AT: Where are you from and how/why you start engaging to art?

JS: I’m from a small place in Sweden. I always enjoyed painting and drawing, and in high school my art teacher said: “You should study art”. So I did.

AT: When did it become serious?

JS: In the Art Academy I guess. A whole building full of people making art all day long, talkingabout art, reading about art… Of course you’re gonna take it seriously.

AT: Are there any person that have been significant in your progression as an artist?

JS: My teachers and fellow students at the academy and nowadays my friends and studio mates.

Leap wade sink swim run fly creep, installation.

AT: What’s your first approach to the work? Where does your process start?

JS: I always get these images in my head when I try to sleep. All the different paintings that I want to make. I try to write down the ideas, but translated into words when half asleep isn’t the easiest to understand later on. It can be a sentence like: ”Landscape like summer rain begin brown grey weak colors then sprinkle with fun colors, if possible, standing black with sticky bottom edge looking out over steep hill blue black purple, lightly painted backlit with red light”. Then in my studio I lay a big canvas on the floor and walk around on it for awhile, gathering the guts to starts.

AT: What are your favorite tools and materials for working?

JS: Rubber gloves, scrapers, brushes and cloths. I paint with oil paint and a lot of linseed oil on polyester canvas.

AT: Do you leave your work open to interpretation? Or do you think the viewer should engage with your work in a specific way?

JS: I don’t think you can control how people see your art, but I always give my works titles which gives the viewer a hint.

AT: How do you feel while you are working? You think of the final result?

JS: I feel curious, whats the next step? Sometimes I feel really devastated, like how could this hideous work come out of me? And sometimes, rarely though, euphoria, or is it hybris? (Hahah) maybe a combination. I try to be humble to the process, and sensitive about what the painting needs.

To each pulsating location, oil on canvas, 196x230cm, 2017.

AT: How do you understand when a work is finished?

JS: When it is something on its own. It just stands there.

AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from? Do you find inspiration outside or it’s all inside you?

JS: Both. I think inspiration can be found everywhere, what ever interest you. Like a bad tv show, a song, a poem, a walk in the park, an old graffiti, a memory of a lake you once swam in, how your body moves as you cross a muddy field or shaves your legs in the bath.

AT: Do you think art can be learned or it is something innate?

JS: It can be learned, if you are openminded.

AT: There are any artists that influenced your works? Why?

JS: Many artist. Peder Balke, Edvard Munch, Robert Smithson, Hilma af Klint, Hanna Ryggen, HelenFrankenthaler, Marlene Dumas, Ann Edholm.. Artists who’s work made me see and understand artin a new way or touched me deeply. I saw a big exhibition with Marlene Dumas at Tate in London,and I felt like the paintings where staring at me as much as I stared at them. It was intense. Also Iwould say Munch has inspired me a lot, the atmosphere, the colours, the way the paint almost poursthrough his images like waves.

By biting and creeping she pursues her way, oil on canvas, 270x196cm, 2017.

The failure is a tiny spot where saggy soil is waiting, oil on canvas, 270x196cm, 2018.

AT: How important is for you the role of social media?

JS: It’s just for fun. I do love seeing studio shots and works in process from fellow colleagues.

AT: What’s your opinion about the contemporary art system nowadays from your point of view as an artist?

JS: There are so many different systems I think. I don’t know what to say about the global art scene, other than it makes me wanna go to bed and stay there ha ha. But the art world is also full of amazing people, artists that help each other, form communities or share experiences.

AT: What do you find to be the most challenging or daunting thing about pursuing art? What is the most rewarding part of working as an artist?

JS: The most challenging part is not to be too judgmental towards yourself. One has to remember that its ok to make shitty work sometimes. Also the economical part is stressful, but I think I’m pretty good at ignoring that. The most rewarding part is when you get surprised! Suddenly in a painting you find something, both familiar and new at the same time. You know in what direction to go.

AT: What do you do outside of painting?

JS: I run a gallery together with my friends, called Alta Art Space. Other than that I read books, watch Netflix, walk around the city, meeting friends.

AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?

JS: I hope I will be able to work a lot with my art. I want to have enough time in my studio, exploring my every idea, how silly they might be.