When I was little, my father convinced me that art is important and true. For some time I even imagined that it would be great to become a loner, who would just concentrate on painting and at the end of her life come out of her atelier to meet the fans and collect awards.
Luckily life has carried me to much more interesting directions than I could ever have imagined beforehand. I have painted actively since the early 1990s, but I have never been able to do it as a fulltime job. Now I think that this has been a good choice for me.
During the last few years I have painted a lot of animals, especially birds. I started to paint them in cities and have now moved to the Finnish archipelago. The themes of the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic) have become another theme I focus on. I am interested in nature, science and the limits of our knowledge.
Nature has interested me in other ways too. I have a degree in biology (MSc) from Helsinki University (1998) and have worked for YLE ( the Finnish national broadcasting company) as a journalist focusing on themes related to nature and the environment since 1990. I have also co-authored a book about “the miracles of Finnish nature†(Ihmeitä Suomen luonnossa, Gummerus 2003) together with Juha Laaksonen and have translated two nature books into Finnish. In 2003-2010 I have stayed at home taking care of my tree little children.
I have spent a lot of time in Finnish nature, and my paintings rely on these experiences. I want to paint strong paintings which can capture the strength and beauty that I have experienced in nature. It`s fascinating to think about the mysteries of life that surround us. What makes toads start their winter rest? How do birds manage to migrate on stormy sea? The landscape is full of invisible signs, messages, marks and smells. People in my paintings are usually a part of a big landscape.