– I grew up in a small town called Uddevalla, on the west coast. When I was little I had a school diary where I wrote I wanted to become an animal carer, or an artist. But I was allergic to furry animals, and so I had to completely erase the first choice.
Crafts, painting and sowing has always been an interest of mine, but earlier it was just as a hobby. Maybe because I was often told that being an artist wasn’t a real profession. I guess I didn’t allow myself to dream big.
I have worked in healthcare, retail and restaurants before. The money I saved went to traveling, I traveled as much as I possibly could! But I was just searching in life, and I felt like I hadn’t really found what was right for me. It was only when I moved to Göteborg that the pieces started falling into place. Then and there, I decided to take a year off, to do whatever pleased me, even if it didn’t lead to anything. And so I started studying at KV Art Academy, and a whole new world opened up to me!
Then I started feeling like I wanted to do this every day! Later I applied to Göteborg Art Academy, where I studied graphic design. Among other things, we learned different techniques for printing illustrations. I published my thesis on Instagram, and it spread like wildfire.
Shops started calling, asking to buy my designs. Suddenly I was doing what I had dreamt of as a child. I started my own company and sold my illustrations as posters. So cool! And since then it hasn’t stopped.
Throughout the years I have done exhibitions at fairs, and completed other kinds of creative projects. Everything from wall paintings and illustrations to advertisements. clothes, porcelain and wallpaper.
– Detailed, a little mystical, comical and imaginative. I am really detailed in my work, that’s what my old art teacher used to say. I can sit for hours with just tiny, tiny details and a 0.2mm pencil. I seldom feel like I’m finished, and can work with an illustration for weeks, even months. Which of course is both good and bad.
Sometimes I wish I could be happy with simple lines, or just paint something abstract. But I don’t think that’s for me at the end of the day. To just immerse myself in one picture is something that I love, that’s my kind of meditation.
– I love being out in nature and take lots of inspiration from it. Ever since my childhood I’ve had a great imagination and the ability to see shapes and creatures in everything around me.
The cracks in a big rock make it look like a mountain troll, the leaves on a branch create the shape of a bird, and so on. This is something that I carry with me in my art. To play with my imagination and combine different motifs to create new fantastic creatures.
People and personalities are also very exciting. That’s how my series “Animal instinct” came about, where I combined personalities in humans and animals.
When we had Ebba, she really turned our whole world upside down.
– When we had Ebba, she really turned our whole world upside down. Before her, I had a picture that I would work on as always, and maybe I would try to start working full time again. I always liked to work a lot, so the plan was to only be on leave for 6 months or so.
But ever since the first day with this beautiful little girl, I didn’t want to do anything else but stay at home with her! I ended up staying on leave for 18 months, and just working calmly when I had a little bit of free time. I worked on commissioned projects in the evenings sometimes, and I only went to my studio about two days a month. Of course I brought Ebba along with me.
So creating new poster motifs were just on pause for that period of time. But Ebba gave me lots of inspiration for other types of creativity. Suddenly I was creating a wall painting in her room, I built a baby gym, sew stuffed animals, made balloon lamps and lots of other things. Anything for her to get a really nice space.
Being on parent leave was so important to me in so many ways. Especially the possibility of spending so much time with my new family. But it also gave me time to feel what I wanted to do in my art in the future. Since 2013 I have been working with illustrations for posters, which really has been so much fun. But lately I feel like I want to broaden my horizons and work within other areas too.
I applied to the decorative painting course at the Tibro Craft Academy and got in! Although I have done some decorative painting in the past, I want to learn more, especially about old techniques and crafts. Now I've been studying there for a little over two months and the plan going forward is to also be able to work a little bigger and with brushes, in combination with making posters and illustrating motifs!
My next collection will be very different from the designs I've created so far, at the moment I'm actually sketching new children's designs. All thanks to Ebba.
So in summary, parenthood has really affected my role as an artist. It has given me new values and also set me on a completely new course.
– It was so much fun! And so hard! Drawing a baby for a wide audience that needs to be able to relate to it, while at the same time being very neutral, that wasn’t very easy. And then also, drawing with simple, clear, black lines, so that it later can be turned into vector graphics which are scalable in print and not "hiding" behind thin pencil lines and shadows was difficult for me. These types of lines become so direct and telling.
But it was really great and technically educational. I think we managed to create a really cute little baby in the end.
– Gosh, where do I start? There’s so much that I want to do!
Something I’ve been thinking about for a very long time is to make a children’s book… I think I’d both write it and illustrate it. That’s definitely on my to do list. It would also be fantastic to work with set design. Create backdrops and environments for the stage theater, or for tv and films.
I get a lot of inspiration from my education at the moment and that’s why I’d like to work more with decorative painting. Like painting stairways, restoring churches and old houses. That sort of thing. It would even be fun to incorporate decorative painting in my own art, put it in an exhibition and do something out of the box. Maybe that would be a nice twist, to distort old motifs and create something insane, something crazy, but with the same technique.
See? There are so many fun projects I’d like to do in the future!