My name is Annette (Antoanette) Birkenborg. I was born in Kosovo, where I spent the first 16 years of my life. I subsequently lived in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, and I have been living in Sweden since 1986.
Now, I live and work in beautiful Ystad, which provides me with plenty of inspiration for my creativity. I can’t quite remember when I first became interested in being creative, but my school books were full of sketches I drew—mostly faces and buildings, but also birds and eyes that now often appear in my paintings.
Several times a week, I visited a studio in the neighborhood run by a friend of my father. How fascinated I was by all the paints and brushes! It was like stepping into a fairy tale. That’s where I learned the fundamentals of painting and discovered the magic of color. In addition to painting, I am also interested in other crafts such as textiles and clay.
During my teenage years, I was really interested in technical drawing, but I never became an architect. Instead, I chose to work with people, and that’s what makes me happy.
When I paint, I feel an inner need to depart from reality and disappear into another world—a world of experiences, dreams, and emotions that separates me from my surroundings at that moment. The more layers of paint my hands and brush apply to the canvas, the further away from reality I get.
I immerse myself in the creative process, and it feels like my body and soul are divided. My soul goes on an exploration—searching, longing, experiencing loss, pleasure, fantasy, and more—while my hands pave the way with color after color, until my inner self explodes with a smile in the harmony of colors.
Freedom is a sacred word for me, and I find it difficult to tie myself to one particular style of creativity, which is apparent in the variety of my work.
My art is a piece of me and my emotions, which I am happy to share with others. I hope that it can stir up emotions and thoughts, perhaps evoke a longing for something or simply spark the viewer’s imagination.
