@josefinatengvall

Instagram: @josefinatengvall  

1. Whats your story? Where are you from?

I grew up in a small community called Boxholm in Östergötland, Sweden. I am the oldest of four siblings. The house I grew up in had a large garden with a great diversity of species, which has inspired me yet today. I often wandered around and studied the colors and shapes of the flowers and escaped into imaginative inner worlds.

2. Tell us about your aestethetic?

My expression is multifaceted and bold, colorful, playful, rhythmic, abstract and experimental.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I like to paint on large canvases, often large as big walls, using improvisation as a method. It gives me the ability to rhythmically use my whole body and thus be absorbed by painting on a deeper level. I like to use oilpaint on large canvases because of the pigments nuance, depth and clarity. I often alternate this technical approach with a less technical technique, such as collage or bricollage. This way of working fits my impulsiveness and versatility. When I work with collage, I use materials that surrounds me, for example debris. I try through this, to free myself from the rules and ideas about how everything should look like or be.

4. What is your artistic process like?

Periods of many days or weeks of calm interspersed with very active periods. During periods of outer stillness there is going on an inner mental process where I sort memories and experiences and break them down into inner images or visions. In the beginning of the process I often try to stay open to what comes up and make a lot of fast sketches. I see it as some kind of investigation where I allow everything in form of expression, technique or material to appear. After a period of a few days or weeks, I analyze and make some selections and in the end I make some final pieces of work. However, the result is not as important to me as the investigation.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

I get a lot of my inspiration from nature, and how the nature is constructed. It can be about the construction of a leafe or a flower. Even shapes and colors in the nature inspires me and how it all are connected. While I study nature's designs technically, I mix it together with my own feelings that I get from experiences in the nature or from being around people. These things can come out as surreal, humorous or playful elements in my art.

6. What role does art play in your life?

How does it change the way you view the world? Art has taught me to look at life with patience and that contemplation in itself is important because then new perspectives appear and that this makes one grow as a person. The art to express one self in pictures means a lot to me mentally because I can then express deep feelings or sensations of the things that I find hard to put into words, and that makes me feel less frustrated.

7. Where did you study?

I have studied seven years of artistic preparatory school with focus on painting and drawing. After some years of doubting my ability of working with art I finally decided to study Textile and I completed my Final project in Master of Fine Arts with Textile Designas orientation at the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås, Sweden in June 2015.

8. Where do you see your self in five years? Working in an agency?

I think I will be working as a freelance designer/artist preferreable for an agency.

9. What about in ten?

In ten years I would like to have my own studio and company with a boutique/showroom where I can inspire people and maybe also have courses to teach others about art. I would like to work in colaboration with others in various project, from art exibitions to interior design projects for public areas.

10. What do you hope to achive with your art?

I want to become more confident in my expression and stop doubting so much about myself and my ability and then inspire others to find their creativity and expression, either through my art, or by teaching others to create.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: What is your favourite food?

I like all kinds of food, preferably organic ingredients. A variety of Swedish home cooking diet, Mediterranean and Oriental is wonderful. Examples of a favorite dish is fresh mussels in wine sauce and garlic.

12. Favourite book?

I like to read nonfiction, mainly in art and spirituality.

13. Favourite genre of music?

Blues, jazz, hip hop and classical music. I also like all kinds of experimental music.

14. What are your hobbies?

Interiour design, cooking, walking in the nature, being with dogs, listening to music and meditate.

15. If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?

Psychologist, interior designer or a teacher