Ida Liffner

Here we go 2012

2012-01-10T03:29:00.000-08:00

And just as I was questioning what the h*** I'm really doing, a friend had found and sent me this, and it made me really happy. Thank you Jason Soy. As I was browsing the site I also found tons of great artists worth checking out, so go look!

And I know christmas is over, but the christmas spirit isn't, so I'll give you a little treat. They are part of a series of illustrations that will be printed on pillows. I'm still testing it out, but I promise to show you more soon.

The new home

2011-12-06T03:34:00.000-08:00

I have started a new website on cargocollective. It's a complement to the blog and you are very welcome to have a look.

http://cargocollective.com/idaliffner

Julerodnad

2011-11-18T08:48:00.001-08:00

Claus and Sons

2011-11-18T08:14:00.000-08:00

Embrace the holidays

2011-11-18T07:42:00.000-08:00

Check box

2011-11-15T11:04:00.000-08:00

Sidetracks

2011-11-15T07:22:00.001-08:00

How to know where to go? Tuesday confusion.

Julebjörn

2011-11-11T02:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas spirits

2011-11-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

I missed the swedish christmas last year, so to make up for it I'm getting into the spirit early this year. Join me?

Kleptomani som metod

2011-11-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

Image. Repeat. Pattern.

2011-08-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

A blast from the past

2011-08-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

Things that fly

2011-08-17T09:35:00.001-07:00

I would never say this to you

2011-08-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

VEND SEND MEND

2011-07-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

In early june (or was it late may) I was contacted with an offer to join, as one of a hundred illustrators, in a fundraising project called VEND SEND MEND. The project aimed to raise $ 6000 for Doctors Without Borders in Japan. The theme given was vending macines (since it is for Japan- where one vending machine exists for every twenty-three people!) It is truly an honor to be part of this, and here is my contribution:

"How may we serve you today sir?"

The illustrations were exhibited in Baltimore and can now be seen and bought here http://vendsendmend.tumblr.com/page/2 .

Power to the people

2011-07-27T07:59:00.001-07:00

Ready. Steady. Go.

2011-06-08T05:05:00.003-07:00

Graduated and more than ready to get started. I will post some images from our amazing graduation exhibition as soon as I've gathered a few more from other photographers. Meanwhile I'll give you a sneak peak to a new illustration project.

Stockholm journal

2011-04-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Lost and found

2011-04-26T03:55:00.000-07:00

Found some old book cover illustrations, made for the book Swedish Folktales. It is a wonderful but rather thick book, so I chose to divide it in three parts. One might wonder where the third cover is.. I'll find it some day, I'm sure.

Dinner conversations

2011-04-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Can't remember a word I said

2011-04-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

A boyish wish

2011-04-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

The memories through broken senses

2011-04-06T02:26:00.000-07:00

These images are part of my thesis project, where flat image and objects are combined into a three dimensional illustration. If you have seen earlier documentation, you might have seen them already, but I thought I'd publish them one by one.

Is this it?

2011-04-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

Nah, there's more. For sure.

Aurora Borealis

2011-04-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

Aftershocks

2011-03-30T04:57:00.000-07:00

It is now time to look back at what these last ten weeks have been about. I need to figure out what it is that I wanted to achieve and if I really did achieve it. The process of creativity is fascinating; you start of with a vision or idea, enter a period of thinking, questioning and sketching. You try to capture the vision and put it into a place where it can be described and explained. Once you have the idea in a safe place, you start planning out what it is exactly that you want to make out of it. Then comes a long phase of making, doing, building, mixed with experiments, try-outs, failure and victories. That period can set you so far away from the place where you kept your visions, it is actually hard to remember why it was you thought this was so important to go through. Ten weeks is a long time. I no longer feel the frustration and anger that made me start this whole thing. Now it is time to recollect.

It has been done

2011-03-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

I know, I know.. You never thought I'd make it. But I did! Tonight I finished my thesis project. I don't know if it is time to go to bed or just start all over. Leaning towards starting over. More pics to come, please be patient. I need to celebrate, take a loooong walk, have coffee in the sun and read a book. Thank you all for support and sweet, sweet love.

Late is getting later

2011-03-24T18:48:00.001-07:00

Flying first class, last thesis week.

2011-03-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

You are invited to:

2011-03-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

A pitiful man.

2011-03-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Sneak Peak

2011-03-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Portraits of fancy freckles

2011-03-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

On his mental wall

2011-03-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Go on and eat it

2011-03-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

After a week in the wood shop

2011-03-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck would chuck wood ?

Sometimes it is hard to know

2011-03-06T00:03:00.000-08:00

Home sweet home

2011-03-03T03:58:00.000-08:00

A world of illustration in the head of synesthesia

2011-03-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time

2011-02-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

young love

2011-02-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

we find it hard to believe

we pursue it to prove it

A streak of vile crimson

2011-02-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

Sketchbook clean out

2011-02-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

The hostile lovers

2011-02-16T11:28:00.000-08:00

This story is about a love that was, but is no longer. It turned into a life that is maintained but not fulfilling for either one of them. Where there used to be joy and excitement is now just silence and where there used to be electric sparks is now just tension.

They don’t know when or where things went wrong, how this great love could get lost. They were so sure that what they had was out of this world; so powerful and amazing it would survive them both.

Their love was a phenomenon, a living, breathing being with a will of its own. Nothing could diminish or vanquish it. When all other trivialities of life would wither and decay, this great love would still stand tall and grow strong.

How could they think otherwise?

Fourth set sketch session

2011-02-09T15:00:00.001-08:00

Thesis sketches III

2011-02-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

When working on the stories for this illustration project, I notice how easy it is to lose myself in my own head. The first story is about a married couple who live in the aftershocks of a great and fundamental love. I wanted to try my ideas of love outside myself. My third set of sketches are therefor a bunch of posters. I have used common sayings about love with the option of agreeing or disagreeing on a five step scale:

¤Yes, that is exactly how it feels.
¤Well yea, that's pretty much it.
¤This means nothing to me, just empty words.
¤Nah, I don't really agree
¤Absolutely not, that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard!

"It is impossible to be sane while in love."

"There are ties between people that appear
frightingly much like dog leashes."

"Most people don't feel.
They think that they're feeling.
They don't think.
They think that they're thinking."

"Those who die from love,
loved too deeply."

"It ought to be forbidden for
young people to get married
when in love,
the same way it is forbidden
to drive when drunk."

"Someone who speak too much about love,
doesn't know what love is."

"There is no difference between
a fool and a wise man,
when in love."

"A person in love speaks gibberish."

"In the war of love,
the winnerwill be
the one who surrender."

"Love has wings. Marriage walks on crutches."

"Love for work
is a contradiction."

"It is, with the great love, as it is with
the electic tooth brush -
Fun to have, but you can do without it."

"There are those who
never would have
been in love
if they never heard of love."

"All is fair in love and war."

"The small crushes
work like vaccine
for the great love."

"The only victory over Love
is called Escape."

"A person incapable of hating
is also incapable of loving."

[Yes, that is exactly how it feels.]

"Those who die from love,
loved too deeply."

[This means nothing to me; just empty words.]

"It is, with the great love, as it is with
the electic tooth brush -
Fun to have, but you can do without it."

[Absolutely not, that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard!]

"It is, with the great love, as it is with
the electic tooth brush -
Fun to have, but you can do without it."

[Yes, that is exactly how it feels.]

What is illustration?

2011-02-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

It is not about the perfect tune or pretty picture.

It is always, always about the story. (Is or ought to be)

When we release a new album, publish a book or show a brand new collection of clothes or furniture etc. it is (or ought to be) because we have something to say (tell/share). The choice of language, in which we tell our stories, is vital for how they will be perceived. This is where illustration comes in. Illustration is a tool for storytelling, for contributing to the world in the most legible way.

Illustration is legibility, it is the italic, the underline, the quotation mark, the exclamation mark.

It is not about the pretty picture.

I want to talk about this. About the concept of illustration and how it can be used; in our times of digitalization and information overload eg..

Information overload means more input than we can process. We are now facing the challenge of choice. When we can access every song, poem, book, movie ever made, we need guidance to find the bits and pieces most valuable to ourselves. Illustration can be that guide. But we might need to broaden our ideas of what it is and how it can be used.

Second round of sketches

2011-02-06T06:20:00.000-08:00

To explain my first set of sketches to myself, i summarized them in a number of objects. Each object telling one part of the whole story;

About starting from the inside to talk about the outside. About releasing and a dream of beeing freed at last. About the origin of things. About trying to capture the wild and untamable.

Addition, 2/8/2011,

7:11

oh yes, and u have some explaining to do >.>

7:12

Right..

You'd have to ask questions. What do you want me to tell you about?

7:13
iight

and i'm gonna ask about the third sketches too

whenever yo have time

7:15

I have time now.

7:16

hmm, I feel like I'm missing the metaphors that you put out for us

like the blue. blue sky

^ not a metaphor, but an example

7:17

You're missing it how?

Ok, nevermind

7:17

I'm having trouble making the connection

7:17

I made the four objects into four categories that I wanted to illustrate

The bag, the blue, blue sky- was about talking about what's on the outside by looking inside. It has to do with my ideas of placing yourself inside the story and about seeing the bigger picture by looking at the source of it.
BUT

it is also an idea to illustrate the feeling of a color

To let Blue be the story itself.

The second- Things that fly, are about releasing or being released. It is about how we find ways for all the imagery, stories, music and poetry that we carry around to come out and be free.
BUT

it is also the one object that is a specific story, or a situation and relationship. The dream of being released is the story itself.

The third- A former tree, is about the origin of things. Illustration has been something strongly related to prints and paper, but it goes further and in the end; the origin of paper are the trees and the origin of the illustrations are the stories, or us.

BUT

It is also about looking back at your own history. This object is ment to be about revealing what's behind it all.

The last object- A domestic see, is about trying to capture something that is greater than yourself, something untamable and giant. By describing it, by imitating it. It is about taking the wonders of life and trying to put them into place, in a pretty vase or a in a nice frame

BUT

It is also about the weather. To let the weather be the story and illustrate the motions and emotions of a real mighty storm or a breezy summer day.

7:27

wow

i'm pretty impressed

i would have been very proud of myself if I figured that out

haha

i did sort of figure tat ut with the 'domestic sea"

out*

what's with the red shape in the last domestic sea pic?

i automatically think of "a diamond in the sea"

Thesis Time! first sketches

2011-02-03T08:13:00.000-08:00

I will create a table setting that is an illustration.
I will work with the objects, materials and surfaces around the dinner occasions to tell a story.
I will explore the concept of illustration to see how it can include alternative disciplines, materials and formats.
I will find a new working method and expression for myself.

We sure charcoaled that

2011-01-12T05:47:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J8lzYnjQf0

Collaboration with Mike Arreaga

Å & I

2010-12-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

Illustrations for the book Å & I. A story about two sisters growing up, growing apart, growing inseparable.

Illustration for CLC

2010-12-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

Illustration for CLC, final version. "What couldn't we do together.."

Mighty Men

2010-12-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Three for good byes

2010-12-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

Art Market at MICA is up and running. Finals are hanging over our heads. Time in Baltimore is running out. I am getting ready for good byes and wish I wouldn't have to. They have snow in Sweden now, they have ginger breads, saffron rolls, Lucia and glögg (a wine drink served warm with almonds and raisins). I don't miss it nearly as much as I am going to miss this place and the amazing people I've gotten to know. Sometimes it is the easiest thing in the world to make yourself a home, which makes it the hardest thing in the world to leave it.

So let's just say good bye for now, take care while I'm gone and trust me- I will be back.

Fox hunting in Baltimore

2010-12-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

I came to Baltimore in late August. Before the first week had ended I had fallen in love. As you know, love is never easy. This grumpy town made promises it could never keep, it charmed me, amazed me and fascinated me in so many ways and at the same time made it very clear that whatever it was that we had, it would never last.
I got lost in this city so many times. I needed a map, needed something to explain this strange place. There is no such map. Or, there was no such map.

Fox hunting in Baltimore- the map for explorers and Baltimore bound, is a three dimensional map of a city, so complex and multi-layered, a flat map could never even begin to explain it. This is a limited edition of twentyfive, that's all there is and ever will be. If you managed to get you hands on one the advice is to put it in your pocket and carry it with you everywhere you go, until the paper wither and the map is no longer needed.

From the sketchbook

2010-11-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

Illustration Concepts

2010-11-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

Illustrations for Community Law Center

Post Card- Paris

Stamp Project

Illustration

2010-11-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

cd cover

editorial illustration

Book Illustration

2010-11-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

An Encounter

-book project

Sketches

Logo

Picking Sam

-character project

Book Covers