Júlíanna Ósk Hafberg — Tides Magazine

Júlíanna Ósk Hafberg is a multi-medium artist residing in Aarhus, Denmark. She has been creating ever since she can remember herself and it has come to be in many different forms through out her lifetime. As a kid she explored crafts which later evolved in design but she started to consider herself as an artist in more recent adult years. Her work varies greatly and can be anything from painting and drawing, to poetry as well as venturing into more hands on skills such a ceramics and tattooing.

I have been speaking to Júlíanna for quite some time now over Instagram, this is how we connect nowadays, especially during Covid-19. She instantly struck me as such a multifaceted talent, and her work takes me to a comforting dreamscape when I look at it, almost as if I was meant to align with them during these turmoil times, where one of our few escapes are dreaming.

Júlíanna Ósk Hafberg. Photo by Elísabet Blöndal.

“I have found that my art is channeled through healing, in a gentle, loving and forgiving way. When I was younger I saw a lot of art coming from and expressing pain and suffering through brutalism and roughness. I couldn’t relate to this, and I think that this kept me away from art for a long time. It wasn’t until I realized this that I started really to allow myself to step fully into the role of the artist, and calling me by that name. It is this mix between healing, emotion and having a message to convey that I think is my favorite medium to base all of my work upon. The forms that they come alive in differ from time to time, right now the form is mostly oil paintings.”

We discuss her art and poetry in particular, and it interests me which comes first, or whether one can or can not exist without the other. Júlíanna goes on to explain “painting and drawing are very different forms of expression than writing poetry. I have to be in completely different head-spaces, and even require completely different physical spaces to be born within. I for example can hardly write poetry in my studio where I paint, and I don’t paint out by the sea, or in my bed where many of my poems come alive. Sometimes however I feel that the one needs the other, to strengthen each other, and then I start thinking how these two can meet and thrive together. So it starts with either, and sometimes that calls for the other.”

Júlíanna believes studying and working abroad is a privilege but not essential to become an artist.

“I do think that there are great possibilities to grow as a person, be challenged in perception, culture and world views by traveling. Art comes from within, and ideas can be sparked from the smallest things around you, a glimpse of the sun, the songs of the sea, the existential questions in the dark of night. I have moved around a little too much in my life, rarely having a stable ground to stand on, so I crave the simple life of home and belonging. Of course, if you ask someone who always has had that, you would possibly get the opposite answer, and that I guess, is just how life is.

Very few things as beautiful as the human body.

I ask Júlíanna why the human body is her favourite subject to draw and paint. “Because of the absurdity of what the naked human body represents in mainstream media today. It is the most natural thing that we have, our own bodies of flesh that are here to hold us up and help us navigate in the world, and yet what it mostly represents is a sexualized object, one that we are constantly being told to improve and embellish and change in favor of capitalism. Drawing and painting the naked body in natural shapes and poses and for the sake of their own almost feels like a rebellious act. I am also just deeply in love with all the lines and curves and shapes and shadows of the body, and think that there are very few things as beautiful.”

When creating her work she feels as if space is the most important, physical but also emotional. “If I don’t feel that I have time enough or should be doing something else I have a really hard time allowing my creative flow to take me on a ride. And that’s essential for any creative work to come alive. And this I felt for years and years while attending school for the first 26 years of my life. I constantly felt compromised, and when I tried to create I felt guilty for not doing other things that I perhaps thought I should do, or thought people expected me to do.”

Decided to produce her own photoshoot to reference in her art.

When discussing whether she uses models to draw or uses her imagination she describes “both. I went to weekly live drawing sessions for three years where a lot of my drawings originated from. When I then started painting I used the internet to find references for poses and shapes of the bodies, but quickly felt uncomfortable and restricted with that. That’s when I decided to host my own photoshoot, to gather own references to use in my paintings and art. That was an amazing experience I had along with nine women who offered me and my art their bodies, beauty and energy for two hours filled with trust and magic. I draw a lot more from imagination, but feel that the two are very different in style and message, and use each to achieve the desired outcome of the piece.”

She goes on to explain she gathers inspiration from “feelings, healing, philosophy and existential thoughts. I think at the core of every single thing that I create you can find a big piece of one or all of those things. And like I said earlier, the way that I approach those are with lightness and soft colors and symbols. My absolute favorite artist must be Monet, because of his beautifully soft and subtle colored paintings and expressions.”

Needed the artist in her to understand her inherit nature.

“I mistook the artist in me for a designer for a long time, didn’t dare to step into the role of the artist. It wasn’t until I went through what has been the toughest time of my life yet, that I really needed the art and the artist in me, that I fully understood my inherit nature. That was three years ago, and since then it has been growing exponentially.”

“After graduating my studies at Kaospilot in summer 2019 I could feel that something had been missing, I constantly felt that I was compromising something without really knowing what is was, but realized as soon as I graduated that it was the artist in me that felt compromised. Almost like that doing anything else than being an artist was a compromise. So, I graduated, got a studio and started building up the space and time for the artist to be properly born. I started painting for the first time which felt like coming home. We are still getting to know one another and I am looking forward to a lifetime of that.”

Being an artist during times where social media is so very dominant, especially now more than ever, we discuss how that has influence Júlíanna as well as the importance of this platform for art and designers.

“I think that Instagram is absolutely a place to be for visually artistic people. It is an amazing way to find other likeminded people, engage with other artist, learn and grow, seek inspiration, find information and opportunities, and it is definitely the most powerful and multipurpose tool that I have access to right now.

Of course I think that there’s a fine line, it’s easy to get stuck in mindless scrolling or hanging out, wasting time and sometimes I feel immensely intimidated by it, a pressure of posting beautiful enough pictures, of sharing my process and of getting ‘enough’ likes and engagement, so often I can also feel it’s negative effect that holds me back. But I am more grateful for it, than I curse it, still.”

Focusing on feminine energy where care, healing, patience and intuition are at the essence.

“The times that we are living right now are so uncertain and unique to anything else anyone of us has ever experienced. I feel that the earth and nature are commanding us to pause on a collective level, which we achieve by pausing on the individual level. I feel that this pause is here to create a clean slate and has a possibility to give birth to a new era, with a new world view and approach. This makes me optimistic and excited, but also creates this uncertainty because it is asking to leave behind the ideas, practices and plans that were created in the ‘old’ world. So, with full respect to the situation, and to the possibilities of a new and improved world, I am riding the wave of uncertainty completely willing and enthusiastic to adapt and answer the needs and changes of a new world.”

“I have since November 2019 been working on a series of oil paintings called ‘Daughters Earth’ that represent and address the need to shift from the masculine energy of the capitalist world we have been living in, and into a more feminine energy where care, healing, patience and intuition are at the essence. That series and message almost feels even more relevant now than before, so I will continue to slowly but surely bring that series into the world. Hopefully a new and improved world, on the other side of the times we are living today. Another thing that is on my mind constantly is community. I am looking at ways to cultivate, create and hone an intentional community, as a next step in my life, so my mind is a lot on that topic these days as well.”

Wants us to walk more aware and gently into a new era

Everyone is being affected by Covid-19 and Júlíanna is no exception, but she tries to find solace in her creativity. “It has been both up and down. All big ambitions and plans dissolved, the uncertainty and the shapeshift of the world is too great to rigidly hold onto anything that was planned or dreamt before. But I have at some points found solace in my creativity and that has been wonderful moments of pure creation from the depths of me, without intention or purpose.”

Both as freelance creatives I ask her if she has any advice to give to fellow artists who might be going through anxiety or self-doubt during these uncertain times, to which Júlíanna responds “let‘s be kind to ourselves. Let‘s remember that we are collectively going through a huge trauma, both as humans with this virus, but also as an eco-system and planet with climate change as an result of human behaviour. I see them holding hands, and that this time of pause, reflection and value resest is desperately needed for both. Let us be gentle and kind towards our feelings, energies and bodies, and stay strong by allowing emotions and thoughts to come to us in what ever way that they need. Let‘s try to leave the constant mindset of over work and hyper productivity behind, and walk more aware and gently into a new era.”

You can keep up to date with Júlíannas work and musings on instagram, here.

Words by Lilja Hrönn.
All imagery kindly shared by the artist, Elísabet Blöndal and Hrefna Björg Gylfadóttir.