Monday, June 25, 2012

Maja Lindberg - Curiosity, Fairy Tales and Astrid Lindgren

Maja Lindberg lives and works in Lomma, a small seaside town in the south of Sweden, where she runs her own company, Majali Design & Illustration, specializing in fine art prints. Her illustrations are mostly inspired by fairy tales and mystery, she loves combining colors and texturtes, creating a certain mood. With tradeyourtalent she speaks about curiosity, creative ideas that come at night and why she would like to illustrate one of Astrid Lindgren's books.
Maja Lindberg

Can you tell us a little about your creative process?

Many times the best ideas come at night when I have trouble falling asleep and hundreds of things are going around in my head. I try to focus and a picture builds up in my head. I finally fall asleep and in the morning I start composing the picture.

Maja Lindberg

A lot of my inspiration comes from fairy tales, dreams and myths. I start by sketching the creature/person/animal with pencil and paper, when I’m satisfied with the illustration I scan it and continue the work on computer. It’s here where all the colors and shades are made and actually my favorite part in the process. I love combining colors and the textures, together they’ll form the special mood that I’m looking for. I want my illustrations to be mysterious and dreamy and hopefully they’ll bring some curiosity to the viewer who creates their own fairytale/story when looking at it.

Maja Lindberg

Do you have favorite artists?Is there an artist you always wanted to cooperate with?

One of my most favorite artists is John Bauer, a swedish illustrator who lived around the turn of 1900. I love the mystery with the dark forest and the light that he so ably captures.

Maja Lindberg

Other artists that have inspired me are Elsa Beskow, Marit Törnqvist, Shaun Tan, Sven Nordqvist and Tim Burton.

If Astrid Lindgren still had lived I would’ve loved to illustrate one of her books. Her stories have the ability to catch childhood memories.

Maja Lindberg

Did you always want to be an artist? Could you imagine working in another profession?

When I was small I wanted to be an actress, but when growing up I understood that I wasn’t that good at acting so I went to art school and became a ceramic artist. I worked in my pottery studio for five years, it was hard to make a living out of it, so I  got an education in IT instead and started to work as a web assistant. But the lust of creating has always been there, so it felt natural when I decided to start over again and begin with illustration and art. Right now I'm very happy that I took that decision and I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to work with something that I love doing. But sometimes I still dream of being an actress.

Maja Lindberg

Visit Maja Lindberg's website Maja Lindberg
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