In designing characters for Tales of the Old North, the source material used has been almost exclusively illustrations by Danish artist Kay Nielsen, who illustrated select scenes for the book’s publication in 1914. Our show is aesthetically an homage to his oeuvre. When I first saw the work by Nielsen I was fascinated with the way he managed to draw poetry – fusing smoky colour, high contrast graphics, fine detail, and sparsely rich composition. Having examined his entire bo

Inspiration tends to run in currents. Christina and I have always been attracted to the idea of “north”. Though we are lucky to live in a part of the world that (usually) experiences a beautiful summer and fall, we resonate deeply with the magic and tranquility that comes from a long, cold, blustery winter. The “first ever” Xara show in 2008 was called “Aurora”, and brought to life the magic of the northern lights woven with the Swedish Sancta Lucia ceremony of carols. That c