Søren Jessen can do it all. Having produced a new little book in his popular series about a young Disneyfied Dino, he goes straight into making a wild and fanciful picture book with hard-hitting colours. Or he writes a novel for adult readers, or a book to make children laugh. Maybe he writes a profoundly serious fairytale dealing with death and wickedness. Now and then he designs the most beautiful book jackets. He’s a painter too.
Søren Jessen thinks that the cover for his novel Wolf is a very good representation of his artistic universe – extreme cosiness meets the horror of war. Author and illustrator go in for lots of things – music, books and cartoons – but mostly he goes in for Franz Kafka. So it is actually quite appropriate that he was awarded the prestigious “Debutantpris” (First Book Award) at a time when he had already published around 20 books! And it should be mentioned that Søren Jessen has recently started to draw with his left hand, because he thought it was getting too easy for his right one. He says: “Maybe it’s to do with the fact that I have never really been satisfied with what I’ve done. If you’re satisfied with what you’ve done, then you don’t experiment. Satisfaction is the greatest enemy.”
When the smoke from all the scattered discharges has settled, it is probably above all in picture books that this industrious artist’s turbulence finds release. So far, at any rate. Initially, he worked a lot with an airbrush, seeking out the glossy, perfect picture. But with and since Faldt du? (Did you Fall?, 1999) he has gone over to painting in acrylics and exploring backgrounds and structures. Were it not that he loved to place odd forms and strange deeds in his pictures, one could be led to believe that his pictorial exploration during this period was aimed at removing the figures and letting the story to be told in the background.
An illustrator such as Søren Jessen attracts good writers. He has, for example, provided wonderful, lively illustrations to Sally Altschuler’s story about Hvordan man får sin kamel til tandlægen (How you get your camel to go to the dentist). No easy task! For many years he has also collaborated with one of Denmark’s most unconventional and all-embracing children’s storytellers – Peter Mouritzen. Strange to say, the serious Søren Jessen started out as the author of cheerful episodes that made excellent bedtime reading. With and since Wolf (1998) he has found his narrative platform. This was expanded considerably in Stilhedens hav (Tranquillity Ocean), which is, in a very straightforward fashion, in line with the Danish magical fairytale, as written at the time by, for example, Louis Jensen.
His novel about Tranquillity Ocean is a harsh story set in a suburb, where The Devil lives in an ordinary house next door. He is called Mr Jones, and he is of the opinion that the greatest fun is to be had by causing the little calamities, because the big ones – well, we people are perfectly capable of causing them without his help. The story is imbued with both poetry and mortal danger.
Søren Jessen has so far written two novels for adults. Zambesi (Zambese, 2000) secured him the aforementioned First Book Award, and his most recent book, Erindringer om fremtiden (Memories of the Future), secured him much critical praise.
In everything Søren Jessen produces there is an inner, whirling energy. And the raging demons have gradually been schooled in words and cultivated in pictures of great clarity and impact. Having been born in 1963, Søren Jessen still has time to become anything whatsoever. But dreary is one thing he will certainly never be.
