by Marja-Leena

Fiskars Village

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The Fiskars Granary

Funny how one thing leads to another, especially on the net. A while back I had bookmarked for future study an exhibition announcement in Art Daily called ‘Fiskars Art Center presents Remix-Rethought’. Fiskars? The Finnish scissor company? Yes, and there is a place in Finland called Fiskars that I didn’t know about. This tickled my Finnish funny bone.

I found a lovely website for Fiskars Village. It was founded in 1649 and today is known as a center of craft, design and art in a beautiful valley in Southern Finland. I enjoyed the virtual walk around the village and its beautifully restored historic buildings. The village site lists news and the many exhibitions and events.

Some interesting history here! When the old Fiskars Ironworks (est.1649) ceased during the 1980’s the town became uninhabited. The beautiful surroundings and vacant premises lured a number of craftsmen, designers and artists to the village. Eventually they formed The Artisans, Designers and Artists of Fiskars Co-operative. They hold numerous high quality exhibitions that have witnessed growing attendance numbers.

This year the main exhibition is the Remix-Rethought exhibition that I first read about in Art Daily. There’s also an exciting touring exhibition in Japan, Fiskars Design Village. The Artist Residency program for foreign craftsmen, designer and artist professionals also sounds very tempting.

Finnish readers will enjoy this lovely article by Eija Mäkinen* about Fiskars’ artists, artisans and designers. (*Update: this site no longer exists so link has been removed.)

So, guess what town we are going to visit on our next trip to Finland? I think I’d be tempted to move to Fiskars, and it’s not far from Helsinki!

July 14, 2006 in Art Exhibitions, Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

digital abstract expressionist

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Jean Detheux – from the animation “Bénin.”

Some time ago a generous reader and commenter sent me a link to the website of a fascinating artist. Jean Detheux, was born and educated in Belgium and has been living in North America for the past three decades. He has been an assistant dean at The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture and an instructor at Parsons School of Design, as well as New York University, Algonquin College, Concordia University and the Alberta College of Art, where he was also chairman of the department of drawing.

Detheux used to be a painter and is now working exclusively digitally due to allergies to paint fumes and solvents. He spent a great deal of time trying to find a way to work with computers that would be a logical continuation of his previous work. He worked on an old Mac with tools like Painter and Studio Artist and a drawing tablet. I am making digital 2D animation without a story board, without planning, without a story line, without characters, very much along the lines of (digital) “abstract expressionism, Detheux has stated.

Most informative concerning his process is this interview of him that was published 5 years ago called Digital Abstract Expressionism. At the time of this interview he was living on a farm in Canada, somewhere between Montreal and Toronto, with his family and doing his digital artworks. It particularly fascinates me is how he adapted to a totally digital way of art making and managed to continue making highly expressive work.

Visit his site showing his art works, both natural and digital, his writings and several tutorials. Don’t miss this beautiful example of Detheux’s animation work Bénin. An inspiring artist! Thanks for the link, Bill!

PS. Here is more about Jean Detheux, in a later post.

July 12, 2006 in Other artists 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

summer reading

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“Tita thought of the many times she had germinated kernels or seeds of rice, beans, or alfalfa, without giving any thought to how it felt for them to grow and change form so radically. Now she admired the way they opened their skin and allowed the water to penetrate them fully, until they were split asunder to make way for new life. She imagined the pride they felt as the tip of the first root emerged from inside of them, the humility with which they accepted the loss of their previous form, the bravery with which they showed the world their new leaves. Tita would love to be a simple seed, not to have to explain to anyone what was growing inside her, to show her fertile belly to the world without laying herself open to society’s disapproval. Seeds didn’t have that kind of problem, they didn’t have a mother to be afraid of or a fear of those who would judge them.”

(from page 198, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, translated by Carl and Thomas Christensen, Doubleday 1992).

Many years ago, I saw and loved the movie, which I’m sure most readers have seen too. On these hot lazy summer afternoons I’ve been reading some light fiction, including Like Water for Chocolate. Usually I like the book better than the movie, but not this time. I did enjoy reading the traditional Mexican recipes, but they were oddly popped into passages. The writing seems rather stiff, perhaps because it’s written by a screenwriter, or is it the translation? As a lover of folk and fairy tales, I enjoyed the magical realism, as well as the love story and glimpses into Mexican culture at the time of the revolution. Frida Kahlo’s paintings came to mind. The quoted passage above, for me, was one of the more inspired and intriguing ones, making me pause several times to savour the words and meaning.

July 10, 2006 in Books 7 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

rust

rust

looking through some photos I took around the studio last spring…

July 9, 2006 in Being an Artist, Photoworks, Textures 7 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

soccer balls!

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Here’s something fun in honour of the World Cup finals this weekend, from Anthropology.net – “The World Cup, globalization, and cultural representations in the form of soccer balls!”

Togo, Ecuador, and Australia have the most beautiful designs, imho. Which ones do you like (favourite teams aside)? And speaking of teams, I’m rooting for Germany tomorrow, and Italy on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

PS – Have a look at this example of soccer mania and a guide too! Thanks to Leslee for sharing the link in the comments below.

July 7, 2006 in Current Events 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

pensive

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It’s been quiet for a few days here as I recover from having a lot of visitors in the midst of a heat wave. Though it’s a little cooler today, I’m still feeling tired and uninspired. Instead I’ve been doing some needed housekeeping on my computer, and then rewarded myself with another tour of our photos from the recent trip to Alberta. I’m thinking again about how I may use the Writing-on-Stone Park photos, like the one above, in my new work.

Suiting my pensive mood, I’ve also enjoyed a tour through Simon Marsden’s moody and darkly romantic photos (introduced by wood s lot). Naturally I like his Standing Stones the most. The arches and the ruins appeal as well for they have been elements in my past work.

Then a little bit of opera music lifted my spirits some more, though the video itself is too cheesy for my taste. I know and love Dvorak’s Song to the Moon, this time sung by Russian soprano Anna Netrebko. (Kiitos, thanks to tuumailu for the link!) Nothing like this kind of art to nurse a pensive mood and then inspire! Does it work that way for you too?

July 6, 2006 in Being an Artist, Music, Other artists, Photoworks, Rocks 13 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

self-portrait 6

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Here’s another self-portrait, one that turned out rather Andy Warhol-ish, don’t you agree? Maybe it’s also a reflection of my overheated mind and body as the temperatures continue to be HOT here!

Here are the other ones that I’ve contributed to the self-portrait marathon: the first self-portrait, the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth.

And the super slide-show of the participants’ portraits. There are a few days left to join in as it ends on July 8th.

July 3, 2006 in Being an Artist, Human, Photoworks 8 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Happy 139th birthday, Canada!

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On this Canada Day, we have pomp and ceremony in Ottawa, parades, musicals events and fireworks in many communities and many vacationers at cottages and campgrounds. We’re at home awaiting family guests, some from the US too. The weather is too hot, body and brain feel mushy, so I leave you with a few links to peruse about Canada.
About Canada’s national anthem
How Canada got its name
Garry Gaudet’s irreverent look at our marriage of convenience with US , who is also celebrating a birthday on July 4th.
“some sobering reading for both Canadian and American alike on this holiday weekend” by Thunder Bay, Ontario blogger Peter.
LATER: Erika writes about a special CBC-TV documentary: The Canadian Guitar. I forgot about that, so thanks for the reminder, Erika.
Guess what language this Canadian anthem is – thanks to mirabilis.

July 1, 2006 in Canada and BC, Culture, History 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Abakanowicz’ Vancouver Ancestors

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As I mentioned before, last week we ventured out to Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver especially to see the Magdalena Abakanowicz’ sculpture installation. I was excited to be seeing her work live for the first time.

Created for the current Vancouver International Sculpture Biennial, the Vancouver Ancestors consists of 16 three metre tall armless and headless figures, installed on the south side of the park. They look powerful caught in stride with their immense feet, bodies wrapped in folded, twisted and roped cloths of metal. They look ancient because of the rusty surface but they are actually bronze, probably with an iron oxide coating. The backs are concave or hollow I suppose to save on weight.

We were quite excited by these figures, looking and photographing them from all angles and curious about the title too. Is it a reference to the ancient peoples of the area? Somewhere I once read that the natives believe that headless figures are spirits from another world (or something like that). I like to think they are spirits of the people who used to live here long ago. Abakanowicz has worked with headless figures for a long time, so there are other references such as to victims of wars.

When I first saw Abakanowicz’ work in a book years ago, I fell in love with her fibre sculpure, wrapped figures. Since then she has moved to bronze, which of course is durable for the numerous outdoor installations she has been commissioned to do around the world. I was excited to see that she had captured these textures in the moldmaking process and revealed these on the bronze giants.

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A note to visitors: I suggest parking on the south side of the park, then walk up the hill. We lucked out in doing this and it was exciting to suddenly spot the installation in the distance. It made for a good approach coming up to it in this way, closer and closer.

Since I last posted about Abakanowicz and the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale, the biennale site has been much improved and there are excellent photos of the Vancouver Ancestors and of course, works by the other artists that I still have to go and see.

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June 29, 2006 in Art Exhibitions, Other artists | Tags:
2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

self-portrait 5

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Here’s my latest contribution to the self-portrait marathon.

In case you missed the earlier ones in my series, here is the the first self-portrait, the second, the third, the fourth.

View the fantastic slide-show of the participants’ portraits, for which we must give Sparky a huge thank you! And, the marathon is still going strong until July 8th so it’s not too late to join in the fun!

June 28, 2006 in Being an Artist, Human, Photoworks 4 Comments »