Writing is mainly about creating something out of nothing. It is the same with drawing – on an empty surface, a figure, a landscape, or just a shape should appear. No wonder then that it can sometimes feel hopeless. There is not even a drawing to refer to, no assembly instructions, and no formulation of goals from a high place. Every time it’s like starting from scratch.
It is not without the fact that you sometimes think about your career choice…
Right now I’m in a period where it’s hard to start writing and even hard to pick up where I’ve already written. Even texts that have begun end at the same empty, white surface on which the unwritten text is supposed to appear. And the choices are endless.
Which direction should the text take? A puny sentence can lead the text in a direction I cannot then turn around. It is not possible to make a U-turn when writing or drawing. If you end up wrong, it’s usually just a matter of starting from the beginning again, or at least where you last started. The eraser is a tool you should not despise.
But in my image creation, I have at least learned that what I once did, I can do again. That is to say that when I am sitting here and feel that I cannot write what I want to write, I can still think that it will come back. The desire returns one day. I call on Confidence to sit by my side. Everything will be fine, says Confidence calmly. And I believe him.
I open my newly purchased Book of longing by Leonard Cohen and read his poems, several of which later became songs. He worked like that – the poet who was also an artist and songwriter. I sink into the perfect rhythm of the poems and marvel at how he often manages to rhyme without you even noticing as if it were an obvious choice of words. That’s how a true poet rhymes! I want to tell someone, but few care about rhymed poetry these days. So I keep my delight in Cohen’s verse art to myself.
Only Confidence nods quietly, smiles, and reads on by my side.
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Mattias Kvick is a freelance cartoonist, artist, illustrator, and writer. Much of what he does is created in his studio in central Alingsås, Sweden, but the writing usually takes place in front of the computer in a small messy corner of the home in the same city. Mattias has worked with people with disabilities for over thirty years but in recent years has completely devoted himself to various freelance jobs. Mattias has appeared in a number of books as an illustrator, including the children’s book “Jag brukar vinka till en sten”, by Karin Askerin, Idus publishing house, and “Tiden är människornas ängel”, by Anna Widerberg, Visto publishing house. Since 2014, he has regularly drawn news pictures for Alingsås’ newspaper under the heading Kvicktänkt. During winter 2021/Spring 2022, he was represented with four works on Nordic Salon for contemporary art at Dunker’s Cultural Center in Helsingborg. In the fall of 2020, Mattias debuted as an author at Lange Publisher with the children’s book Rockrose Resort where he created both text and illustrations. In 2022 a Swedish audiobook of Rockrose Resort was released with him as the narrator. He is part of team Lange and works with the production of our releases as an editor among other things.
