John Kenn Mortensen Post-It Art

John Kenn Mortensen

Out of the HUNDREDS of millions of images I've seen on the internet, few can compare to John Kenn Mortensen in terms of creativity and instilling a sense of unease. The strange, uncomfortable feeling one gets from studying his art is hard to place, but is none-the-less as unique as it is unsettling. Many of his images are reminiscent of ancient Scandinavian woodcarvings of the terrible, unknowable things that lurked in the wild places of the old world, ready to snatch away a misbehaving child that has wandered just a bit too far from home.
Aside from being drawn exclusively in pen with phenomenal, detailed results, another interesting fact is that much of his earlier work was drawn on post-it notes, I have heard. He would have to be my second favorite artist, under my adorable and talented Meghann. But enough talk, let's see for ourselves:

There's a lot that these images do for me. The most obvious is the Sasquatchiness of this one, of course, but I picked it for different reasons. It has the children, a constant theme in Mortensen's art. As the writer and director of a children's television show in Denmark, he must have some pretty interesting content on the air. I wish I spoke Danish!

There is a pervading sense of loneliness in his work that goes along well with the supernatural focus he has. This isn't a world of human wants and needs, it's a darker place where humans don't seem so important. Everyone feels small, which is likely why he has the identifiable characters as children.

The monsters he draws are all unique, but at the same time they all have a very gross and Scandinavian look to them that kind of groups them all together.

A lot of his monsters remind me of traditional Scandinavian trolls and ogres found on older wood carvings. They have a classical feel to them.

Aww, they must love babies too.

The "Thing in a Jar" is a classic horror trope that I enjoy. More on that in my next blog post.

A lot of his earlier creatures were less offensive than what he draws now. I like them, but they seem closer to his children's work than his "good stuff".

The troll imagery is heavy in this one. I love trolls. Some of my best friends are trolls.

I wish I had more information on this artist. It's a rather strange situation. Out of all of the artists on the internet, this favorite of mine has little to no information on the web. There's a scant IMdB page about his television show and a few of his shorts, and a page about a book that is no longer in print.
Quite the enigma is Mr. Mortensen. I hope I will be able to find out more about him in the future. But until then, I'll be stuck with his blog which updates fairly regularly. If you haven't clicked one of my links to his site yet, click that one. You'll be missing out otherwise. He has hundreds of pieces online for free, and while I would love to post all of my favorites here, there are just too many. And they're all in higher definition than I have here.

John Kenn Mortensen, everyone. He's a keeper.

It feels gooooooooooooooood.

Megh's note: Mr. Mortensen also has a Facebook fan page here.