by Marja-Leena 
by Marja-Leena creative play
A few weeks ago I was doing a bit of a tidy-up of my stacks of print proofs in my studio. I tried to be ruthless and throw out what I was sure I could not reuse in some fashion, such as in mixed media collage work. What I did save, I sometimes tore or cut into pieces, selecting favourite sections with interesting textures, colours or that certain ‘something’. Today I felt inspired to have a look at one small pile which came from a very large collagraph trial print. At some point years ago I had painted and made marks over it. I scanned them and chose my favourites to post here. I love the torn irregular edges which make them look like cloth, more so here than in real life, which is interesting.
And it is already February! Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of this blog. I cannot believe how the years have flown, a sign of getting older I know. I still enjoy having this place for my work, scribblings, and wonderful conversations with so many friends around the world. Thank you all!
by Marja-Leena translation
My first language is Finnish but opportunities to speak it are now rare. Reading it at so many good blogs and news sites on the internet helps to keep me somewhat literate. One favourite place, though in English, is Books from Finland, ‘a journal of writing from and about Finland’.
Yesterday’s article particularly interested me: Why translate? by British poet Herbert Lomas (1924–2011) who was a prolific translator from Finnish. He describes the work and knowledge and understanding of language differences in order to capture the author’s intent. The following excerpts intrigued me and challenged my own rusty linguistic understanding of my mother tongue:
There are many differences between Finnish and English. Leaving aside for the moment the extraordinary disparity between Teutonic syntax and Finno-Ugrian syntax, the vocabulary alone puts you into a different climate and weather. Vowels are musical notes and Finnish is full of vowels.
Consonants are noises – and English is full of consonants. Finnish words are all stressed on the first syllable. English words simply alternate stressed and unstressed syllables – and the word may begin with unstress or stress. Finnish lends itself to dactyls. Dactyls have never been much at home in English. Most English poetry is written in iambs, with trochees coming second, a few anapaestic poems, usually not very good; and not even Hiawatha, imitating the Kalevala, resorted to the dactyl. But Finnish words are all Finnish – either invented from existing roots or naturalised beyond recognition.
Do read on if this subject interests you. Most of us know that the Finnish language is a difficult one for outsiders to learn so I have great respect for translators like Lomas and others who have mastered the language enough to note subtleties, especially in poetry.
More articles by Herbert Lomas here and about him and his list of works here.
Related posts on the Finnish language can be found in my archives under Linguistics.
PS: I just noticed that Herbert Lomas also translated Troll: a love story by Finnish author Johanna Sinisalo, which I was ever so lucky to find in our local library and enjoyed reading. It is rare to find Finnish books here.
by Marja-Leena late January
The Pineapple Express recently brought us very heavy rains matched by warm temperatures up to 16C (60F) at our place, meaning no weekend snowsports in the mountains. Today’s brilliant sunny day tempted me out into the garden. Still swampy in places from that rainstorm, I put on my waterproof boots and went out for a garden inspection. I knew the snowdrops and some of the early crocuses were out, plus numerous emerging green tips of other spring flowering bulbs were a delight to see. As I cleaned up some of the leaf litter to give them light and air, I too felt a cleansing of winter’s cobwebs.
I did take some photos of the snowdrops as I’ve done every year. But the above image found on the side of the house excited me much more artistically. And yes, I did leave this cobweb in place for now.
Meanwhile I hope the folks in the northeast US will survive a major blizzard.
Added later – It has hit the Maritimes as well!
by Marja-Leena rain forest
My husband captured these images on one of his bicycle rides on the trails along the Seymour River on the mountain slopes of the North Shore of Vancouver. To me, there is something magical, otherworldly and captivating about these scenes. They make me think of some north European Romantic paintings of the early 19th century. We are so fortunate to have all this beauty in our backyard.
by Marja-Leena Big Print Project
Peter Braune of New Leaf Editions, here in Vancouver, was one of the brains behind the idea of several artists making very large prints using 4×8 foot woodblocks which were inked and steamrolled right on the street across from his shop on Granville Island last summer. Now there is a great video of the event – do watch it and enjoy!
I had heard about this fun project developing last summer but did not make it out to watch it happen. Great to see a few familiar faces as well as others I have heard of but not met personally. Wonderful work by all of them.
As a side note, New Leaf Editions is well known in the printmaking community for running the popular BIMPE biennial of mini-prints. I participated in BIMPE VI in 2010. You may be interested in looking through some of the exhibition catalogues featured on the site.
by Marja-Leena dancing mists
My son-in-law took pity on me for the loss of my photos, which I had written about in my previous post, so he generously offered to share this beautiful moody time-lapse video he made of the shifting mists over the lake last November. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Thanks, Jonathan!
P.S. View the video fullscreen by pressing the button with 4 arrows on the right side of video player. Then press Esc on your keyboard to exit fullscreen mode.
by Marja-Leena back from Victoria
All has been quiet on this blog while we were away visiting family and friends in Victoria. We had a late mini-Christmas with our daughter’s family. We caught up with their happy fat chickens and growing kittens which were keeping them close to home. One day we took the granddaughters to Miniature World which we all enjoyed very much and wondered why we had never visited it before in the many trips over many decades that we’ve made to Victoria, even when our own children were young. The grandgirls took numerous photos, as I did (but lost mine, more on that later).
We also had a nice visit with our dear friends. While the guys were out for a cycle tour, Elaine and I enjoyed a truly stunning exhibition of wildlife photography at the Royal BC Museum. No photos allowed here.
Our trip home on the evening ferry was accompanied by frequent toots of the foghorn, ever increasing as we neared the mainland. We could have used that foghorn on our foggy drive home. It was a good trip but it’s always great to be home again.
Regarding photos… I took many around our family’s home, of the lovely low fog movements over the lake, interesting details in the garden, the chickens, and many many at Miniature World. My little old camera was often acting a bit wonky. Once home I was unable to download them using two different cardreaders. There also seemed to be issues with the photo program so I tried another computer. In the end after all the fiddling I lost the photos, probably by removing the reader improperly! That’s a first. My computer and software are ageing, updates are leaving it behind, sigh. We have some work to do there. Naturally I’m disappointed at the loss of photo material ideal for the blog. So, since I do like to illustrate my posts, I’ve chosen the above image from the archives.
by Marja-Leena gift of wonder
This morning (December 30th), as I sleepily walked into the kitchen, I was stunned by the low deep yellow rays of the rising sun striking the skylights, skylights covered in tiny little frost flowers.
A rare miracle, a gift of wonder! The beauty of nature right at home.
The Old Year is almost past and the New Year is almost here. I now wish all of you this gift of wonder in all you see, really see in this world. There is beauty even in ageing, in deteriorating, in the returning of all to the earth in the cycles of life and death. Wonder at the light and the dark in the cycles of the seasons and years, just as our long ago ancestors wondered in awe.
Have a happy, healthy and creative New Year!
by Marja-Leena gift books
Santa left two fabulous books under the tree for me: Marly Youmans’ Glimmerglass and a Phaidon monograph about artist Anselm Kiefer.
I already own and love some of Marly’s books and admire the illustrations by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, so this was a must on my wish list!
After recently writing about Anselm Kiefer’s huge exhibition in London and feeling sad that I could not go and see it, I desired a monograph or catalogue. The large Royal Academy publication looks stunning but is rather expensive with the shipping on top so after some research I chose this Phaidon edition, though smaller, for Santa to bring me.
Touching and admiring their beautiful covers (Marly’s book especially!) and browsing through to enjoy the images inside give me great pleasure while I wait to start reading each once I’ve finished my current library book.
Did you receive books at Christmas?