I don't always walk around with pencils and brushes. Sometimes I take my camera with me when I go walking in the forest near my home.
Finns have always found peace and consolation in forests, and I'm definitely no exception. Walking among the trees gives me strength and inspiration for my everyday life and for my art. When I enter the forest my mind is still occupied with all kinds of trivial things, but the deeper into the forest I get the more aware I become of the beauty around me; the soft moss, the graceful branches, the lake glittering through the trunks. A deep feeling of peace surrounds me and when I walk out of the forest I feel purified.
My favorite path leads to a clearing with old pine trees, big stones, and boulders in the middle which appear as if someone put them there for a special reason. It is a mysterious place, with a sacred atmosphere which makes you wonder about this ancient place. Only recently I learned I was right. At an exhibition of old artifacts found around my hometown, there was an interesting map showing many prehistoric dwelling sites in the area. The clearing with boulders was marked on it. Actually it is the only one near our town.
From the clearing you can follow a tiny path towards the shore and come to a dead standing pine tree with magnificent branches. Underneath the tree is a neat pile of stones proving that people still come here to make campfires and listen to the whispering wind. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the path continues on. I followed it to the shore and behind the bushes saw big stones in the water. On one of those stones some one had placed a perfectly oval stone. Or was it an egg? I went closer, and discovered it was a stone, a beautiful piece of art among the rushing waves. Next time I went there the stone was gone, perhaps taken by a passer-by, or simply washed into the water. I took a good look at the old trunk of the dead tree and noticed a carving on it which looked like a keyhole but was in the shape of a cross. So this was a shrine, a meeting place of the ancient and the new, the oval stone symbolizing the old legend of the beginning of the world in which the water bird lay its eggs on Airmaiden's knee as she was floating on the waves; out of those eggs land rose up, trees, plants, animals, and finally humans. And the cross was the symbol of the Christianity that banished the old beliefs. In places like this, now the two worlds mingle in a perfect harmony.
On a late evening I walk towards that ancient site and stop at a desolate beach. The sun is setting behind the ridges on the other side of the lake making the trees and waves golden red. This is a scene people have watched here over thousands and thousands of years, and suddenly I feel I am not standing here alone.
Touch the flight feathers of this snow-white dove, and your comments and questions can fly through time to me. . . .
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| Front Page |
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| Introduction |
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| Fair ladies |
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| Blue pastels |
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| Wintry scenes |
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| Copper prints |
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| Local newspaper article |
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