Eva Lindström: Sweden ⋆ Illustrator

"The way I see it, if my story's going to be the way I want it, I have to be my own target audience. I'm afraid that what I want to say will get diluted if I start thinking about the way anyone else, adult or child, might conceivably want to read my book"

Eva Lindström

With her unique and oftentimes dark subject matter and highly personal technique, Eva Lindström has become an influential artist in the field of children's book illustrating. Born in Västerås in 1952, she attended the local school of arts for her first year of post-secondary (1968-69), and from there she went on to the Art School of Konstfack, where she studied painting until graduating in 1974. Lindström's time at Konstfack was a period of left-wing political activism, and she and her classmates formed the radical group "Svarta hämnarna" [The Black Avengers], which used poster art to make political statements. The group played a definite role in her dark, radical style.

Lindström began her illustrating career in the mid-1980s, where she illustrated texts by various authors and made a name for herself in the field. She authored and illustrated her first book in 1988, Katmössan [The Cat's Hat], and her second book, Lurix (1996) is considered her illustrative artistic breakthrough. Her stories often deal with difficult subject matter, such as the search for identity and general loneliness, but her subtle humor and rich color patterns help her strike a proficient balance between darkness and optimism. She also uses color to reflect the mood of the stories she illustrates, along with the emotions of her characters, and she works to capture realistic experiences of childhood.

Lindström's passion for capturing the essence of childhood through color and familiar imagery make her a beloved illustrator in the realm of Swedish children's literature. Not only does she illustrate children's books, she also writes them. Her first published text, Någon flyttar in—Berättesler om Mats Och Roj [Somebody Moves In—Stories About Mats and Roj] was published in 2002, and she has written many picture books, her latest being Olli Och Mo [Olli and Mo] (2012). She has won a number of awards for her illustrations, including the Elsa Beskow Plaque in 1993, the En Bok För Alla's Literary Humor Prize in 2003, and Snöbollen's Best Picture Book of the Year in 2012.