An old card I made with my brother

Here's an old business card me and my brother, Jonatan "cactus" Söderström, made together a couple of years ago. Actually a very nice card I think.
If you're into experimental games you should definitely check him out.

My favorite games of his are the eerie and somewhat funny first person puzzle games called "Mondo Medicals", "Mondo Agency" and the new Mondo game which hasn't been released yet (but I'm his brother, so I've played it through of course).


Here's a link to my brothers website:
http://cactusquid.com/ 

EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL (another picture for my mother and her husband)

I've been thinking a lot about life lately.
I've been thinking about us humans, about my friends and my family, about our surroundings, about other animals and about nature.
I've also been thinking of how much I take these things for granted, and this has resulted in some kind of mushy sentiment that I can't seem to shake. And I don't want to shake it either.
I somehow feel like everything is beautiful, and that everything always has been beautiful and always will be beautiful. Even ugly, scary or disgusting things like war, violence, shit, intestines, dogs, hate, love, horses, vaginas and Christmas trees seem beautiful to me these days, and it's confusing me. Even scaring me sometimes.
Everything seems so very complex, yet delicate and simple.
Anyhow, I guess I wanted to make a picture that reflects just a fraction of these thoughts, of this state of mind that I'm currently in. And I also wanted to make a picture for my mother and her husband, because they always tried to tell me that the world was exactly this beautiful place that I've just recently realized it to be. I mean, every time I've been depressed or felt like things were unfair or sometimes outright unbearable, they've always been there for me. And for the first time since I was a child I can really see it again. And that's just amazing.

Here's the pictures I used to make this one. They were found with googles image search engine. I have not made/taken them and do not own the rights to them.

Retard in Kitchen 2004 or -5?

Here's a couple of pictures I found, browsing through my computer today. They were made for a band I had at the time with my two best friends, Lo Brandt and Anton Björnsson Wikström. The band was called "Retard in Kitchen", a silly name I came up with when I was sampling various kitchen appliances for the drum track for one of our songs. Sadly most of the material we recorded was lost when my computer crashed, but maybe it wasn't that good to begin with I guess.

Most of these kitchen-samples I reworked into a new song however, with another band called "Köttkaninen" (Meat Bunny) where Lo Brandt was supposed to be the singer, and I made the music. The three tracks we made are still in my possession. 

We also had a band called Johnny Njursjuk (Johnny Kidneysick in english, I guess), and recorded two records called "Mannen som inte kunde dö" (The Man Who Couldn't Die) and  "Jag kan vara din knotiga lilla häst" (I Can Be Your Bony Little Horse), where Lo Brandt was the singer and Anton Björnsson Wikström played the guitar. 

Anton also sang in a band of ours called "Angry Dragon", and we recorded three songs, "Charlton", "Wait and Bleed" (a slipknot cover), and "Drumz".

Anyhow I made these pictures on my old PC, but I didn't own a digital camera back then, so I took snapshots with my old VH8 video camera that I had plugged in to my computer. I then reworked them with an old version of photoshop.

These pictures are kind of special to me... Mostly because I'm not friends with either Anton or Lo these days - our friendship ended right about the time I made them - and I really miss my old pals. They are also special because they are some of the first good pictures I ever made with a computer, and though not nearly as good as what I do now, they're not bad at all.

Here's two links for my old band Johnny Njursjuk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ImCFehxJs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNaImjbzoo

Animal Collective T-shirt

I've personally had some strangely profound moments listening to Animal Collective; they somehow put me in an almost meditative state of mind - and some of these moments may be the most precious I've experienced (and probably ever will experience).
It took me awhile to realize how special this band really was, but it was worth the wait. In a way, and I mean a really positive way, they changed my life.
And that's why I'm not so sure about this picture actually. I kind of hate it, and I kind of like it. I hate it, probably because it can't possibly be as good as what it's supposed to represent, and I like it because it's not really a bad picture at all.
I started on it a while back as a hand made pencil drawing (the first picture below is a colored version of this drawing, and below it is the black and white original), but when the "character" was finished I got scared I might ruin it with a background and decided to do the rest on my computer. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not, but it's not like I can change it as the original is somewhat damaged now.
Anyhow, when I had finished coloring it I tried to make a cool background, but it didn't work. So I asked my brothers girlfriend what she thought about it and she said it would look really cool as a t-shirt. This got me thinking, and soon afterwards I made the picture that I've posted above. I guess one day I'll make a new picture for animal collective that I'm more happy with, but for now this will do.

DUBSTEP I SHANGHAI

In English:
A Friend of mine asked me to do a flyer for his club in Shanghai. Apparently it was a dubstep club, which was an interesting challenge for me. As it happened I also had some other stuff going on at the time, like a fan-picture for Animal Collective which I've been working on for some time now (They are my favourite band) and a picture for some comic book dude (Raighne Hogan) from USA, so I had to cut some corners in this picture, but I'm still satisfied with the result, and I hope the club does well!

På Svenska:
En polare till mig bad mig fixa flyer till hans klubb i Shanghai. Tydligen en dubstepklubb, vilket var intressant att försöka illustrera. Har dock en massa andra projekt på gång, som en Animal Collective bild jag jobbat på länge nu (och som jag tänkte skicka till själva bandet i hopp om att få göra någon artwork åt dom i framtiden) samt en bild som beställts av någon serietidningssnubbe (Raighne Hogan) i USA, så jag var tvungen at slarva lite här och där, men vet inte om det syns så mycket. Jag är hur som helst riktigt nöjd med resultatet, och hoppas det går bra för klubben!

Cannabis with Justin Bieber

In English:
Cannabis is probably the most common drug I've tried to get some inspiration from for my psychedelic picture series, but strangely one of the pictures I've had most trouble finishing. Maybe because the drug itself inspires more laughable and less serious associations, and often is depicted as something that only makes you more or less stupid; maybe because the cartoonish pictures of people under the influence of this drug are so many, and that makes it a lot harder to do something original yourself. On the other hand I'm not making these pictures because I want to do something new or try to be original, but because these are pictures I would like to have hanging on my own walls. I hope the humor of this latest project hasn't taken over too much, though. My intentions are not to make over the top cartoonish parodies of drug addicts (such as poor mr Bieber), but it isn't to do difficult and serious art either.

If you blow up this picture to it's original size by right clicking on it and selecting "show in new tab", please note the small faces on the slices of sausage that covers the pizza-sun. Another thing you should notice is the wrong proportions of the right arm - which of course is something I did intentionally.

I am especially happy with the effect of the three mouths, somehow making it hard for your eyes to focus. Beyond that there isn't much I can think of to say about this particular picture. Justin Bieber continues to be a cool dude who likes drugs, and I hope I haven't completely run out of ideas when I'll get on to my next picture, which I think will be an interpretation of what happens when you do psilocybine/psilocine (magic mushrooms).

På Svenska:
Cannabis är nog den vanligaste av de droger jag hämtat inspiration från i min psykedeliska bildserie, men var konstigt nog den svåraste hittills att få klart. Kanske därför att det finns så mycket klichéer kring vad som förväntas av ett THC-rus att det inte riktigt kändes nyskapande att göra den här bilden. Men å andra sidan gör jag inte de här bilderna för att de ska vara nyskapande, utan för att det är bilder jag själv skulle vilja ha hängande i mitt rum. Jag hoppas dock att humorn i mitt senaste projekt inte tagit över för mycket. Min avsikt är verkligen inte att göra pompösa skämtteckningar, samtidigt som det kanske inte heller är att göra överdrivet svår och seriös konst.

Notera gärna alla de små ansiktena som pryder korvskivorna på pizzasolen, och det faktum att högerhanden som håller hamburgaren är helt ur proportion - vilket såklart är medvetet.

Speciellt nöjd blev jag med de tre munnarna som nästan får det att klia i ögonen på en (eller i alla fall på mig). Annars finns det inte så mycket att säga om den här bilden. Justin Bieber fortsätter vara en skön snubbe som knarkar och jag hoppas att jag inte har fått helt slut på idéer när jag ska börja med nästa bild, vilken jag tror kommer bli en psilocybininspirerad sak.

Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf (the game)

In English:
A while back I made some conceptual artwork for the band Fucking Werewolf Asso, and here's a couple more. These new pictures however, are not for a CD or a Show, but for a game that my brother, Jonatan Söderström (better known by his nickname "Cactus"), and the singer of Fucking Werewolf Asso, Dennis Wedin, made together and will be selling after the bands live gigs in the future.

The game is a mish-mash of 2D platforming, first person 3D and much more. Most of the inspiration for these pictures comes directly from the game itself, which will be available on CD-rom in a 7" cover for a couple of bucks.

På Svenska:
För ett tag sedan gjorde jag lite konceptbilder till bandet Fucking Werewolf Asso, och nu har jag gjort ett par till. Dessa är dock inte till någon skiva eller spelning, utan till ett spel som min bror, Jonatan Söderström (kanske mer känd som cactus), och sångaren i bandet, Dennis Wedin, knåpat ihop och ska sälja vid en spelning på pusterviksbaren ikväll.

Spelet är ett hopkok av 2-D plattform, förstaperson 3D, buttonmashing och massa annat. Det mesta av bilderna jag gjort är taget direkt från moment i spelet, som går att köpa upptryckt i 7" format på CD för en billig slant.

ENG: Here you can listen to Fucking Werewolf Asso:
SV: Här kan du lyssna på Fucking Werewolf Asso:
http://www.myspace.com/fuckingwerewolfasso
ENG: And here you can check out my brothers games:
SV: Och här kan du kolla in min brors spel:
http://www.cactusquid.com/