Is it even possible to reach a "fair" way to interpret another person's emotions? I mean, those expressed in art. I hardly think anyone can claim to fully describe another's fears or moments of joy. Another's life.

In any case, I know that as far as I'm concerned, I would be fully satisfied if I manage to capture even the outer contours of another person's being, as it is expressed in art.

That's right. And that goes a long way. So: no attempt at psychoanalysis, but rather an attempt to get under the skin and into the innermost depths.

So, I then encounter Johanna Elbe's paintings, and she is an artist who makes it both difficult and easy for me. Easy because I find so much tender beauty in her work. The paintings are outwardly similar to each other. They can be likened to the sensitive surfaces of an old wooden wall, caressed for centuries by wind and rain, or to the surface of skin, lovingly stroked by a sensitive hand and desire. This is how I "read" her paintings, but I emphasize, a thousand other interpretations would be just as possible and just as true.

When I say that Johanna Elbe makes it difficult for me, I mean that the kind of art she "lovingly creates" can be incredibly hard to describe and attempt to place. You almost have to be there. These are paintings that draw their nourishment from the nature surrounding her and then merge those impressions with a wave of sensualism. She captures an image, receives an impulse, and infuses it with feeling—feelings of everything that exists within a person.

A painting of something easily read or easily recognized can be simple to interpret and write about, but how does one speak about the most subjective? The most private, the innermost, perhaps even the  most forbidden?

One of our foremost art philosophers, the art critic Ulf Linde, titled one of his art books ”Spejare”. He wrote in a dedication:

"Are we not all seekers? "searchers?"

I add, Johanna Elbe is also a seeker. And personally, I must confess that in her tender paintings, I see an ultra-sensitive searcher for both rest and beauty, anxiety and happiness. But as I said, it's not entirely easy to reach her. And I think that's how it should be. Because after the search, you come home.  And who said it should be easy? Roads are winding.

Listen to what she herself writes in a presentation.

"Creation happens intuitively, and the paintings slowly emerge in thin layers of acrylic. It is a pursuit of recovery, the simply simple in a world filled with stress and unreasonable expectations. Each artwork has a connection to a fragment of nature in an attempt to intuitively capture the feeling that nature brings rather than creating a literal depiction."

So speaks Johanna Elbe. Perhaps one can conclude that she herself provides the best picture of the origin and essence of her creations?

So then, finally, my concluding reflections on Johanna Elbe's art as communication. A person can communicate with me through various expressions. With facial expressions, with gestures, but usually with words. Communication through words can be verbal. We can whisper to each other or shout. We can also communicate by trying to reach each other, influence each other, through writing. This can happen, as here, through texts in books, newspapers, radio, and many other media. However, the image is perhaps the oldest form of communication. This is something I, and many others, have come to understand. I have dedicated my life to living close to, intimately with images, intimately with what we call art.

And Johanna Elbe is, as seen, an artist who has chosen the image as her form of expression. I have attempted above to interpret and engage with her expression. I have also increasingly begun to view her images as letters to the viewer, letters to all of us who encounter her art. Her whispers and shouts.

A piece of advice, in all goodwill: also see her art as love letters to you. Then your adventure will be richer.

Stig Åke Stålnacke, 2023