I have always drawn – as long as I can remember. On everything, all the time. There are lots of pen and pencil drawings on the furniture of my childhood home… underneath the furniture, that is. As I lay under beds, under cupboards, under tables, I was drawing. I don’t remember much of this myself, but what I do remember is my drawing nook. Mom and dad tore out the shelves in one of the windowless pantries by the kitchen, and put in a table leaf. And there I sat, most of the time, after day-care. I drew and I told stories. The urge and the passion to draw are still as strong today. It is the same feeling. It is a vital need, a necessity.”
Stina Wirsén was born in 1968. She graduated from Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in 1992 and has since then been working as an illustrator, author and scriptwriter. She has created several books with her mother Carin Wirsén – for example those about Ruth and Knut, for which they got Expressen's Children's Book Prize Heffaklumpen. Both the Brokiga-books, created by Stina, Carin and Stina’s sister Anna Hörling, and her own series Vem (Who) are modern classics, loved by kids and adults alike. Stina has received the Elsa Beskow Plaque among numerous other awards. She has exhibited at, amongst other places, the National Museum, Konstnärshuset and Sven-Harrys Art Museum in Stockholm, Bror Hjorths Hus in Uppsala, the Swedish Embassy in Washington and Tokyo, Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and Bologna Children's Book Fair.
Photo © Carl Thorborg
