Iceland review - 2013, Side 50

48 ICELAND REVIEW
ART
of leading a healthy lifestyle,” she explains.
As artists, they felt they had more free-
dom to choose where they wanted to live.
“For many people the reason for why they
live in one place or another is primarily
because they have a job there. But for us
it was different—perhaps because we can
work from our computers a lot and can
therefore be based anywhere. But, it was
mainly the beauty. After all, life is too short
to look at ugly things,” Nína says.
The proximity to nature and clean envi-
ronment was also a major draw card for
Nína’s husband Ómar Smári Kristinsson,
or Smári as he’s known. “The air is clean.
In Reykjavík, the air can be quite polluted.
Also, there is not a lot of stress here as there
are not many people,” he remarks.
SEASoNAL cHANGE
Before moving to Ísafjörður, the couple
lived on Æðey, an island off the fjord’s
north shore. Spending the dark and cold
winters on an otherwise uninhabited island
in the remote northern West Fjords may
be the last resort of many. For Nína and
Smári, though, seven winters on the 2-km
(1.25-mile) long island was an opportunity
of a lifetime.
“It was a good time. It gave us a lot of
time to read, to think, and to learn. I also
drew a lot and Nína learnt how to use a
computer,” says Smári.
Apart from being responsible for sending
information from the weather station—
their job was to send updates every three
hours from 6 am to 6 pm—Nína and Smári
also looked after the farm animals with
which they shared the island—sheep, horses,
cows and 14 hunting dogs.
Their summers were spent back on the
mainland, in Landmannalaugar, a popular
base camp for hiking in the south-central
highlands, where they operated a store—
first out of a car, then out of an old bus. “In
winter we were alone, just the two of us on
Æðey, but in summer in the highlands we’d
see 100,000 people pass by. It was a lot of
work. In the early days, people simply told
us what was missing, and so we would order
those items,” Nína recounts. After 15 sum-
mers, they decided to call it quits.
SMALL ToWN LIVING
In 2005, Nína and Smári, who met at art
school in Hannover in 1994, decided to
leave Æðey and settle in Ísafjörður. Nína,
originally from Moscow but a resident of
Iceland for almost 20 years, says living and
working in the small community, popula-
tion 2,600, has its benefits. “In Moscow
and Hannover things were different. My
personal feeling is that in a small town like
Ísafjörður, you can play a more important
role in the community but it also means
that you can’t wait around for other people
to do things. You can and have to get up and
do it yourself.”
Smári, who grew up on a farm in South
Iceland, also highlights the advantages
of small town living. “On the streets in
Hannover, I never ran into the same person
twice,” he comments, adding that living out-
side Reykjavík has actually benefited their
work, contrary to what some might think.
“We have always been able to find interesting
projects. I haven’t ever had to actively search
for contacts in Ísafjörður,” Smári says.
Some of those projects involve drawing
houses and different parts of the region,
printed as maps, leaflets and postcards.
Ísafjörður is a feast for lovers of architecture,
he says as he guides Áslaug, the photographer,
and I through the town’s colorful streets one
chilly February evening.
“It’s like a cocktail—all the different styles
of architecture which exist in Iceland, the
foreign influences from the Danes and others
over the years, can be found right here. It’s
like a museum,” he says passionately.
In 2012, Smári had his first illustrated
map of Ísafjörður published, detailing the
town’s mix of building styles. With so many
changes—the form of the spit has changed
dramatically over the last century due to
landfills, and continues to do so—he plans
to draw a new map every year. “It will be
interesting to be able to compare them in
20 years, to see how the town has changed.”
ExPERIENcING NATuRE
With their love of nature and healthy living,
spending time in the outdoors is an impor-
tant part of the couple’s lifestyle. Smári only
discovered the joys of cycling two years ago
and now promotes the activity as a great
way to experience nature. He mapped out
possible routes in the West Fjords, publishing
a guide last year of day trips which traverse
lowland and winding coastal roads, steep and
rugged tracks, and even rivers.
Despite the rapid increase in visitors to
Iceland and the West Fjords Smári remains
optimistic that the region will hold on to its
treasures. “I find it funny to see all the people
from the cruise ships on the streets here but
there is still enough room. There are still
places where you can feel like you are alone
in the world—and you don’t have to go to
[remote region] Hornstrandir for that.” 

“i realized that when you ride a bicycle, when
you travel at that speed, you see the country in
a different way—you see, hear and smell nature,”
says Smári, whose car is mostly left parked in
the driveway.