The man who tidied his flat and found his vocation

Lars Olrik

                                                                                                                                            

Birkerod, Denmark.
When Lars Olrik started life 47 years ago, he had very little idea of what he wanted to do.
Twenty years later he wasn’t much the wiser, but he had noticed in himself a flair with words.
It was that flair that landed him his first job, writing freelance for a music magazine and later an apprenticeship with the direct marketing giant Wunderman to learn the trade of copy-writing. ‘ It was hard work and a bit boring but it was well paid and I had 84 rejections before Wunderman so I decided to live with it.’ He muses.

For a bit of fun Lars entered competitions in his spare time; winning prizes on his poetry, slogans and songs. One day he was grabbed by a member of one of the most popular Danish bands at the time ‘Laban’ and asked if he would write them some lyrics.

Having just won an award for campaign work at Wunderman, Lars flushed with success didn’t waste a minute to accept this opportunity to give up his day job to become a freelance songwriter. ‘I thought I could walk on water.’ He chuckles.

An early recession in the advertising industry made freelance copy-writing jobs hard to get by and the songwriting didn’t pay much. ‘It wasn’t long before, my ex and I were sucking stones.’ He remembers.

In the spirit of  a true Viking; Lars battled on and during this time  he wrote and had published four novels and an alternative dictionary. ‘I dug out old words and made up new meanings for them. It was quite popular amongst my friends actually.’ Lars smirks.

By now the recession was not just personal to Lars, but global and surprising everyone by it’s ferocity; in particular the Danes who had become quite used to being held up as an example of economical and social success. ‘It was doom and gloom galore everywhere, the press in particular.’ Lars admits.

Lying on the sofa one day, having no particular reason to get up, Lars surveyed the room and decided it might be about time he had a bit of a clean up. ‘I hate domestic chores.’ He admits. ‘The place was pretty messy, even by my standards.’

Lars got to work with a Hoover and a bottle of detergent and slowly worked his way to the kitchen where he came across an amateur painters kit he had bought on a whim years earlier. ‘I was literally standing over the trash bin, ready to throw it out.’

Instead Lars brought it back into the living room, unpacked it, and dipped one of the knives into some of the paint that hadn’t dried out. – When he next looked up six hours had passed. ‘I was hooked.’ Lars admits.

Over the next months Lars would paint furiously. ‘Some of it was pretty bad, but I enjoyed it and I did seem to get better.’ Learning through his mistakes and by studying other painters on the Internet; Lars finally felt he was ready to let the world have a look and posted his first painting on his Facebook page. ‘Within half an hour, I had three offers – people wanted to buy it!.’ Lars recalls.

Three years and 87 paintings later Lars admits his success. He is now fully booked with exhibitions four months in advance and has offers from three galleries.‘If twenty-seven years ago you had told me that I would become a successful painter I would have thought you were crazy.’ Lars Laughs.

Dimensions By Lars Olrik

Author and Artist Lars Olrik’s favorite reads:

* “The Shining” – Stephen King.* “Når snerlen blomstrer” – Bjarne Reuter* “My life as a dog” – Reidar Jönsson* “Animal farm” – George Orwell* “The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy” – Douglas Adams

You can view Lars Olrik’s new paintings via:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.192100496547.137836.592381547&type=3

Books by Lars Olrik

* “Ridderen af den runde bold”/”The knight of the round ball” – 2001.* “Fra sans og samling”/”Out of one’s mind” – 2001″ “Haikus” – 2005* “Melankolatter”/”Melancholaughter” – 2008* “Løgnagtigt leksikon”/”Encyclopedia of lies” – 2011

Thanks for reading this, I hope you enjoyed. Please be my guest and make a comment or ask a question. If you have a story to tell, let me know. I would love to hear from you. Maggi ( maggisummerhill@gmail.com)