In the 1970s I spent many summers in a house called Kivelä in Mäntyharju, which is located in eastern Finland. The house was my grandparents`, Ester and Lauri Cantell`s summer home. There were a lot of us there: many cousins and other relatives. I remember that those summers were long and sunny.
Many things still bring back memories of those summers: the taste of wild strawberries or red and black currants or a football match I see. I remember what it felt like to return after a sauna to the house in darkness. Or how I suddenly became scared of the endless starry sky when brushing my teeth. I the backyard of Kivelä I learned to stand on my head, and dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. There I also started to think about the mystery of death when burying dead birds.
I have tried to capture these memories into my paintings in the Miekankoski cafeteria. There is also a bit of nostalgia included, since a lot of the people involved in my Kivelä summers are already gone.
