A curtain can be a fog curtain that spreads in the park or a transparent lace that only partially conceals what we really want to see. It can make a landscape into a scene and it can mark us as spectators; there are no landscapes without human eye.
For me my mother’s albums have been a starting point for making art actually as long as I can remember. The curtain over the painted photo is a pretty strong symbol. It can conceal or reveal, it can symbolize the time elapsing and making it difficult to accurately see the details. It is the veil behind which all memories are, that I try now to unveil a little.
“ In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty” – Phil Ochs
The flower paintings –series was inspired by the underrated value of flowers as a motif for art and by the contradictory position of beauty in contemporary art.
This collection of paintings was inspired by a visit to the former finnish city Vyborg in Russia. Paintings have elements from the family albums, documents and other private souvenirs originating from the pre-war period.
Finlandia Group Ltd ordered in 2012 a group of paintings to decorate their offices in Helsinki and in Tampere. These paintings have finnish lakes as their theme and use elements from the finnish history and nature as their ingredients.
”What I dream of art….something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue” – Henri Matisse
These paintings play with the line between furniture and painting, by combining typical details like padding and seaming with a traditional canvas for oil painting.