Snow

At last some snow here in Helsinki,
this guy lived only one night.
But what great time he had in my balcony!



One below is from Vadelma ry's openings
at Om'pu-bar, 3.11.08:



This is Helsinki's new music-house,
they chose the cheapest offer:

Year Full of Art

This year I have participated in 5 exhibitions
(one of them being my first exhibition in abroad)
and also I published my first public paintings in
Kontula-Health-Care-Center.

I did 7 Suohumala-gigs and put out new Suohumala-CD.
And I did one DJ-gig and tried once Video-Jockeys job.

Hmm... was that all? Maybe.

I really should organize my plans, but somehow
"planning" feels very unsatisfying. DOING things,
however chaotic that may be, is much more compelling!!

I have a really good idea for a solo-exibition,
also I have enough song-structures for 2-3 CD's.
And once in a month I have to visit in unemployment
office, every time fearing that they cut-off my
benefits...

Nobody buys my art and I have no place in "art world".

So what the hell am I doing??
Answer: HAVING FUN!!

If somebody would offer me a job where I could
get 3000 euros/month by sitting in front of the computer
10 hours a day I most likely refused the offer.

It is much more satisfying creating your own stuff
than to be somebody else's slave, even if that means
that I have to struggle with 300-400 euros/month.

And besides I don't have any loans, cars or children,
I haven't bought any of that stuff they try to sell
us so that they could imprison us with responsibilities.

Ok, I have my troubles and I can't say I AM FREE
because creativity in itself is pretty obsessive,
but all in all I'm quite happy with the road
I have chosen...

By the way, these paintings here
(from Funny Ancestor series) are hanging
on the walls of Om'pu-bar in
Siltasaarenkatu 15, Helsinki
until 30.11.2008
(That's VADELMA ry's exhibition there)

Pieksämäki Triennale

I participated in Pieksämäki Young
Artists 2nd Triennale which takes place
2.10-2.11.2008 in the middle of Finland.
That is in "savo" and place is culture-
center Poleeni:



I experienced jet-lag first time in
my life since all other artists woke
up so early to install their work.



So by measuring time-difference I
could have visited New York...



I spent my first 18 years in Pieksämäki
and trip was great for me since I hadn't visited
there for 10 years...



Above rules Jari Asikainen who organized
this exhibition. He was also in charge of
ordering food to the openings:



...and he also invited Sir mr Taf
to perform on the occasion:



(Behind you can see another one of my new
paintings which were finished just for
this exhibition... I'll put pictures of
them soon to my webpages!)



They also had some cover of the
exhibition in Savon Sanomat and
Länsi Savo.

Newspapers didn't mention dogs:

Viritin

New Suohumala -cd will be called "Viritin".
It is almost ready, holding 12 tracks,
even album-covers are ready.

So if you see me at Helsinki-Comix-festival 13.-14.9,
don't be afraid to buy one, it is defenitely worth of
buying and listening.

Actually, I realized that now I can put some
taste tracks to Suohumala's myspace-site.
Check them out!

And there shall be three different colour-versions
of cd's cover...

Tuner

I'm doing a new cd, it's going to be called
"Viritin" or "Tuner", I'm not yet sure which.
If everything works out fine I'll be selling it
in Comix Festival, Helsinki, 12.-13.9.2008.

I'll put to Suohumala's MYSPACE-site few taste-tracks soon!

I'm very satisfied with this new record,
it has many groovy dance-tracks as well as
all kinds of strange atmospheres. All in all
it could be described as POP-ROCK-ELECTRO-SOUL...
...hmmm.. or could it? Well you have to buy
and judge yourself, I have a feeling that "Viritin" will
be very remarkable step in my music career!!

And it is also a very good soundtrack to my paintings.
As allways.



I also finally bought SCANNER!
So in this autumn I there will be
lots of new drawings in my website.
I have quite many old sketchbooks, full
of excellent material...



And next exhibition will be 1.10-2.11.2008
in Pieksämäki, (in savo) in a group-exhibition called
"Säkkipimeä". I haven't been to Pieksämäki
(town where I grew up) for ten years so it is
going to be a little bit like a TwinPeaks-trip
for me..

Russian Video-Clip

I just got address to news-clip
from "First Baltic Bienniale".
You'll find it HERE!

Me and my paintings flash
on the end-bit of the clip.

Russia

First Baltic Bienniale came and went.
It was held 5.-15.7. in St.Petersburg, Russia,
in big old soviet-style "Central
Governmental Exhibition Hall", called
Manege. It is located right next to
Isaac's Church, in the center of Petersburg.



(Manege is that building on the left, picture taken
from the roof of Isaac's Church).

I showed there eight paintings, two of
them being brand new ones (Travel of
the Innocents, 1&2). Customs went
very smoothly, might be because one of the
organizers of the exhibition was director of
Hermitage.

My russia isn't so good, I know only alphabets
and some words but I had feeling that people
really liked my paintings. People spend time
watching them and photographed them quite a lot.







There is also interesting video-clip from openings
in my youtube-site.

They had also printed really beautiful
catalogue about exhibition. And one day
I was interviewed for Russian tv (Telekanal).
Me and my paintings appeared few seconds
in the news, sadly I don't have yet that news-clip.



Above you can see photo-art of my host,
Sami Hyrskylahti
and below is picture of another finnish
artists', Paula Salmela's performance.
She really did hang in Manege every day,
under that strange hum of air ventilation
machines:





This was my fifth trip to St.Petersburg
and city has developed fast. My first
impression was that on Nevski Prospekt
(main street) you hardly noticed being in
Russia.



However land-slavery still seem to exist:



Even traffic seemed much safer
and more reasonable than before.
I guess people don't want to wreck
their new fine cars:



And there was feeling of safety
also, although I had to be aware of
militia, cause I hadn't registered
my visa:



Drinking tea (especially Pu-ehr) is
one of the main things to spend your
time:



And from cafe's terrace on Nevski you have
good place to study inhabitants of St.Petersburg:





There was also much nightclubbing to be done.
Sami was indeed correct guide to the scene:



However I didn't drink so much.
From the past experiences I know
that hangovers in Russia are not
so nice. And my accommodations being
what it was I really didn't need any
extra excitement:



Days and nights had little difference...







Of course there was 5 million people in
St.Petersburg plus tourists so somedays
I just had to get away from the city.
One day I went to Peterhof, to relax in
tzar's gardens.





There was also some kind of "largest
fountains in the world" or something
which gathered lots of tourists:



On last day I managed finally to visit
Hermitage which was full of tourists.



Anyway I had in Hermitage really deep
art-experience and it is really sad that
battery of my camera went out there...



All in all, it was a work trip
and I was happy to return Finland,
back to my basic stupid life:



At last I have a month and a half VACATION
before I have to start to struggle with
that unemployment-office's career-changing
course... but that is another story!

Baltic Biennial

If gods are fortunate on me I will
participate on "Baltic Biennial of
Contemporary Art" in St. Petersburg.
That is my first exhibition abroad.
Exhibition takes place in
"Manege Central Exhibition Hall"
(St. Isaac’s Square 1),
in the very center of the St.Petersburg
5.-15.7.

I guess I will stay there whole
time so it'll be also vacation.
Reports and photos of the journey will
be posted here (afterwards?)

Here are two new paintings
(Travel of Innocents 1&2)
that will be exhibited there
among other "Pere Demu" paintings:








I have done also lots of Suohumala-recordings
recently. There's a good stuff coming!
My plans are to make new CD for the time
of Helsinki Comics-festival on 12.-14.9.2008!!

And last week I got this letter
from Unemployment office which stated
that I have to apply for their course
called "New Direction" (uusi suunta).
They used to put people to similar courses
in Cambodia and China, I guess they have
now recognized here in Finland that old
tricks are better than new ones!

Well well, it seems that artistic
behavior and creativity is considered
dangerous in our consumer-based society...

Merry Christmas!

Following series of photographs is from Aitoo.
4.6. there was photograph-exhibition opening
in my friends', Teuvo and Helkas gallery...











As a result of accident, we had to amputate
poor photographers both legs with pocketknives...

Last weekend I was performing in Factory
with Kytät and Backwoods Powerhouse.
That was my last gig for a while,
I have to seriously re-think the idea
of artist-beers:



Kytät:



Also last weekend I finally visited Kivinokka (Herttoniemi,
Helsinki) where they had organized a sculpture-exhibition
outside the Maija's cafe. There was also music performances
of Vuohi ja Poliisi, Dark President and Harppuuna. And
also reasonable amount of rain:



a sculpture by Maria Hopia:



a sculpture by Leena Pukki:



a sculpture by Olli Hopia:



another sculpture by Olli Hopia: