In 1989 I started studying art at Lunnevads Folkhögskola outside Linköping in Östergötland, Sweden. I was 19 years at the time. There were courses in painting, graphics and sculpture. Painting directly interested me the most. We were thoroughly educated in how to blend colors and even in how to prepare your own linen canvas. I found color theory interesting but didn't pay much attention to the craft of painting. Almost right away I started to make paintings that tried to do something else than portray reality in a naturalistic way. My first year I made several of flat images, where I parted the surface in different clear edged parts. Soon I started trying to work with my own ideas through painting. It mainly dealt with my personal life in an expressive way.
My friend Patrik Gustavsson from school in Eskilstuna also started at Lunnevad that year, together with his girlfriend Olga Tsertsidis. While at the school I started my first serious relationship with Aurora Lewén. It lasted over six years.
