This time we’ll take it slow

I have a fast forward tendency.

I need there to be some kind of forces outside of me to hold back this constant rush towards finished results. I’ve come to realize that I’m often working for the applause, working for the gratification I will get after passing the finish line.

This goes for every aspect of my life. Work, relationships, you name it.

Example: the second day I meet a guy that I really like I start seeing visions of our beautiful loving life together. Our future. His hand upon my pregnant belly. (I don’t even think I want a child, so this is of course entirely to blame on my darned hormones) I see us sitting on that porch of our little house, in that hamock, looking out upon the sun setting in the water down by the cliffs. A cup of tea in my hand. His shoulder against mine. Rocking slowly back and forth, as we drag deep breaths of fresh country air. Silently looking at eachother with a soft familliar smile…

I’m such a dreamer sometimes. Sorry for that little debauchery. 

This book writing/comic-creating is thus a real challenge for me.

I see myself so clearly with the finished book in my hand. I see myself doing interviews and signings, see myself selling it to all kinds of places. Talking about myself and my art, planning for the next big project, working on book number two, and trying out new processes on book number three. I’m enjoying the now, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that imagining the future comes very easily for me.

So to get there as quickly as possible I consider my self to be finished as soon as the first draft is written.  

“Temper while the iron is hot”, as the old saying goes.

And the iron is hot right now. The fire in me is rrraging, my eyes burn with desire for everything. The hunger is awake. 

But this is also the dangerous phase before I crash.

So the other night I attended a party where I had a very giving talk with K. He said that there could be time for slowing down. That taking a break from work is okay. That there is sometimes in an artists life a time for just taking long walks and watching all of your favourite movies for a month.

That this would not be considered a failure upon my part, but more a needed break from pushing too hard, pushing almost to the breaking point. And I don’t think I want to break just yet. I’ve been there before, you know… Broken down that is. And I’m just so much more together now, since I picked up all of those pieces of me and put them back together again.

So what I will do now is to shift focus for a while.

I will work on a text for Bild & Bubbla

I can see a future for me and BoB, where I’d write some kind of a Frida-column for every issue… It would probably become the most popular part of the whole magazine. (ego fixation) I would write in that personal and insightful way, that I master so well, about comics and art and life… (did you notice the fast forward tendency there..? hehe, I just can’t help myself now, can I…) 

And I will draw or paint for the joy of it without thinking of results. If K says it’s okay, then I can heed that advice, ’cause he’s got wisdom and truth in his eyes.

osammanhängande NovemberFrida?

Nu regnar det i Malmö.

 

Jag har gjort en serie som jag inte lägger upp här.

Inte än i alla fall.

Kanske om ett tag.

När den fått vila lite. Just nu är den för aktuell.

Det har redan slutat regna… 

efter regn kommer solsken. Det vet alla.

——————————————————————————-

It’s raining in Malmö now.

I drew a comic that I wont post here.

Not yet anyway.

Maybe after some time has passed.

When it’s rested for a while. Right now it’s too current.

It’s allready stopped raining.

After rain comes sunshine. Everybody knows that.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

My roomie L and mr T made a painting a couple of days ago.

That painting is upsetting me.

Still.

I try not to think about it.

If I think about it I get like nervous or something.

It’s just too good.

It has everything that I love in art. Stuff poking out of it that you can pull at to make other places move… and a really beautiful quote, about friendship gone lost… and the colours… and the motiffs… JesustttfcknChrist.

It’s too much to have been created here! in this ordinary apartement, where I live and brush my teath!

And to think it was created by two close friends of mine?

It’s just… humbling.

I don’t even know how to relate to them right now. I do have a crazy fan-girl side to me, but it would be weird to let it out in front of them. But I can’t shake this feeling…this feeling that I’m hanging out with the new Frida y Diego. (mr T is cuter than Diego though)

And so the story unfolds again.

Another rewrite! Had a meeting with Stina today and had her read the new ending for the book.

She was not impressed. She was still wondering what the book was about. I sat down in my studio with a somewhat hollow and uncertain feeling in my cheast.

Stina came after me, said that she felt uncertain about how to advice me. I understand her. We needed to bring in a third party into our relationship. (I’m the guy at the left…)

So come Thursday I shall have Josefine Svenske read it when she’s here at Comic art school (as a substitute teacher for Gunnar Krantz, who is currently bone broken and lying at home watching bad films and eating heaps of  licorice (I do not know this for a fact, it is only a suspicion of mine)).

Anyway the meeting with Stina did inspire me to rewrite it agian, so now it’s a story about running away from your problems. It was about that before too, but now it’s more of a clear theme in the book.

This will be a magnificent masterwork! The first of many!

And you will love it.

 As do I.

My hand is aching again! :D

My hand is aching from drawing again! Yeeeyyy! I feel like such a good girl! ^_^  Today was an awesome productive day! ^_^ Happy happy joy joy!

And I’ve been listening to “Me and Bobby McGee” over and over again for the last hour.

A lot of different versions, but the best one is by far with mr Kris Kristofferson.

He’s got that slow mellow tone to both his voice and the arrangement (and also a nice beard wich is allways a plus in my book).

Johnny Cash beats it up too much (cause it’s up-beat, get it?! beats-it-up! up-beat! 😀 … I killed it before it was even funny didn’t I… d’oh.)

I just came to think of something… this guy J, the guy who widened my view on country music, he reminds me of that film… A love song for Bobby Long.

I want to see that film again… Scarlet Johansson is so maddahfahckin beautiful… gaaawwwd…

Yeah yeah yeah, ‘nough said about the sexys!

Now,  some proof of my hard work 😀

one finished page (you saw it the other day when it was half finished…)

And one almost finished page (pg 2 of the ending):

I’m planning on drawing all those little dots on the ground in the last panel tonight. After that I can let myself go home. Tomorrow is 24-hour comic-day at Comic Art School. I’ll probably be here working on my book.

Funny thing about this page: Nina looks like Quagmyer in the fourth panel… hähähä… the sillyness.

The beginning of the end

Now I have an ending for my book. 

Three pages from Bokmässan i Göteborg and an epilogue of two pages following that.

Below you can see the first page of the end. It isn’t fully inked yet (as you can see?), so what you’re getting is a bit of work in progress here… I think I need to get some sleep now. It’s late and I’m feelin so tired. having trouble sleeping.

( my personal favorite on this page is Ninas (my) puffy face in the second panel, the cheeks mooshed against the knees like that, pouting her lips a bit… cute! ^_^ )

Oh yeah, translation of the barely readable text:

Göteborg Book fair 2008

I’m hiding

… ha ha ha…

Karin and Käbi…

They’re talking and laughing.

It’s nice to hear them. In this context I’m not small and weak anymore.

Why haven’t I wanted to talk to anyone about my modeling days for all these years?

Andreas and Irma… How can they make me so scared?

Why do I feel shame and failure when I see them?

I googled my name (yes, I am very self centered)

This was one of the stranger sites… I have no idea what it says, but they clearly put my name on their site… If anyone out there speaks… russian? polish? what ever it is… you’re more than welcome to send me a translation. 🙂

And also I have had some friends ask me about the pathetic and extremely sucky film I had a role in when I was 15 years old, well, this site has a trailer for it. As you can see from the trailer, it’s a halfass atempt at a thriller.

My contribution to this production was horrible. I’m actually fake-crying! GAH! Horrible!

Just so you know, if you ever see it, I am sooo much better now! This was b-e-f-o-r-e I went to drama school.

Anyway, I like the mix of actress/ comic artist/ manic psycho fan girl -hits.

I’ve never wanted to label myself as one thing only. That’s probably got to do as much with self preservation as it has with that noble sense of freedom I wish to radiate. If I don’t title myself as anything I can’t fail at becoming it. BUT! Failure isn’t failure until you accept it as such! And I shall keep striving until my goals are achieved.

I shall let go of fears and self preservation!

I shall let my self go,

just throw myself off of the cliffs

and down into the darkness of uncertainty,

for with bravery and strenght

a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g can be obtained.

When I don’t work on the book but still want to draw

Yesterday me and Lullis had an ultimate bonding day.

We got lulliga in a bar. höhö… I crack myself up. Lullig Lullis…  ahhh… (‘s this lady still a bit drunk? naaahhh, jess’  n a v’rrry guood muood…) ^_^

Anyway, we sat there from 15.00 in the afternoon until 00.30 at night. 9.5 hours.

aaaand…  weeell, let’s just say that we got to talk about a loooot of things… hähähä.

But of course, being artists, as we are,  we kept our fingers buzzy too

by sketching away in our sketch books.

This is me and Miriam in Athens before I got all freaked out from smoking.

This one is called Ful fot, which is swedish for Ugly foot. A self-explanatory title… the big toe’s on the wrong side… and all in all just… ugly feet, you know.

I want someone to read my book-sketches again.

Preferably someone not involved in Serieskolan, I think.

Like maybe mom…

or Ullis… don’t know.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

And also, I really want to see this at Malmö Operan.

It seems as though Isabella wont be able to come down here for a visit before spring time,

so I’m up for grabs, you guys!

Who wants to go?

Come on, don’t you wanna see the inevitable fall of a man who wanted it all, with me? And also some blood, smoke, vampires and whores? What more do you need really?! (Oh god… those people in that youtube clip really scared me… can’t seem to shake this uneasy queezy feeling…brrr!)

Just give me a poke if you want to see it!

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

I’ve been you-tubing clips from The Office (US version) and found this…

Oh Dwight. ❤

Dearest dearest Dwight.

You beautiful creature…

A tour of Comic Art School

I just have to state that OF COURSE I HAVEN’T EVER SMOKED IN ANY WINDOW. That would be insane! I would never do anything like that. never. Cause that’s not allowed. Further more I wouldn’t post a vid where I confess to it on the internet.

This video is purely a work of fiction and any resemblance between the events or characters portrayed in it and persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Haha, the memory card in my camera filled up unexpectedly, so you wont get to see how it ends! Aaahhh, the suspense! It’s killing you! Hahaha!

haha

I’m reading a newfound friends blog.

I’ve begun backtracking it in some semi-random order, listening to the music he’s posted there, enjoying his likes and dislikes

and I just came across a post I thought I’d share with you guys:

(translation in pink below)

Det här är väl ändå bara för romantiskt:
Titta bara:
Sonny Graham fick ett nytt hjärta av en man som tagit sitt liv.
När han sedan träffade donatorns änka uppstod kärlek – och de gifte sig.
Nu har även Sonny Graham begått självmord.
(från aftonbladet.se)

Isn’t this just too romantic:

Sonny Graham received a new heart from a man who killed himself.

When he later on met the donors widow they fell in love – and got married.

Now Sonny Graham has killed himself too.

(from aftonbladet.se)

It made me laugh out loud! Yeah yeah, that could be considered offensive or whatever, but it’s just such an absuuurd story!