An introduction

Who am I ?

Hi. I’ve been getting a lot of questions and also, I keep reading that you need to be personable and show ‘ the person behind the art*.’ It’s of essence to be genuine and authentic. Hehe.

*More like illustration in my case

Sketch of Canada Geese. Sometimes this illustrates how my head feels.

I was born and grew up in the very north of Sweden. I remember vividly when minty green, turquoise and neon colours arrived in fashion, in shops.

So…For you who don’t know … I’m Monika Forsberg, an illustrator, a former animator, a once upon a time math whiz. I live in London with my husband, two children and a cat and a dog. I find it hard to know what facts are interesting and what really bore you to death.

My friend Sara and I was maybe 18-19 years old and we wanted to travel to Ireland. I worked weekends at Bryggeriet, a bar in my hometown. I did the washing up. There was a lot of washing up, the conveyor belt kept overflowing w dirty dishes. I also cleaned the drains when they got clogged up and I cooked burgers when the chef left at midnight. It was my job to cook burgers with a fried egg on top, until 3 am. I once turned off all the fridges in the kitchen by mistake.

However…Traveling to Ireland was too expensive, so when summer came we had to ditch that plan, we only had enough money for a week in London. We stayed in a youth hostel near Great Portland Street and despite exchanging all my savings into £’s, there wasn’t a lot of money left for food due to having bought a pair of doc Marten boots in Camden and having drunk a lot of cider in various pubs. Young and bright, we were always full of good ideas. In this case, we bought a whole water melon- that’d be us fed for a week. On day three it had gone bad and we were ( still) very hungry, but we loved it. London smelt of ashtrays, mould and greasy carpets and there weren’t any nicer people than the people of London.

I can sense that this short introduction into Monika Forsberg- the illustrator has turned into a maze of not strictly necessary information.

What I meant to explain was that…One afternoon we went back to Camden having leafed through Time Out magazine for cool stuff to do and the evening ended having a few drinks at the World’s End. At closing time we loitered outside, slouching on the pavement. A person ( a shadowy shade in my memory) crossed the road and got run over , there were sirens. And just then, there, we met American Dave and Pablo. And that’s how I ended up moving to the UK.

I’m the mother of two boys, Dante (23) and Reginald (14) and the wife of Matt Small

Whilst at art college I discovered Animation. Animation is quite an obsessive affair. I liked it because I didn’t need to be good ( at drawing) I could just make 3456666 half bad drawings, because; when stacked together and they moved- it was Magic. I liked that. Until I didn’t. And then I became an illustrator but not before failing at basket weaving and crocheting.