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Why are there so many animals in my art?
It’s actually not animals, it’s more like images of animals.
I want to make art that is as natural as possible
and the most common themes in art are animals and nature.
And I’ve stayed there ever since.
I’ve never had animals of my own, I’m bit allergic to animals.
I am more of a concrete person.
I’ts actually quite incomprehensible that I became an artist.
I come from a straight line of auto mechanics and soldiers.
I’m sort of the black sheep in the family… I’m really bad at repairing cars and stuff like that.
But the artist’s profession is sort of a mixture between an auto mechanic and a soldier.
The studio is the workshop and the gung-ho attitude is the soldier.
Are you coming, Ernst?
My profession is a bit special because you actually don’t have a job.
You either work all the time or not at all.
it's like Pippi Longstocking, you never have summer holidays or weekends etc.
When you work with glass it’s much more a collaborational work than with other materials
You’re reliant on skilled craftsmen. It’s like a football team,
and basically, all different types of players are equally important.
When I started thinking about doing something for Kosta Boda lots of ideas come flowing out.
Many started as doodles while I spoke to them on the phone.
And most of them have to do with the intersection of water, glass and animals.
Glass as material is very challenging, it’s like sculpturing in water,
you need to be fast and a bit lucky.
It doesn’t suit me that well because I don’t really like water and try to avoid swimming.
I have worked with glass in Murano, a bit in Böhmen, but never in Sweden.
When Swedish Open wanted a prize for their tennis tournament
the idea come up of making something in glass with Kosta Boda.
The collaboration was very successful so as a result I started making glass for Kosta Boda.
I really like changing materials in my art.
I have worked with writing books and music and things,
and the advantage of that is that you never get used to things.
You get that beginner’s feeling when you make tons of mistakes that you can use later.
So I like being a beginner.