About

"What Was Saved from the Fire"

I have often been asked which of my possessions I would save from a fire, and without hesitation I answer “My grandmother Elsa’s sketchbook”. It is without a doubt the possession that is most attached to me emotionally, a compilation of drawings made by my Swedish maternal grandmother Elsa when she was a young teenager, teaching herself how to draw.

I sadly never met Elsa, she died before I was born. Fire is what tragically took her life, but fire is also the passion she had for art, that I feel got passed down to me and has connected me to her in many …