Marja-Leena Rathje

by Marja-Leena

heartwarming

I know I’ve been quiet here lately. We’ve had a full and wonderful week, first with friends visiting from Alberta whom we had not seen in something like a decade. Then yesterday friends from Victoria came for lunch. The weather was glorious all week as was the garden, most impressive for the Albertans! We are back to rain today.

Tomorrow we will attend the memorial and potluck for my late and dear aunt (as mentioned here), so I’ve been busy printing a card, gathering old photos of her to scan and print, and writing a few little ‘memories’ to share and reminisce over with her daughter, grandsons and several cousins.

I thought this image captures some of those deep heartwarming feelings of this week. I’ve actually used it before in another variation here. (However it is not part of the HANDS series of prints.)

Life should be back to normal next week when I’ll catch up with visits and comments at your blogs, dear friends!

April 27, 2013 in Being an Artist, Current Events, Human, Photoworks 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

magnolia

looking up, looking under and looking down
while awaiting arrival of old friends
on this beautiful Earth Day

April 22, 2013 in Canada and BC, Home 7 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

flying trees

As I’ve mentioned before, a brand new home has been emerging next door to us. Landscaping appears to now be underway and numerous large trees are flying in! Actually a crane is lifting them off trucks and into their positions around the property. Fascinating to watch! I recall all the planting of very small trees, shrubs and flowers that I did by hand on our place after our renovations many years ago, in simpler times it seems.

Looking away from the above odd scene is a view of a magnolia and camellia in full bloom in our backyard. They were here when we moved in and are now very large.

April 18, 2013 in Home 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a busy month

Like September, April is a busy and transitional month for me.

Instead of going to ‘school’ aka the print studio, I go through the reverse. Last week I packed up and brought home my completed editions and supplies. To even organize the work to go into the flat files, I had to clean off the table top first, which started the snowball effect. Some prints that had come back from Europe in a mailing tube some months ago had to be laid on top of the grand piano under weights for a week before I could store them.

Then there’s the garden with weeds growing even faster than the flowers. Indoors, seeds of tomatoes, peppers and basil are up nicely and needing to be planted into little pots to continue growing in the solarium. The pelargoniums await bigger pots. Houseplants need repotting.

Spring cleaning is having a slow start as we prepare for a visit next week from old friends from Alberta whom we’ve known since our days in Fort St. John when we were neighbours. It has been many years since we’ve seen each other so we’re looking forward to this!

Some sad news too, with the recent death of a dear aunt at the age of 87. Emails and long phone chats with my amazing cousin who cared for her mother at home the last two or three years. I’ve sent emails to family in Finland and eastern Canada. Memories are being revisited. We shall have a family gathering in her memory sometime soon.

Yesterday evening’s gorgeous sunset brought these words to mind:

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears
(from Fiddler on the Roof, of course)

April 15, 2013 in Being an Artist, Home 11 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

found photos

Left: Dream Vessel Centre: Dream Structure Right: Memory/Dreams IV

Left: Memory/Dreams I Centre: Memory/Dreams III

These two photographs dropped out from inside some papers I was sorting through while looking for something else, as often happens. They are installation photos of some of my printworks in an exhibition called Forms and Figures at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver back in 1993. This was noted on the back of the photos but with no mention of the other two or three artists also in the exhibition. Memory fails me now, though I think I might know but don’t want to make any mistakes. If I come across the information in an another poke through my messy files, I’ll add it here.

Should you be interested in a better look at these pieces, please check out the Dreams series

On my summer break from the print studio, I really must get back to my small home studio to continue the tidy-up I started last summer as well as sort through a new mess!

April 10, 2013 in Art Exhibitions, Being an Artist, Dreams 14 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Hand with Bark

Hand with Bark
archival inkjet print
45.5 x 38.5 cm (18″ x 15.25″)

April 3, 2013 in Hands, Printworks 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

all ‘Hands’ up

I recently completed editioning the last piece in the Hands series, in this format anyway. Today I put it up on the studio wall with the earlier ones. You may have seen the first six on the wall earlier. As always I like to be able to stand back and study a body of work as a whole. Ideally I would display them in a single row with more space in between so that each piece stands on its own instead of competing with its neighbours, while also being part of the large group. This image is really too small on this screen to do them justice, I know.

In a day or two, I will post the last one (top right). Please check out the Hands link to see the others individually.

April 2, 2013 in Digital printmaking, Hands, Printworks 22 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Easter eggs

My hand goes out to you, gentle readers, with wishes for a sunny, warm and happy Easter long weekend. Hauskaa Pääsiäistä, Joyeuses Pâques, Frohes Ostern, Happy Easter… if that is a tradition for you.

I like to think of it as a celebration of spring with daffodils and pussywillows and tender new green leaf buds. And of course, Easter eggs! Most of our treasured Easter egg collection has been made over the years by our daughters, especially the youngest. More photos of those Easter eggs: Easter 2006, Easter 2008

I am looking forward to seeing our granddaughters’ plant-dyed eggs, works in progress…

March 29, 2013 in Culture, Home, Human, Photoworks 14 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

chafer beetle

After scanning a moth and a fly, along with a comment about scarabs, I remembered another insect, a chafer beetle perfectly preserved in resin, a paperweight I think. it was given to me as a gift many years ago. Of course I had to scan this too. I started with just the object but the resin has scratches and imperfections so finally I went back to my technique of ‘hand with object’ with much better success. Beautiful beetle, isn’t it?

Besides thoughts of ancient Egyptian scarabs, which are actually dung beetles, I’m reminded that the Greater Vancouver area has a serious chafer beetle infestation destroying many lawns, including ours. I think our beetle is the brown European one rather than this gorgeous green. The grubs root under the turf, then raccoons, skunks and some birds dig up the patches in search of tasty meals. I must remember to buy and apply some nematodes on it this summer (I forgot at the recommended time last year).

So that’s the story of a beauty and a beast!

March 24, 2013 in Human, Nature, Photoworks 13 Comments »

by Marja-Leena