simple of blogs: Ken Done of the Vikings: Bo Bendixen's edible garden, creatures & artwork

Bo Bendixen treats Cecilia to a harvest of tiny,

sugary-red tomatoes from his rotunda greenhouse

Bo Bendixen's Art

Bo Bendixen is one powerful Dane, who can't resist making slight adjustments to the world.

There is a road that winds between his homestead and his shop. It used to run straight through what is now his sprawling gardens - Bo took care of that. When he realized his front lawn lacked a menhir, he hunted one down and carried it in. Deciding he needed a better view of the sea, he got an earth mover and built a personal Mt. Fuji for short, steep hikes, with a meditation spot at the summit.

postcard no. 578 © Bo Bendixen

His pet cows, however, choose to graze somewhere less dramatic.

His artwork has power of a different kind: With a few deft brushstrokes, his animal designs bring a narcotic kind of happiness that induces people to buy and buy. His cards, mugs, t-shirts are found in Bo Bendixen shops that pop up all over the place in Denmark, and reach all the way to Japan and beyond.

Cecilia and Bo Bendixen, with Japan on our minds

"I'm not an artist, I realized early on that was too much trouble, depending on galleries. Why am I successful? I like working hard. And I'm lucky - I just draw what I like, what makes me happy. And it happens to be what the public like too".

Bo Bendixen merchandise

Cecilia after being tossed atop Bo's useful front lawn menhir.

In the background are the diverted public road and a Bo Bendixen shop.

postcard 603 ©Bo Bendixen

Big Bo has a dogmatic little dog following him everywhere. When I asked "Where are your cats?" he tells it like this: cats are for drawing, dogs are for living with.

Cat pictures, it turns out, outsell dog pictures in legions. The reason for this is that cats come in one model only: cat-shaped. Dogs however come in every which way, from great danes to scotties, and dog people (being the faithful kind) only love the kind of dog they love. They don't go buying cards with the 'wrong' dog.

In Art and in Business, Bo does an unusual amount of observing 'what actually is', then letting the essence of those observations shape his designs, his garden, his manufacturing.

View from atop the Menhir, decorated with an extremely functional Bendixen column

Bo Bendixen's Garden

Chickmatrix - every good Viking needs something sweet and fluffy to care for

A plum tree grows into his chicken coop, giving his fluffy friends sweet treats throughout summer, while the tree enjoys home-delivered fertilizing. Eggs and plums are collected simultaniously.

Above: Bo the batchelor's declared favorite chicken. You can almost measure the delight he takes in his creatures from how impeccably tended they are - clean coop, weed-free - and how attentively they are drawn in his designs. Gardens this impressive can be created and tended alone, but not without the energy-source of being utterly infatuated, besotted, and rewarded by the results of your labor. There is no doubt about it: a garden is beautiful when it is loved.

The frog prince and the golden ball

Bo's goldfish bowl

One of many meditation & inspiration spots, watching his 'models', the fish, waiting for a visual 'story' to tell.

Bo's glass bower is quaint in shape, high in tech. He got inventive and thought up gadgets to vent and create mildew-expelling breezes in summer, and to create season-extending, human-friendly warmth in winter. As anyone who draws knows, success is a matter of staring at things long and hard enough to see whats missing, and to start to care about putting it in. Its pest-free, carefully pruned, watered, and arranged. Like a well-mannered, creative child, this tiny balcony-style garden has a parent that listens to it, goes out of his way for it, and does quite a bit of appreciative, critical gazing.