"Eventyret av det svarte gullet" - "The tale of the black gold". An imaginative figure work with a girl sitting among "Skarver" or Comorans - a typical seabird on Norways coast. It is a surrealistic situation. The birds seem friendly and as if they look to the woman for friendship and protection. It is a peaceful scene, yet in its surrealism also a fairytale. I painted this picture just out of an inspiration as I was watching the comorans sitting on a rock island, stretching out their wings, as if they were drying them in the setting sun. The sea was like glass or quicksilver in the evening. And I thought of this image with a woman sitting among them directly on the water. The way they are holding out their wings always gives me associations to pictures of countless environmental catastrophes when there had been oil spills and the birds make the same movement with their wings, desperately sticky with the black substance. So I wanted to bring out these associations and make a comment on Norways society. It's a 'pretty' fairytale how a poor nation found gold (black gold) and got rich over night. It is in our hands to steward natures resources wisely and we all know we so often fall all too short and don't understand all the repercussions of our actions and the next generations have to live with the consequences.