- Are you the mother of the Swedish artists?
I was dropping Trouble 2 off in the Primary room at Valley School in the morning one of the first weeks of the school year fall 1996. And there was this woman putting me the question, pointing at the wall, wallpapered with my son’s drawings. Trouble 1’s 4th grade room was the same.
This is a post by itself, but just very briefly: there were these two Swedish boys new at the school, not speaking the language. And the incredible teachers immediately found their talents and gave them an identity and self confidence in this foreign world. They became the Swedish artists. And the woman who pointed this out to me was Terry who came to be one of our crucially important Seattle people still loving my children like they are one of her own. Hanging out with Trouble 2 and Audrey this May.
I wasn’t aware of my sons being especially artistic. They drew all the time. We provided them left over papers from work, I brought the endless telegram out prints from the TV station, perfect for covering the kitchen floor drawing on the back of them. And of course pencils, crayons and water color.
On our first Seattle stay in 1993 we found the perfect art kits at the Seattle Art Museum store. Regular size ones to carry around and the big one kept on the dining room table in our Juanita home. Paper and colors neatly organized, I wanted one myself! The smaller kits always in the car while on the road. Finally in Missoula the floor in the back seat of our little Chevy Cavalier completely covered with drawings produced during the long and hot trip.
I don’t know if my sons were more than regularly talented or if what we did was creating an environment where they had access to the the right tools so that they could playfully practice, practice, practice. That’s the eternal question, right?
Anyway, they went on drawing and painting. I don’t know why, but somewhere around 5th grade or so, Trouble 2 basically stopped. I was sad that he did. Maybe it was there and then he started to make his own choices and figure out that road of his own he has been keeping since then.
Trouble 1 moved on from art kits to art school after high school. And he has continued practicing, practicing, practicing, inspired by his favorite artists and illustrators Greg Manchess, Vanessa Lemen, Phil Hale och James Gurney.
One of Trouble 1’s goals for his professional life has been to publish a graphic novel. During winter 2016 he started working on Ellna, squeezing it in between assignments. Ellna is the fantasy story about the adventures of a little girl in an ancient Scandinavia who comes to understand the world is much more mysterious, frightening and magical than she could ever imagine.
A year ago Trouble 1visited Stockholm International Comics Festival, bringing some prints from Ellna. One of them was left behind on a coffee shop table. Back in Umeå again he had an email from the publisher Epix, expressing interest in publishing Ellna!
It’s been an extremely intense year for the artist and now to be author Trouble 1. Producing a hundred pages containing many hundred more paintings. And two weeks ago he came over here proudly presenting the first copy fresh released from the printing house. A beautiful hard copy book where every page, due to Trouble 1’s layout, is an art piece of itself.
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