This is a pivotal time of change for Nes and only 1 set of hands wont do it all!

*The internship is not a paid position.

*The intern will work for 15 – 20 hours a week, and is free to travel, create, or laze about outside of these hours.

*Travel within Iceland to Nes may be supplemented, international travel will not be covered by the residency.

*Accomodation in Skagaströnd in a shared house will be provided. Living expenses are not covered.

*Two internships will be offered, please state in your application which one you prefer:
-The month of JULY, with potential to extend into August.
OR
-For the month of SEPTEMBER, with potential to extend into October.

*Applications from Icelandic artists, art administrators, or art students will be highly regarded.

Kind Regards, and hope to hear from all interested parties soon!

-Melody Woodnutt

HOW TO APPLY:

Applications for July intern close June 20. Applications for September intern close August 1st.

Please forward your application to the Director of Nes Artist Residency, Melody Woodnutt. Applications should be written in English and sent by email to nes@neslist.is

*Two internships will be offered, please state in your application which one you prefer:
-The month of JULY, with potential to extend into August.
OR
-For the month of SEPTEMBER, with potential to extend into October.

Your application should include:

*Cover letter – this should introduce yourself (your character, qualities, or interests) and detail any other information you find applicable. It may include any dates you will be unavailable, other commitments or projects you will work on while at Nes, or if there is any health restrictions or requirements. (1 page only)

*CV

*Personal Statement including
-why you want to do the internship
-what your opinion is about artist residencies- both within a greater arts eco-system and from an artists point of view
-and if you are an artist or arts practitioner: how this opportunity will benefit you professionally or creatively.
(1 or 2 pages only)

DO NOT SUBMIT UNFINISHED APPLICATIONS. Please compile your application into 1 PDF or 1 WORD DOCUMENT.

Short listed applicants will then be contacted for a skype interview. 

Paper and Oil, Flyer by Katharina Kamph

Liðs við okkur í stúdíó!

Fjörubraut 8, Skagaströnd.

Nes Listamiðstöð.

klukkan 16:00 – 18:00

Sunnudagur 27 Maí.

Pot luck dinner will be held at Nes Studios, Fjörubraut 8, Skagströnd
at 19:00

We are welcoming our artists to Nes and embracing those who have been with us already!
In residence we have:

Alexander Clinthorne- USA, mixed media/clay sculpture (clinthornecompositions.blogspot.com)
Kimberlie Wong – USA, painting/drawing (kimiewong.blogspot.com)
Theresa Northway – USA, drawing/sculpture/ceramics
Ulgen Semerci – Turkey, painting/drawing/mixed media (www.ulgensemerci.com)
Katharina Kamph – Germany, drawing/sculpture/mixed media (www.kamph.net)
Verena Faisst – Germany, photography/mixed media/performance (verenafaisst.de)
Polly Stanton – Australia, photography/installation (pollystanton.com)

We welcome back from February:
Liz Layton, USA, multi-disciplinary, painting/drawing/mixed-media/installation (lizlayton.tumblr.com)
Christian Castañeda Vásquez – Mexico, multi-disciplinary, painting/drawing/photography/installation

We continue to embrace!:
Léa Donnan (sculptor/mixed media/installation) from Australia.
og
Rossella Piccinno (film/photography) from Italy

Bring a plate of food to share to the Nes Studios and join us for good food and good company.

-Melody

We premiered Barnaból 35, A Village Waltz at the Nes Open House Exhibiton on the 26th April 2012.

The film was commissioned for the preschool in Skagaströnd, a village of 500 inhabitants on the northcoast of Iceland, and in celebration of it’s 35-th anniversary.
You are watching 88 pupils and staff who are or were at Leikskólinn Barnaból between 1977-2012.

á Nes!

Opið hús í Nes listamiðstöð

Við bjóðum alla velkomna í Nes listamiðstöð til að hitta listamenn aprílmánaðar og skoða listaverk þeirra.

Listamennirnir eru:

Rossella Piccinno, kvikmyndagerðarkona og ljósmyndari, sem hefur verið á ferð og flugi um allan bæinn að mynda mannlífið og alls konar viðburði.

Merete Röstad, hún notar margbreytilegar listaðferðir en vinnur núna einkum með ljósmyndir.

Alexandra Häberli sem málar og notar klippimyndir til að búa til nýja heima á veggjum listamiðstöðvarinnar.

Léa Donnan, hún býr til ísskúlptúra. notar margvísleg efni tengd iðnaði og er farin að kynnast fólkinu á höfninni.

Kvikmynd: ´Barnabol 35´ eftir AnneMarie van Splunter, kl. 16:00, 16:30, 17:00, 17:30, 18:00, 18:30. !!! 

Við vonum að þú komir í kaffi og „snack“ og njótir verka listamannanna.

Opið hús – fimmtudaginn, 26. apríl, kl. 16.00-19.00.

///

We invite everyone to our Open House this Thursday 26th April.

Melody Woodnutt. Film Still, 2011.

Artist residencies are by nature transient, ephemeral, intensive, and inspiring.

Bursts of immediate insights, light, and energy pops our eyes out when we see things newly and differently. The act of observation, noticing, influences, and our bodys´ presence in space and place offers us the gift of new ideas and new life. It is something valuable to experience a new place, and to try and adjust ourselves, to adapt. To join in, to be.

I have been an artist in residence here at Nes twice before; this time I am here to direct it. 2.5 weeks ago I flew across the world from Australia to work in the directors chair. I did it for the love I have for Skagaströnd and for Iceland, for the landscapes, and for the glowing and ever changing light here. Of course; also for the people, whom I have such respect for. They are kind, ambitious and proactive in the most astounding way for such a small village, the remoteness and dramatic weather is tackled head on. Nothing is impossible here, unless nature dictates otherwise, and here you must always respect nature first, because she will not respect you.

It is all because this place has something. Something so unique, I can´t describe it nor should I. I can only work hard here to develop the residency into a deserving cultural and artistic hub, reflective of Icelands´ thriving and saturated arts climate. With ideas and projects current and future exciting me to jump in, I have to remember to drink tea to calm the charged headaches that come from thinking so much. This is the land of the willing indie crowds and of the enduring fisherman, and with the combination of artistic and enduring strong traits embedded in Icelands´ Viking descendants, I will have much to learn and keep up with.

I approach the residency like I approach my own art works. As an environment to house emotions, mood, the body, and to create a circumstance for action to happen. I am an inter-disciplinary artist that transforms spaces into a place to come and be, to react, to sit, to feel. My installation works are 360°, they involve sound, darkness, light, mixed media, sculpture, and performance, with an emphasis on sensory elements. They are often housed in galleries, theatres, or terrain vague. Mostly, they exist for us to immerse ourselves and our bodies into a new environment so we might learn something new about ourselves. So as to feel something, recognise something, or experience something foreign or unexpected. For us to be acutely aware of our surroundings, and to draw out what we will within ourselves from those surroundings.

Much the same as my art work, I hope to provide a space at the residency that is supportive and conducive to this ethos. To provide a space where artists can come to experiment, explore themselves and their work, and find something new or unexpected. A place where artists go through emotions, feel the environment around them, and react.

I look forward to meeting each and every one of you.

Bestu kveðja,

Melody Woodnutt

Director, Nes Artist Residency.

London will be known for the 2012 Olympics this year, and by no means will culture and arts be left out. Maurice Orr, a resident artist of Nes Listamiðstöð Artist Residency in October 2009, has been selected to present work as a part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. His work ´The Screaming Silence of the Wind´was presented at Ballymoney Museum in February this year. Maurice used a number of materials to ´create four sensory installation pieces inspired by the raw, barren landscapes of his native Northern Ireland. Through sound, paint and natural materials such as fish leather, the piece will evoke a holistic feeling of place. Visitors to the exhibition, The Screaming Silence of the Wind, will be encouraged to touch the surfaces, look at the landscapes and listen to the sounds that have inspired him.´ – Ballymoney Times.

Orr was quite literally, and artistically, blown away by Iceland during his time in Skagaströnd. The light and its´ changing effect on nature being one specific reason. Those who have visited Skagaströnd may recall the fish leather factory 40 minutes drive from Nes.

We wish him every success for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and of course hope to see him again!

http://rossellapiccinno.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/final-destination/

Rossella Piccinno is a film maker, photographer, and mixed media artist from Italy.

´Rossella Piccinno’s work explores cultural identity, problems linked to discrimination or the conflict involved in power and role games in the family as in the community. She often works on individual and collective memory and the relation this develops with the past.´

Claire Pendrigh

http://clairependrigh.wordpress.com/

A fast overview of a variation of unseen landscapes with the light changing all the time. Wide-open spaces, lava fields, black beaches, glaciers, icebergs, snow, rain, wind, clouds, sun, and northern lights.

The most memorable scene occured on Feb 13, at night, between Egilsstaðir and Mývatn, in the middle of a lunar no man’s land. Lights started to steam out all over the sky as we were driving. We stopped the car to witness this incredible sight: 150km/h wind with green and pink glints lightning the landscape.

An experience close from watching a science fiction road movie at an increasingly fast rate.

Follow the project on :

http://creative.arte.tv/en/space/_TWNP

http://www.twnp.net

The massive meat feast of lamb heads and sour fish and putrid pungent rotten shark that make you see green sparkles. And black pudding. Sketch comedy, local Skagaströnd style. Before Halldór got the black eye.  Dancing with all the artists. Dancing with all the Icelanders.  Meeting the Elvis-loving Omar, who is self proclaimed as  the “main attraction of Skagaströnd”.   Sid changing Miguel’s life by showing him that he can also make harmonica sounds by inhaling, not just exhaling.  Icelandic bands playing Beatles covers and heavy-metal version of Smoke on the Water.

The current artists-in-residence at NES will be showing the outcome of their one or two-month stay in Skagaströnd on Tuesday the 21st of February at 1700 – 1900 pm. Working in different media such as painting, video, installation, textile and photography, the artists will turn their studio into an exhibition space, putting on display both finished art pieces and works-in-progress.

Some of the artists have worked directly with the environment in and around Skagaströnd and with Icelandic history and society: Dutch artist AnneMarie van Splunter is finalizing a documentary about the leikskóli in Skagaströnd, American artist Liz Hope Layton has produced paintings and video based on the story of Þórdís the prophetess and Italian artist Barbara Gamper has been investigating the notions of place and identity in Iceland. Franco-Spanish artist Luis Milguel Dominguez is drawing a landscape with ink on a 10meter canvas, Mexican artist Christian Castañeda Vázquez has been working on drawings based on Icelandic myths and fables and German artist Christin Lutze has brought the colours of the Icelandic winter landscape into her acrylic paintings. Sid Blevins has been working on musical pieces, while Elsa di Venosa and Hugo Deverchère from France are working on a video project, they are drawing the story of an aerial journey inspired by the lunar landscapes of the country.

With the wind constantly howling outside, the NES studio has been an almost 24-hour workplace for us over the last few weeks. It has been a remarkable experience to be absorbed by work in the light, spacious studios for hours at an end, and then to walk out the door into a roaring blizzard and to ten centimetres of snow that wasn’t there in the morning. Every day the landscape around Skagaströnd, – the mountains, the sea and the fields, – are different in colour and texture.

One has to be pretty numb not to be affected by the intensity of nature in and around Skagaströnd, – the scarcity of light and the colours of the aurora borealis. But if the wind gets too strong we find a lamp post to hold on to, or if visibility is less than one meter on our way home at night, we turn around and go back to the studios. There’s food in the fridge, there’s blankets, there’s a few couches. We could stay put for a couple of weeks in the studios if we have to. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

We had a very successful “Potluck dinner” welcoming our 11 artists to Nes, over 20 people from the community came to greet our artists and share some traditional food. Please enjoy!
Special thanks to Christian Castañeda Vázquez for providing these photos.

In the garden of found objects of Placido Este, assembly, mixed materials, variable dimension, 2011, Iceland, Dario Lazzaretto

Winding – installation, group of three aeolian harps, various material, variable dimension, 2011, Iceland, Dario Lazzaretto

Alarm mode (WE-YOU), video, 1’55”, 2011, Iceland, Dario Lazzaretto

Alarm mode (WE-YOU), video, 1’55”, 2011, Iceland, Dario Lazzaretto

Alarm mode (WE-YOU), video, 1’55”, 2011, Iceland, Dario Lazzaretto

All interested applicants should go to neslist.is and apply. When sending in the additional materials please describe how you would approach this project, your unique visions and the direction you would take.

Please consider in your application how you would deal with the language barrier. If there is interview work in this film it would be in Icelandic and not everyone here speaks english.

The deadline for submission is December 5. If you are interested please apply at this link http://neslist.is/application/how-to-apply/ and state that you are applying for this stipend in your cover letter.

This grant is made possible by the generous support of Minningarsjóður um hjónin frá Garði og Vindhæli

NES Listamiðstöð, Rannsóknasetur Háskóla Íslands á Norðurlandi vestra og Kántrýbær ætla á næstu misserum að standa fyrir kvikmyndasýningum á Skagaströnd.
Sýningarnar verða í Kántrýbæ og mun fyrsta myndin verða sýnd n.k. föstudagskvöld kl 21:30.

Heimildarmyndin Jón og séra Jón eftir Steinþór Birgisson.
Nánar um myndina:
Séra Jón Ísleifsson hefur verið sóknarprestur í Árnesi Ströndum í 12 ár. Hann lifir lífinu á sinn eigin sérstæða máta og af honum eru margar sögur bæði sannar og ósannar. Í kjölfar langvinnra deilna innan safnaðarins er svo komið að mikill meirihluti sóknarbarna hefur skrifað undir vantraust á séra Jón og lýst því yfir að þau vilji ekki að hann starfi lengur sem sóknarprestur í Árnesprestakalli. Er séra Jón óhæfur prestur? Eða eru aðrir kraftar að verki? Hvað sem því líður er séra Jón maður sem er staddur á miklum tímamótum.
Jón og séra Jón vann áhorfendaverðlaun Skjaldborgarhátíðarinnar í vor og hefur verið sýnd í kvikmyndahúsum við miklar vinsældir.

Miðaverð 1.250 kr

Also on display at the NES studios will be Conjunction a curatorial project by Annika Bastacky and Georgina Criddle.

This question is often asked, and many people assume that the best time of year is the summer as it is light all of the time. People also assume that the winter is not a good time to come because it is cold and dark all of the time. Fortunately, in the winter, this is not true! While it can be cold in the winter, the average daily temperature is actually very similar to that than New York City. Furthermore, due to the angle of the earth relative to the sun, sunset and sunrise actually take a very long time, often more than two hours. These long periods of time produce deep colors in the sky and the landscape that you do not see in the lower latitudes.

Summer is exceptional and the 24 hour daylight means 24 hour accessibility to landscape and environment. The long days mean energy levels are high and many people are in motion, traveling, hiking, swimming, and holidaying. This time of year means Icelanders are often with family friends, on vacation, or traveling.
In summer you will need to black out your room with dark fabric if you cannot sleep with light.

The transitional seasons of Spring and Autumn mean that artists see the landscape morph before their eyes with spectacular drama.Sometimes experiencing incredible beauty, or incredible harshness, as summer and winter battle it out. This is a good time to discover both worlds of Iceland, as the suns retreat or emergence is often at very noticable intervals each sunset or sunrise.

Skagaströnd holds many events, there is a local choir, often performances in the church with Icelandic companies or arts organisations/musicians, an annual Þorrablót Viking Feast in February. There is the Fishermans’ Day Festival in June. Christmas celebrations and dancing around the town tree in December. The Kántrýbær (local bar and restaurant) is open most weekends in winter, and everyday in summer. For a small town, it seems that if you scratch a little below the surface you can discover a micro-casm of activity.

Importantly, for arts reasons; you may like to visit festivals or events if you want to experience some trips to Reykjavik or surrounding areas during your time here. Some festivals to research might be: The Reykjavik Dance Festival, Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik International Film Festival, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Skagaströnd Kántrýdagur Festival, Dalvik Fish Festival, Sequences Biennial, Design March, Reykjavik Literature Festival. Plus Nes Artist Residency presents arts events and festivals annually.
Buses run from Skagaströnd 2 times every day if you want to visit the city for events, while remaining in Skagaströnd to create strong studio focus or concentrated time on your practice.

We think anytime is a unique opportunity to experience something different in Iceland. The environment and arts is ever changing with events and culture happening both locally and in Reykjavik.

We prefer winter ourselves, we step out our front doors to see the northern lights. The best time of year to see the aurora borealis is between September/October and March, believe it or not by April there is too much light in the night sky! Here is a picture to wet your artistic appetites of the auroras shinning over our Spákonufell mountain above Skagaströnd.

Last Wednesday 14th September, the weather was really fine and fearing that it may be the last of the fine weather I went up the mountain with Joseph. We got a lift to the local golf club which faces the North Route up the mountain. The technical data in the leaflet is as follows:

Distance: 3.3km to the top

Duration: 2 hours to the top

Landscape: Steep but fairly easy

Elevation: 570m

Highest Point: 639m

So off we set without the leaflet with the map in it…after a wrong turn at the base and 2o minutes wandering and muttering on the flat we found the start of the route and passed a water tank…

A rather odd sight…we carried on although it was evident who was the old man out of the two us as I found myself watching Joseph open up a sizable gap on me yet he was still in sight.

He’d rest and wait so by the time I’d catch up, he’d had a good 10 minute rest!

It did start to get steeper at some points and there was still a little bit of snow up there from the previous 5 days. This is Joseph just before he started jumping up and down in the snow which apparently gave him an incredible sense of pleasure.

On we went at some points in the shade the ground was still a little frozen or a little slippery.

Getting closer to the top now…

The top is called Borgarhausinn its a huge mossy plain much larger than you imagine from just seeing the side from down below. Its a curious texture when you walk on it, yielding under your weight but springing back into place when you lift your foot.

We found the chest! Well alright not THE treasure chest but one with a guestbook where we both signed our names. I have numerous pictures from up at the top but somehow they don’t seem as good as being up there nor do they quite capture that sense of accomplishment that comes with walking up to the top.

To continue reading this post (and see more pictures) please see Hideki’s blog.

Pálínuboð fara þannig fram að það koma allir með eitthvað gott að borða og slegið er upp hlaðborði. Þið getið til dæmis komið með uppáhalds fiskréttin ykkar, pottrétt eða bara eitthvað sem ykkur langar að deila með okkur hinum.

Þetta er kjörið tækifæri til að hitta listamenn mánaðarins og kynna fyrir þeim lífið í litlum bæ á íslandi.

Endilega komið með alla fjölskylduna við verðum með eitthvað skemmtilegt að gera fyrir krakkana.

Nes artist residency invites the community of Skagaströnd to a potluck on Thursday, October 13th, at 7:30 pm. Everyone is welcome.

This is a great opportunity to meet the artists and share about life in Skagaströnd and Iceland.

The project manager will work in Skagaströnd Iceland.

Qualifications:

• University education in art or related field
• Proficient English
• Experience with in art or cultural development.
• Excellent social skills.
• Good organization skills and ability to work independently.
• Initiative, interest and enthusiasm

Application deadline is 10^th of October. Please send in an application with information about education, experience and references to Nes Artist Residency Túnbraut 1-3, 545 Skagaströnd or to halldor@biopol.is.

Further information gives Halldór G. Ólafsson in telephone: +354-452 2977 or email: halldor@biopol.is