My art is my strongest language. In my work I want to highlight the beauty of the species we share this planet withand the astonishing qualities and traits these individual organisms hold. I want to raise awareness to the importance of the existence of every single one of them, how everything is connected and how we need to care for our ecosystems and environment for a sustainable future – just as much for the animals as for ourselves.

(Feel free to read more about my thoughts about the environment here!)

I’ve tried many artistic ways of expressing myself - From painting rocks as a kid or drawing portraits as a teenager, to trying out everything from glass and analogue photography in the art crafts gymnasium in Arvika, to experimenting with clay and installation, words and collage, and lots of other different approaches in Art School in Örebro. Yet I always seem to come back to realistic oil painting.

The realism, however, has turned rather surrealistic by the years. Some might even say it is a type of science fiction or fantasy. I usually refer to it as magical realism. Ironically, when I first started painting, I didn’t think I had any imagination at all. As it turned out, just like anything else our imaginative minds can be trained and developed, and now Iknow that my imagination is limitless.

I often get asked the question:“What inspires you?” The answer to that could fill an entire book, but let me put it in one simple word: Everything. As a full-time artist, my brain is more or less constantly, consciously or not, active gathering inspiration. It finds me through travels and adventures, conversations and books, or simply by observing the often overlooked. My canvas is my notebook, so as much as my art is my strongest language, it’s also my personal tool for learning. Every issue or species I paint has a life story - one that I want to research and interpret and hope to pass on with my art.

Name: Marlou Jaspers
Birth year: 1995 
Born: Breda, Netherlands
Located: Örebro, Sweden