About...

Welcome to my world of art!

I am a Swedish self-taught artist based in Västerås.

Since the late 1980s I have been working as an interaction designer. Here I designed the work processes and graphical user interface for computer software, and in later years apps. Today this is called User Experience design, UX. During the last decade I have gradually increased my work as an artist. In 2016 I opened an art gallery in a shopping mall in Västerås city centre exhibiting my own art for 3.5 years.

This is how it all began...

I was out in a meadow by Lake Mälaren in Sweden to photograph young horses standing by the water. I sat down and observed them. Then they spotted me and came closer and closer. One of the horses stood right in front of me as I sat in the grass. It raised one of its front legs and put its hoof on my shoulder. At the same time, I had a telepathic sense that said to me "You are a strange horse, but nevertheless you are very welcome in the herd". As I slowly stood up, the horse lifted its hoof away. I walked a few steps and the horses followed. I started to run and the horses ran around me at the same pace. I stopped and the horses stopped. We went on like that for a long time. I was a human horse in the herd with all the other horses.

This was an amazing mystical experience that inspired me to explore the spirit of horses in my art, using art photography. In 2013 I had an exhibition with the horse art photos and a photo book of these at the Swedish royal palace Strömsholm (Stenköket). In February 2025, the Dubai International Art Centre, United Arab Emirates, hosted a curated exhibition that featured some of the horse art photos and the photo book. Back in 2013, the work with the horse spirits then further inspired me to work artistically with the spirit of dance, the soul wanting to express itself in dance with the body as a medium. Here I tried, and are still using, different media such as art photography, art graphics and sculpture to express emotion and movement. So far I have done over 100 pop up sculpture installations in Italy and Sweden. These installations work as an art insert in the traditional environment, both indoors and outdoors, creating curiosity and questions with people observing the sculptures. Also, the dance art photos and pictures of the installations are the base for production of 7 art books in collaboration with a spiritual author. Additionally, the art photos and sculptures have been used for scenography in dance performances in collaboration with a choreographer.

The energy conveyed in my sculptures is contagious to children. As soon as they see them, they start to mimic the movements of the sculptures and then the children continue to dance spontaneously.

This inspired me to create a dance- and art workshop for children with the sculptures in collaboration with a Dance Movement Therapist. New inspiration came to me to write text for storybooks that I then illustrate. The stories are used for storytelling in the workshop. In this way, my previous artistic expression is the inspiration of my new expressions iteratively, all initiated by a horse putting its hoof on my shoulder telling me I myself am a horse.

My artistic expressions create thoughts, emotions and creates movement in the observer. They work as a facilitator for a dialogue about spirituality. Often the big questions arise... Why are we here? What happens after death? Are we alone in the universe? What is the universe? ...

Robert Ferm