Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize

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Isela Valve

Isela Valve: Joels färger, 2011

The Ålandic artist and author Joel Pettersson (1892-1937) was a modernist long before the term became a household word.

In his own headstrong way, he rose in revolt against rules and systems in free creativity which, only several decades after his death, has come to be appreciated as it deserves. His subject was the environment around his home farm in Norrby, "the grey village", where he, with singular imaginative force, reproduces meetings with people, animals and things. Linguistically, he combines a popular narrative, characterised by a rich dialect and drastic humour, with an elevated biblical appeal. His plays, written for the youth in his home parish, are popular comedies with psychological depth beneath the comic complications. In his paintings he raises a personal expressionism which earned him the epithet "Åland's van Gogh".

His subject matter comes from life on the farm, but it is only in dreams and visions that he is really alive. "The reality of words" materialism makes him sick, in his bones he knows what it is like to be different. Eventually, it becomes impossible to reconcile imagination and tough living; he is driven into a spiritual darkness where the mental hospital in Grelsby becomes the last stop.

Joel Pettersson often talks about his childhood. He never abandons his original childishness. "I want to jump. I want to dance. And my mind will be open and smooth as a baby's!

Isela Valve integrates this into her picture book "Joels färger", which is the autonomous territory Åland's nomination for the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2013. She brings out a fascinating human fate in an original way. Pettersson's own paintings - with their earthy values - are still the basis of a dialogue between the artist and his audience; a montage technique that gives the viewer's imagination free rein. Daily life is grey, but with his pen and brush the artist conjures up a new world, full of magic. The light colours have the joy of sunlight, the dark portray the anguish of night.

In Isela Valve's production - which covers six children's books and several auto-biographical adult books – "Joels färger" is an artistic highlight, where the lyrical tone of the short text deepens the message in the pictures. The book is primarily intended for small children, but can be read happily outside all age limits.

Gustaf Widén