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by Marja-Leena 
by Marja-Leena ARKEO #5
ARKEO #5
archival inkjet and engraving
78.5 x 58 cm.
Last month I finished another addition to my ongoing ARKEO series. I used Sintra again as I did for ARKEO #4. This time, instead of making a collagraph, I made a very spontaneous engraving. I’m very pleased with the result.
UPDATE summer 2012: The ARKEO series may now be viewed in my new GALLERY (link also found on the top of the left bar)
by Marja-Leena ARKEO #4
ARKEO # 4
archival inkjet and collagraph
81 x 61 cm.
This is the latest addition to my ongoing ARKEO series.
For the first time I used Sintra upon which to build up the collagraph. Sintra is usually used in our print studio as an alternative material for linocuts, so I took advantage of its easy cut surface to also carve lines into it – that was fun!
UPDATE summer 2012: The ARKEO series may now be viewed in my new GALLERY (link also found on the top of the left bar).
P.S. Some new readers have been asking: What’s a collagraph?
by Marja-Leena hands, still
detail from ARKEO #1
Dave Bonta’s The Animators is an amazing dream story of cavemen creating images of their hands on rock walls. It’s given me an inspirational push to finish a post that’s been on my mind for a while.
I keep thinking a lot about hands and what they do. Hunt, plant, gather and eat food. Cook, clean, sew, build. Touch, hold, caress, massage, love. Hold tools to make, write, create, play. And print and paint hands on rock walls.
As regular readers know, I’m fascinated and inspired by the art of early humans. I’ve written about how common hands in rock art are in many parts of the world, including in Borneo.
In recent weeks, I’ve been also astounded by images of disembodied puppet hands at the Marionettemuseum in Salzburg, Austria, hands of the puppeteer (scroll down the page to see Tina Modotti’s photo), some gloved mannequin’s hands and a digital stop sign with a hand.
In my own work, I’ve experimented with scans of my own hands and have made collagraphs of them to use in one of my prints. Eventually I even printed my own hands directly on prints. And finally, there are the most recent examples using my own hands again in ARKEO #1 and ARKEO #2.
by Marja-Leena ARKEO series
detail from ARKEO #2
My latest completed work may now be viewed in my gallery** – please have a look at ARKEO.
Regular readers may find the first one looks familiar. Now titled ARKEO #1, I had posted about in its earliest form, then in a later state. You may find it interesting to compare its development.
I work mostly in series and I usually wait to complete the whole series before I come up with the title. This time I have only three completed pieces to start with but the title came to me readily. However I hesitate to write too much about it in case it will limit the directions that future pieces in the series may take.
As always, I struggle with the words summarizing my work. It’s particularly challenging for me to do so in one or two sentences, such as for this ‘gallery’*. A huge thank you goes to my visiting daughter Anita, a writer and editor, for brainstorming with me last night, helping me to clarify what my work is about and guiding me to a concise way to say it. This morning, it was clear to me that I’m still continuing to explore variations on the same themes as I did in my earlier series going back over more than a decade: messages (Silent Messengers series), connections (Nexus series), paths (Paths series), and transformation, deterioration (Meta-morphosis series) in the context of past, present and future. (See, this is wordy. Hope you like the one in the gallery much better.)
* this newest gallery does not have any statements about the work.
** UPDATE again, re latest 2012 gallery: The ARKEO series may now be viewed in my new GALLERY (link also found on the top of the left bar)