DAYDREAMS

Mickey Mouse has been a part of our family for as long as I can remember. In addition to the annual visits, a 20 cm Mickey doll made of wire, leather, and felt hung from my grandmother’s spinning Bakelite phone cord, gently bobbing up and down throughout my childhood. Around the year 1900, some of our relatives emigrated to Chicago. While a few of them successfully built new lives in the promised land, my great-grandmother had to return to Luleå around 1905, ashamed and struggling, with three children in tow and one more on the way. Her husband had squandered all their hard-earned money through drinking and had passed away. But then, a package arrived from relatives who had stayed in the U.S. It contained the very same fabric Mickey doll, and now, I am the third generation to care for it. To me, Mickey represents wisdom, security, and the essence of childhood. You’ll find Mickey in all of my paintings, in one form or another—sometimes visible, sometimes hidden.

2022

Lidingö