Abre los ojos - Open your eyes

Odette

2011-12-03T18:05:00.000+02:00

2011 oil on canvas, 40x40

This name could be also "The death of Odette", but I thought that name could be too rough leaving just too little for everybody's imagination.

Odette is the Swan Queen from the ballet Swan Lake. Odette is an enchanted princess under a spell of the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart, she has been transformed into a swan by day and can only regain her human form at night. She has many companions under the same spell, who have made her their queen. The only way for the spell to be broken is by the power of eternal love between Odette and a young man who will remain faithful to her, for if the vow of eternal love is broken, she will remain a swan forever.

One day, the young Prince Siegfried ventures upon the lake and sees Odette transform from her swan form back into her human form. He is so struck by her beauty that he falls in love with her at once and when she tells him her story, he promises to love her forever and invites her to a Royal Ball at his castle so he may choose her as his bride. They spend the night dancing together, falling more and more in love with each other until dawn breaks and Odette is forced to return to the lake as a swan, leaving Siegfried alone.

Von Rothbart has planned to trick Siegfried into breaking his vow to Odette by magically disguising Odile in Odette's shape and form. Siegfried dances with her and fails to see the real Odette appearing at the window in her swan form to warn him of Rothbart's plot and pleading with him to remain faithful to her. Rothbart's plan is a success when Siegfried declares his eternal love to Odile, thinking she is Odette and Rothbart joyfully reveals that Odette is now forever in his power.

Odette flees back to the lake in distress and Siegfried follows her, begging her to forgive him, which she does but she tells him that she will never be freed from Rothbart's spell. The only way she can be freed is if she dies, for she would rather die than live without Siegfried. Siegfried cannot live without Odette and declares that he will die with her. When Rothbart appears, Odette throws herself into the lake and Siegfried follows her. In the climax of their sacrifice, Rothbart's powers are destroyed and the spell is finally broken; Odette's companions are freed from the enchantment.

My favourite ballet! <3

Odile

2011-12-03T13:43:00.000+02:00

2011 oil on canvas, 40x40

Odile is the black swan from the ballet Swan Lake, daughter of evil sorcerer Von Rothbar. Odile is passionate, cunning, vibrant, cold-blooded and she doesn't avoid any means.

Whatever Lola wants...

2011-10-28T15:43:00.000+03:00

2011 oil on canvas 50x70

In the spirit of Whatever Lola wants by Gotan Project and Sarah Vaughan. One of my favourite songs.

"Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets

And little man, little Lola wants you

Make up your mind to have no regrets

Recline yourself, resign yourself, you're through

I always get what I aim for
And your heart and soul is what I came for

Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets
Take off your coat
Don't you know you can't win?

You're no exception to the rule
I'm irresistible, you fool
Give in!"

All for one and one for drama/Kaikki yhden ja yksi draaman puolesta

2011-10-20T11:26:00.000+03:00

2011 acrylic on canvas

Dramajunkie allert! ;)

Btw this is probably same size than the original painting.

Between us/Välissämme

2011-10-11T18:07:00.000+03:00

2011 oil and acrylic on canvas 50x60

Relationships can be complicated. E.g. we have so many roles in life and we wear so many different social masks that there are sometimes quite difficult to get to know each other, how they really are deep inside.

Take offs/Irtiottoja

2011-10-10T22:22:00.000+03:00

2011 acrylic on canvas 24x30

One lonely star/Yksin

2011-07-13T23:50:00.001+03:00

2011 Oil and acrylic on canvas 55x30

The mask theme continues and will continue in the future. They're too stick in my head right now, in many senses ;)

This one is named by Madonna's Take a bow -song. That song has very strong lyrics and they have always touched me.

"Take a bow, the night is over
This masquerade is getting older
Lights are low, the curtains down
There's no one here
[There's no one here, there's no one in the crowd]
Say your lines but do you feel them
Do you mean what you say when there's no one around [no one around]
Watching you, watching me, one lonely star
[One lonely star you don't know who you are]"

When that Take a bow was released, I was a teenager and there were this boy that I always thought when I heard this song, but now the meanings has changed to me... I don't even know If they remind me of someone else or just me. There are sometimes that kind of moments when you're with people and kinda entertaining them but deep inside you are feeling alone.

Who are you?/Kuka sinä olet?

2011-04-16T23:32:00.003+03:00

2011 Acrylic on canvas 65x75

On commission, in private collection

Two conquests: a male figure and acrylics. Name is from the Who's legendary song Who are you. And that was the question that I pondered when I was painting this.

I have this thing about masks especially Venetian ones. At the same time they are beautiful, fascinating but also kinda scary. You'll never know what kind of expression someone have behind the mask.

One detail

At the garden party/Puutarhajuhlilla

2011-03-25T20:32:00.001+02:00

2011 acrylic on canvas 27x35

Little impressionism practice with acrylics.

Rendezvous/Kohtaamisia

2011-03-19T14:49:00.002+02:00

2010 oil on canvas 50x40

In private collection

Cold and stormy times but meeting a long lost friend or loved one can make life more beautiful.

Scenes from a garden/ Kohtauksia eräästä puutarhasta

2010-10-11T17:01:00.000+03:00

2010 oil on canvas

The blue umbrella/Sininen sateenvarjo

2010-09-17T15:01:00.001+03:00

2010 oil on canvas, 40x50

Feeling calm and vulnerable but still strong and determined. Nothing can touch me!

Two beams of light/ Sain lyhtyjä kaksi

2010-08-27T08:57:00.001+03:00

2010 oil on canvas, 46x55

Primitive self-portrait. This is the other half of the song "Gracias a la vida" (Thanks to life) by my vision. You can see the other half here with my comments WHY I painted that song. Gracias a la vida by Violeta Parra has hounted my mind still... so I had to paint the melancholic side of it.

Falling/Tule kaunis syksy!

2010-08-23T23:29:00.000+03:00

2010 acrylic on canvas 40x50

Beautiful fall comes and allures you to love her. You can't resist that vivid nature and fresh breeze. All those fallen, colorful leaves brings us a sentimental mood and a recollection from childhood games. Come, come beautiful fall and let us fall for you!

On the rocks

2010-08-17T21:27:00.001+03:00


Rocking landscape 2010, Acrylic on rock

Treasure chasing 2010, Acrylic on rocks

In private collection

Treasure chasing -rock has split in two, if you open it the secret will be revealed

and the adventure shall begin

Sunset tree 2010, Acrylic on rock

In private collection

Bringer of the light/ Valon kantaja

2010-08-14T11:19:00.001+03:00

2010 oil on canvas 50 x 40

In private collection

Bringing love, joy, happiness and softness to this cruel world.

Dream trees/Unipuut

2010-08-11T00:07:00.001+03:00

2010 acrylic on canvas 10x15 each

in private collection

I love trees and I think there's much humanity in them. They have roots and they can be big or small, they try to reach up and touch the sky and depending conditions where they grow that defines how tough they become... and so does humans. So trees have become a symbol of humans and humanity in my art.

Blooming/Eivät kai kukkaset kuki turhaan

2010-06-06T12:49:00.002+03:00

2010 oil on canvas 40x50

Spring brought us summer and everything came to life.

Konichiwa bitches!

2010-04-22T11:37:00.004+03:00

2010, oil on canvas 60x73

There is some kind of Japan period definitely going on in my head right now.

Friendships between girls can be complicated and there's always the third wheel.

Grey day's eve/Harmaan päivän aatto

2010-01-31T16:21:00.000+02:00

2009, oil on canvas 30x40

Sometimes something unpleasant is coming and you know it and you know there's nothing to stop it. You just have to wait it's arrival and wear it.

Mornings are the worst/Pahimpia ovat aamut

2010-01-15T14:20:00.001+02:00

2009, oil on canvas 60x80

I'm not at my best in the mornings. Usually awakening takes a moment or two ;) and my body feels tense.

The name of the picture is from Maija Vilkkumaa's song. Maija Vilkkumaa is a Finnish singer and and songwriter. I'm not a big fan but this song "totuutta ja tehtävää" has so witty lyrics. They tell about one night, one moment when small group of people are playing truth or dare. Chorus goes something like this:

"And the mornings are the worst

of which end you can not see

I always fear that they get me

and so finally it is"

Listen "totuutta ja tehtävää" here.

Gracias a la vida/Thanks to life/Elämälle kiitos

2009-12-22T16:30:00.003+02:00

2009, oil on canvas 30x40 (each part)

in private collection

The whole autumn 2009 I listened a lot Violeta Parra's Gracias a la vida song. That song is about glorying your life and my father listened it a lot when I was a child. Then he also told me how tragic is the history of that song. After awhile releasing that song Violeta Parra commited suicide. Thought of that has haunted me in my entire life. I can't understand how someone can do such act after praising every little thing that she has had in her life.

And so I did what I usually do when I can't get out of my mind something... I painted that song... or more like the feeling of that song's lyrics. The melody is bit melancholic.

Listen Violeta Parra's Gracias a la vida here.

Finnish version of that song "Elämälle kiitos" by Liisa Tavi is very beatiful too. Jaana Lappo and Merja Onerva has done precise work when they translated the lyrics. Listen "Elämälle kiitos" here.

Part two:

And part one:

Night in Kyoto/ Ilta Kiotossa

2009-12-13T00:02:00.002+02:00

2009, oil on canvas 50x40

in private collection

Japan theme continues :) This picture is painted from the movie: Memoirs of a geisha.

The nodding doll/ Nyökyttelevä nukke

2009-12-06T22:46:00.002+02:00

2009, oil on canvas 30x40

in private collection

This picture is about one of my poems that I wrote few years ago. The poem is about one place where I'll never want to live again. That place was so pressing and restricting that I wasn't myself there. I felt like I was only a someone's muse, tiptoeing geisha and a nodding doll.

However the geisha in this picture seems to have inner peace and happiness... and so have I... now. Like they say: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" or was it "what doesn't kill you, comes back again and try it even harder"? Nietzsche knew nothing!! ;)

Burning the ice/ Jäitä poltellessa

2009-11-28T17:26:00.000+02:00

2009, oil on canvas 30x40

I have a tendency to gather too much to do. I am interested about so many things and I want to make a difference several affairs and places at the same time. That makes me sometimes just too busy and I feel like I'm burning the ice.

There was only red, blue and titanium white in palette when I painted this.

As the rush comes/ Tulee kohisten

2009-11-23T17:28:00.000+02:00

2009, oil on canvas, size of one part 55x45

Part One:

and part two:

Spring is always beautiful and energetic time in my life. Sun is bright and everything just comes to life, nature and people also.

Silence in a wheat field/ Ja minä olen viljaa

2009-11-21T18:16:00.001+02:00

2009, oil on canvas 30x40

They talk Shhht! about me

2009-11-14T20:45:00.002+02:00

2008, oil on canvas 73x60

I hate gossips and gossiping people. I am aware that people have extremely diffrent opinions about me, some love me and some think that I'm the most irritating person in the world ;) And that's fine to me. However sometimes somebody starts to gossip about me, I don't like it but it's insignificant to me unless those talks hurt somebody of my close ones.

When I painted this, I often listened to the radio and there was this Matt Pokora's song "They talk sh*t about me" played over and over again. That song was catchy and the same time a little bit annoying, so what would be more appropriate name for this painting? ;)

Soleá

2009-11-10T09:15:00.000+02:00

2008, oil on canvas 35x27

Overly.../Liian...

2009-11-08T22:20:00.001+02:00

2008, oil on canvas 65x81

In private collection

Does anybody know the feeling when you are overly sensitive, when you have exposed yourself too much? Then you are just too bare and transparent without any protection...

Let's do some shopping!/Ostaosta!

2009-11-04T23:30:00.002+02:00

2008, oil on canvas 30x40

I am a victim of fashion and commercials. I love fashion pics and I think that they are works of art. Those pictures are alluring, beautiful and creative. Fashion photographers have to be imaginative when they create images that are different and unusual. A fashion product has to be portrayed creatively while at the same time conveying style and classiness.

Same time that I love fashion, I hate it. I hate fashion industry, materialism and mass consumption. So I have to struggle between these things in me. Those both ideas are like some little lady sitting on my shoulder and whispering all those things to my ear.

Play with me!!/Leikimunkaa!!

2009-10-27T20:28:00.001+02:00

2008, oil on canvas 40x40

I got inspired by a picture that I saw in a fashion magazine (don't ask what magazine that was, I can't remember). The pose of a model in that picture was just awesome. It was irritating and same time playful and funky.

Solve the riddle soon, Nancy Drew!/Ratkaisun hetki lähenee, Neiti Etsivä!

2009-10-26T14:25:00.003+02:00

2008, oil on canvas 40x40

It is tickling and exciting to make decisions that will have an effect to your whole life and change it forever. I love changes.

Cure me/Lääkitse minua

2009-10-25T12:35:00.003+02:00

2008, oil on canvas 40x40

I've been told about hundred times that I'm like Scarlet O'Hara from the movie Gone with the Wind. I am strong, stubborn, determined, assertive and even difficult circumstances I stay calm and know what to do. BUT in relationship I have a tendency to act fragile, weak and vulnerable woman who needs to be rescued.

Spilling/Kaatuuko?

2009-10-24T22:50:00.003+03:00

2008, oil on canvas 40x40

After I did "expecting company?" I kinda got stuck to paint bottles again. It was so much fun and relaxing to paint them. To be honest, when I started to paint this I have this vision of a lonely bottle with greenish backround and nothing else. And so I executed my vision... but it didn't work. I usually have so strong visions what I'm going to paint and when this idea didn't seem to work, I was kinda shocked. Then because of this reaction I started to laugh at my silliness and started to plan different kind of stuff with this bottle. First idea was ants climbing to the bottle and then came a surrealistic idea of little woman pulling the bottle down with a rope. So I think this little woman is me (again) and this bottle represent my frustration with this painting ;)

Expecting company?/Seuraa vailla?

2009-10-24T19:55:00.001+03:00

2008, oil on canvas 40x54,

on commission, in private collection

There are three colours and one white in this port wine composition. Only burnt sienna, crimson, brussian blue and titanium white in palette.

There's something about shape of a bottle. I have painted and drawn bottles since I was a child. So no need to decode any indications of alcoholism from my art :) Like I said there's something about shape of a bottle. Can't really tell what that thing is why I love bottles, I don't only paint and draw them, I also use them to decorate my apartment. Bottles are usually very beautiful, round and because they are made of glass they are fragile, like people I guess.

Inner goddess/Luulin pitkään, että olen jumalatar

2009-10-19T23:14:00.003+03:00

2008, oil on canvas 81x100

Brush in my hand and my tongue-in-cheek ;) Reference naturally from Botticelli's masterpiece The birth of Venus.

There lives more or less a little goddess, queen or a princess in every woman.

Miss spring and the early appearance/Neiti kevät saapui varhain

2009-10-17T19:28:00.001+03:00

2008, oil on canvas 81x65

Spring came really early in 2008. At least in Finland it did. In fact there was no proper winter in Finland that year, quite warm and hardly any snow.

The misfit/Sopeutumaton

2009-10-17T19:10:00.000+03:00

2008, oil on canvas 55x46

Sometimes you just don't belong.

Before the conflict/Hetki ennen konfliktia

2009-10-17T16:04:00.001+03:00

2008, oil on canvas 35x27

What I hate more than anything in a world or in people is injustice. When I see someting that isn't just right, I'll fight. In that way I think I am a revolutionary but in a nonviolent sense.

Dancing on the edge/Tanssia hiuskarvan varassa

2009-10-17T14:58:00.001+03:00

2008, oil on canvas 60x73

I love dancing. It has always been one of my greatest passions in life. It helps to deal with different kinds of emotions from joy to despair or sorrow even. It's also a fun way to keep in shape.

I'm generally speaking very optimistic person. It doesn't mean I don't realise facts when things are looking bad, it just mean I always think that things are going to be ok. I don't get depressed easily, when something unpleasant happens I usually feel down for one night and when a new day dawns I remember that I have eight lives left ;)

From dust/Maasta

2009-10-14T21:45:00.002+03:00

2007, oil on canvas 70x95

Waiting for a cup of coffee/Kahvia odotellessa

2009-10-14T12:03:00.002+03:00

2006, oil on canvas 40x50

In private collection

Two colours and one white. Only burnt sienna, prussian blue and titanium white in palette.

What can I say... I really LOVE coffee. By the time it meant several cups in a day. Now I haven't drank it for six months. I replaced it with green tea, because it's healthier =)

Bare disfigured/Rujo alaston

2009-10-13T21:45:00.002+03:00

2006, oil and charcoal on canvas

Drama Queen

2009-10-13T21:26:00.004+03:00

2006, oil on canvas

One part of my self-portrait. The other part is called Blue. Both of them reflect different sides of my personality. As the Blue reflects some kind of shyness and introverted side of me, this Drama Queen is total opposite of that.

This Drama Queen is an extrovert, bold, cheery and dares to do whatever she wants to. Life is a big show to her and she's the brightest star. She is vital and she helps and supports all the weak ones. She has such passion that she can be burning like a sand of Sahara.

Autumn leaves

2009-10-13T18:10:00.000+03:00

2006, oil on canvas

Leaves are so colourful and beautiful in autumn. But it can also mean the time when some are leaving their families and some are planning to leave something else. I love wordplays! <3

Global warming/Ilmaston lämpeneminen

2009-10-13T18:00:00.001+03:00

2006, oil on canvas

This subject is really close to my heart but I see things a bit differently than many other. I have written my thoughts into my other blog, but unfortunately it's in Finnish.

Lue ajatuksiani ilmaston lämpenemisestä toisessa blogissani. [kirjoitukseen pääset klikkaamalla tätä]

Mother nature

2009-10-13T17:57:00.001+03:00

2005, oil on canvas

Vital, spontaneus but prudent, explosive, fertile and nurturing. Trees and people have so many similarities for example roots and they both are trying to reach up to the skies.

Aurochs/Jotain alkukantaista

2009-10-13T17:45:00.002+03:00

2005, oil on canvas

In private collection

A modern cave painting and a modern caveman ;)

Destination nowhere/Matkalla jonnekin

2009-10-13T16:23:00.004+03:00

2005, oil and paper on canvas

Sometimes life is just drifting and sometimes you have to escape from things or places. Then you'll have to plan your whole life all over again and start from almost nothing.

Lady behind the mask: Blue

2009-10-13T15:35:00.002+03:00

2004, oil on canvas.

This is sort of self-portrait, or at least one part of it, like a reverse side of a coin. Other part of this self-portrait is called Drama Queen.

This blue is kind of a loner, a traveller of her own path. She is an introvert, shy, very vulnerable and calm as a desert of Lapland. She is bare, disfigured and has a bad posture. She writes poems and keeps them hidden in her drawer and in her dreams she always escapes.

Diva at the catwalk/Diiva catwalkilla

2009-10-13T15:22:00.002+03:00

2004, oil on canvas

Quick one in Picasso's footsteps ;)

Mal de tête

2009-10-13T15:15:00.005+03:00

2004, oil on canvas

Headache/Päänsärky

Sometimes you have this feeling somebody's poking your head with wooden sticks ;)

Few words about my paintings

2009-10-12T15:02:00.006+03:00

I paint what I see and feel. Usually those "little women" that I paint are a reflection of me but I can see no reason why they have to look like me. I don't have that kind of fixation of my looks like for example Frida Kahlo did have. I like to observe things that are going on in our society and you can also find those features in my paintings.

My tools are brushes, oil colours, sometimes charcoal, acrylic or ink and a hint of self-irony.

I'm very interested in people and human behavior but sometimes I paint compositions or landscapes even.

Hope you enjoy!

-Minna-Maarit-

ps. feel free to bitch about my grammar errors! I would appreciate it :)