Close friends to Karie and Børge Birch tells:

On a Sunday, back in 1965, we took of for St. Magleby, which we had picked out to be the place where our house should be located. We had, you know, looked at a house in this area earlier on, but it, unfortunately, was sold right under our nose. The real estate broker had told us that this is the home of an artist, so we were excited about getting to see it and to look it over.The moment we entered the garden, with its two birch trees as its sole vegetation, we were received by Børge and Karie and their two lovely children, who were playing on the rear lawn.When we came into the rooms, we saw paintings hanging everywhere, one place had a bright red wall for a background. We could see right away that the paintings had to have been done by children. Then somewhat later, driving home, our hearts were still palpitating from the wonderful experience of meeting that family. We marveled at the fact that the children obviously came first and were prioritized to such high degree that only their drawings and paintings hung on all the walls, and all of the pictures were skillfully framed as well. We became so inspired by that experience that we rushed out to shop for paints, brushes and canvases so that our children could also gain the same well-being from painting as Karie and Børge's children did.

We ended up buying the house, of course, and not many days passed before Børge showed up to greet us. They themselves had bought another house in Dragør. We started out telling all about how surprised we had been to see a family which to so great an extent gave their children full opportunity to develop and mature their skills according to their abilities, and even hung their things on the wall.

Børge, of course, enjoyed very much hearing this, but, indeed, it triggered momentarily, as it were, his urge to begin telling us about Jorn, the painter, for it was Jorn, nonetheless, and the COBRA-movement which fostered those ideas. They decorated walls. All of that was new to us, and we did not become much wiser.

Having met them was a start of a long friendship with that genial man and his very lovely wife, and we often remind each other of how we were introduced to contemporary and modern art.