by Marja-Leena

Karelia’s Rock Art & History

Andrew Heninen is a Karelian (Finnish-Russian) programmer with a keen interest in the history of lost Finnish territories. Karelia (or Karjala in Finnish) is a territory which straddles the present-day border between Finland and Russia, and is home to the Karelian people, related to Finns. Heninen’s site has numerous pages in English, Finnish and Russian about Karelian history that is like walking into a museum.

These pages about the area’s rock art fascinate me the most:
Karelian petroglyphs in drawings and photos
The Stone Labyrinths
Sami Sacred Stones or Seidas

Another interesting note, when on the home page, if you click “refresh”, the photos change.

In case you missed it, I wrote a related post some time ago called visiting Karelia.

Read about the sad history of the Many Karelias** from which this quote:

Karelia holds an important place in Finnish cultural history. The material for the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala and numerous other collections of folk poetry were gathered mainly in the northern parts of Finnish and Russian Karelia. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Karelia provided the inspiration for many of Finland’s leading artists, composers and writers and played an important role in the 19th century national awakening and the development of a Finnish national identity. (link added by me.)

** expired and removed link

July 6, 2004 in Ethnicity, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Folk Legends & Myths, History, Rock Art & Archaeology 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Meta-morphosis VI

MM-VI-(primo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VI (Primo)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VI-(secondo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VI (Secondo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VI-(terzo)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VI (Terzo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VI-(Passages)72.jpg
Meta-morphosis VI (Passages)
Etching & Drypoint 76 x 56 cm.

(ABOUT this series)

July 5, 2004 in Meta-morphosis, Printworks 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Finnish Rock Paintings

Finnish rock paintings are an unique link to the world of the Stone Age people. The paintings are made 6000- 3000 years ago in vertical rock surfaces. The nearby lake was an important waterway, These pages introduce some of the over 90 rock painting sites in Finland. The photographs are digitally retouched to make the paintings more visible. In nature they are much weaker.

This is the introduction to Ismo Luukkonen’s extensive site of photographs of Finnish rock paintings with accompanying text in both Finnish and English. Ismo Luukkonen is an award winning photographer and teacher with a passionate interest in the ancient marks of Finland’s early people.

Click on the place names in the left navigation area to view the many sites of the paintings. Read about their possible meaning, and how he digitally retouched his photographs to enhance the images, shown with lots of detail! A great site that has captured some of the spiritual feeling of these places!

(Ismo Luukkonen’s site was updated in early 2005, so above links have been adjusted accordingly.)

July 3, 2004 in Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Photography, Rock Art & Archaeology 5 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Happy Canada Day

It is Canada’s 137th birthday! Here’s a little background history and how Canada got its name.

Many communities have celebrations like parades, free concerts and museums entries, street activities, lots of multicultural performances, and fireworks. Look at capital city Ottawa’s program of events!

and just in from CBC

July 1, 2004 in Canada and BC, Culture 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Creative Industries Study

In today’s ArtForum News:
Study Reveals Nation’s Most Art-Saturated Cities

The nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts has released its first national Creative Industries Study, which analyzes in detail the locations of arts-related businesses, institutions, and organizations in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. The study reveals that eleven metropolitan areas have more than ten thousand arts-related businesses, institutions, and organizations (both for-profit and nonprofit) each: New York tops the list with 54,895, with Los Angeles following close behind. But when ranked per capita, the metropolitan area with the highest number of arts-related businesses, institutions, and organizations is Seattle, followed by San Francisco.

Read the full report: Americans for the Arts.

Did you notice that three of the cities mentioned here are on the west coast?

I wonder if a similar study has been done of Canadian cities and how would they compare? Vancouver and Seattle are often compared because of similar climate and size, how about the arts?

June 30, 2004 in Culture Comments Off on Creative Industries Study

by Marja-Leena

Copyright Infringement

Anna L. Conti, a San Francisco artist and art blogger, has had one of her works copied and then put up for sale on eBay by a fraud artist. This is an infringement of copyright, like having your work plagiarized. Read her June 28th entry as she explains why this is important to an artist and to buyers. I will be following closely her updates to see how the issue is resolved, really hoping that it will not become a costly legal battle like one artist friend of mine went through.

UPDATE JUNE 29: Anna has set up a special page eBay Art Fraud. Read and be warned and be aware!

Related links:
CARCC (Canadian Artists Representation Copyright Collective Inc) is a copyright collective that licenses and administers copyright for visual and media artists in Canada
Canadian Copyright Act
myths about copyright

June 28, 2004 in Being an Artist, Care of Art Works Comments Off on Copyright Infringement

by Marja-Leena

Meta-morphosis V

MMVprimo72.jpg
Meta-morphosis V (primo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MMVsecondo72.jpg
Meta-morphosis V (secondo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MM-VTerzo72.jpg
Meta-morphosis V (terzo)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

MMV(Passages).jpg
Meta-morphosis V (Passages)
Etching 76 x 56 cm.

June 26, 2004 in Meta-morphosis, Printworks 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Original Prints vs. Reproductions

The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art’s online Canadian Art Database includes a section on Printmaking, where I found a good explanation of the difference between an original print and a reproduction, something that is still confusing to many people, and is an important issue for buyers of art.

The introduction states: An original print is an image that has been conceived by the artist as a print and executed solely as a print, usually in a numbered edition, and signed by the artist. Each print of the edition is an original, printed from a plate, stone, screen, block or other matrix created for that purpose.

A reproduction (although often called a print) has no relationship whatsoever to an original print; it is a copy of a work of art conceived by the artist in another medium (painting, watercolour, etc.). The reproduction has usually been made by photo-mechanical means. Numbering and signing a reproduction does not change its essence; it is still a reproduction. It is not an original print.

Continue reading under Definition of Original Print in this section.

Of additional interest here, The Printing Process Illustrated is a guide to some original printmaking methods.

See also previous posts What is a Print? and more on prints.

More about original prints on Mauricio Lasansky’s site, an artist whose drawings and prints I admire greatly.

June 24, 2004 in Printmaking Comments Off on Original Prints vs. Reproductions

by Marja-Leena

Canadian culture

‘if’ backtracked to my post of yesterday on Art in Canada & CBC, so I made a first visit and browse.

A recent and particularly timely entry caught my eye, Wyman speaks linked to an interesting and currently very important site Our Public Airwaves. There is lots of reading here, and of course the article on Max Wyman’s book, The Defiant Imagination which “makes an impassioned case for why culture matters and why it matters in particular for Canadians”. A must-read!!

Max Wyman is well-known to Vancouverites as a critic, writer and supporter of Canadian dance, music, drama and literature. I haven’t heard much about his views on visual arts, and not too much about it is in the quoted texts in this article. But his views on the need for government to protect and support culture including multiculturalism come strong and clear, a message that our political leaders need to hear. Support of the CBC is one part of this.

This book is built on a belief in the paramount importance of creative activity in the fulfilled human life, a conviction that access to creative expression and the shared creative heritage should be universal, and a commitment to creative excellence. Central to the entire exercise is the unyielding idea that, in a world where profit and the bottom line assume a dangerous primacy, society has the responsibility to provide long-term support for culture in all its multiplicity: the making of it, the enjoyment of it and the sharing of it. Since uncertainty underpins all creative enterprise, someone must be prepared to underwrite the possibility of failure. That someone must be society itself, in large part through the funding processes of government.

To properly protect our culture, it is excellence in creativity that should be supported, not nationalism. Take care of the creators, and the culture takes care of itself.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, this subject ties in with Chandrasutra’s discussions* on the importance of Canadian culture and how CBC is part of it.

Again, if you are Canadian, please sign the support a stronger CBC campaign.

*expired link removed

June 22, 2004 in Canada and BC, Culture Comments Off on Canadian culture

by Marja-Leena

summer solstice

Depending on where you are in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the longest day of the year. Actual dates of celebrations vary in countries, often a weekend nearest the true solstice for convenience. It is mostly a northern European festival with pagan roots like so many of their traditional holidays.

“Juhannus”* in Finland became so called when Christians renamed it St. John’s Eve. I fondly remember the wonderful looong days and very short almost mere twilit nights, some call “white nights” of the North, with bonfires on the beaches and much merriment. It’s a very important celebration even for emigrant Scandinavian communities in Canada and other parts.

So, Hauskaa Juhannusta! Happy Midsummer!

Addendum June 24.04: Torill has written a magical story of a Norwegian midsummer night – ‘Dreams in the shortest night’.

And Solstice at Stonehenge via BBC

* link has since expired and has been removed.

June 21, 2004 in Culture, Folk Legends & Myths 2 Comments »