Happy New Year!

And tons of hugs.

Let's all have a super amazing year 2011!

Kitten Bag

I use to have an online shop for my prints and designs. The shirt and bag in the photograph above (by Sarah Maanpää 2008) are from that collection. But about half a year ago I didn't feel it being worthwhile anymore so I closed it.

Now my friend Veera who saw the kitten bag earlier asked me how could she get one too. I decided to update the design and upload it again but now to another internet service that offers printing. So here you go > Organic Kitten Bag at your service. Enjoy!

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Goodbye To Christmas!

Before Christmas is completely gone I want to share with you my most "christmasy" photographs of this year. December 2010 was beautiful.

Choir concert in the Uspenski Kathedral in Helsinki

Gingerbread house in Cafe Lasipalatsi

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I was lazy and didn't send any real Christmas cards this year! To substitute little bit for the wonderful cards I've received I made this video-christmas-card: Christmas Kisses. It is the first video i've uploaded to Vimeo. As you can see it is all hand crafted by me (also the singing *gulp*). It is the thought that counts ;)

Merry Christmas! - Feliz Navidad! - Hyvää Joulua!

Late Night Drawing

It is 5am and I've had some troubles getting sleep. I thought about going to a walk but something about -12C and a snow storm made that idea seem less inviting. I stayed indoors instead. Drawing.

I really do have to go to the dentist tomorrow. It's my least favourite thing to do. But I've decided to be an adult and take care of my teeth.

I'm (Even More) With COCO

Photograph by Tiia Santavirta/ Chaos Tube

Today afternoon I attended a fun demonstration in Helsinki to get Conan's new show CONAN to air in Finnish television. It was organized by a Finnish-American singer Alexandra Alexis who is interviewing me in the photograph. Below is the official video from the happening. It might be aired in Conan show next week! I'm there nervously stuttering with my icon drawing of Conan O'Brien :P

New Logo

I created myself a new logo.

Waiting For New Beginnings

Scribble from my diary last night.

HEYA!'s Christmas Party

Last Thursday we got together to our - Rinna's, Saara's, Sanna's and mine - work studio HEYA! to have a little christmas party. We listened to christmas music, ate christmas treats and made crafts with buttons and cartons.

Rinna made cute christmas cards.

My christmas tree decoration was meant to look like gingerbread but looked like voodoo doll.

Cocktail sized "joulutorttu" and apples (of course).

This is a group portrait of the mistresses of HEYA! that we made with Sanna (I'm the yellow haired girl with the largest mouth). Rinna's (the one with a pink hat) husband and daughter are included cause they practically belong to the HEYA! community. Plus Saara's cat.

Makeover Mania

Have you tried virtual makeover? Experimenting hairstyles and makeup without any hassle. I got quite hooked and photoshopped self-portraits from some of the best looks. P.S. I used the same photograph in every style but still it looks like the facial expression changes. The power of a hairdo!

Dress For Imogen Heap

One amazing miracle of this world is music. Few weeks back I had the privilege to see British singer/songwriter Imogen Heap alive in a rock club Tavastia in Helsinki. She is magical music maker creating her multilayered songs in front of the audience. I had absolutely fantastic time.

During the concert an idea of a dress came to my mind. I'm a strong believer of going with the flow so since the inspiration took me over I decided to make the dress and send it to the artist. She is tall and slender so I think the dress will look better on her than our malformed mannequin. If not it will work well as nightgown as well cause the material used is the softest viscose.

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Along with the package I sent her also this cartoonish ink portrait. I love Imogen Heap's style of decorating her hair with flowers. I hope she gets the present and likes it. But making and sending it was already fun for me.

President's Party

Finland declared its independence from Russia 6th of December 1917. So 6th of December is our Independence day and it was yesterday. The biggest event held yearly during this day is Linnanjuhlat. It is a celebration kept by our president at her castle (note that our current president is woman Tarja Halonen) where only the cream of the cream is invited.

The event is televised. If you belong to the 99 percent of the population that wasn't invited you are probably sitting by your television admiring and criticizing the 1 percent that was. Linnanjuhlat has become the most important "fashion" event of Finland. Who wears what and how. I picked my favorites of this years assortment.

Minna Kauppi (Finnish orienter) looked stunning in her red gown. It was beautifully draped and had a little lace detail. The vintage feeling of the dress gave it a nice dramatic touch and it fitted Minna Kauppi perfectly. (I also must admit that I often favour the colour red.)

Jenni Haukio's dress is best described by word elegant. Beautiful arrangement of details with the textured fabric and antique looking buckles. She looked like modern goddess from Kalevala.

This dress was not in the party but would be the one I'd be wearing if I would be invited. It has a very classic cut but also little bit of humour: the base of the design is the Finnish flag: blue cross in a white background.

Poem Scrap

Early this Autumn I attended a fantastic course "To become a clown!" at the Theatre Academy Helsinki by Italian clown and art therapist Enrica Dal Zio. She gave us this poem by Joseph Beuys. One restless night I made a scrap arrangement out of it for my wall.

Let yourself fall.

Learn to observe snakes.

Plant impossible gardens.

Invite somebody dangerous for tea.

Create little signs which say "Yes"

And distribute them all over your house.

Make friends with freedom and insecurity.

Look forward to dreams. Cry at the movies.

Swing as high as you can in the moonlight.

Cultivate different moods.

Refuse "to be responsible".

Do it out of love.

Take a lot of cat-naps.

Pass money on. Do it now. The money will follow.

Believe in magic.

Laugh a lot. Bathe in the moonlight

Dream wild dreams full of fantasy.

Draw on the walls. Read every day.

Imagine you were bewitched.

Giggle with children. Listen to old people.

Open yourself. Drive in. Be free.

Praise yourself. Drop your fear.

Play with everything. Nourish the child in you.

You are innocent.

Build a castle with blankets.

Get wet. Embrace trees.

Write love letters.

Joseph Beuys

I´m With Coco

There is this great injustice in the world that even though Finland loves Conan O'Brien his new show Conan is not aired in Finland. To get Conan back to Finnish television and support the cause you all must join this facebook group.

I joined the merry group of thousands of Finns sending Conan postcards. I made mine as a drawing. Below is the funny clip of Conan speaking Finnish. I can understand about three words out of his plea in Finnish. But he is very passionate and that is all that matters. We love you Conan!

How Low Can You Logo?

I found the coolest design contest from the wonderful world of Internet: How Low Can You Logo? The task is to create the ugliest logo possible for the client Excellencico.

ABOUT: Excellencico (established in 1996) is a global leader in providing a focused, broad range of services to a world-class, international, region-centric clientele. Excellencico harnesses evolving, dynamic e-technologies to provide unparalleled levels of synergistic e-products to a heterogeneous set of unperpendiculated e-applications. Our e-commerce solutions empower clients to use distributed, diverse, and didactic communication architectures, resulting in a multi-tiered, value-added, highly-aligned mission-critical e-service. With our next generation web-scale, S.M.A.R.T. infrastructure and solid foundation of core e-business products, Excellencico offers integrated turn-key solutions to the ever-changing, world-class, international business marketplace.

DIRECTION: Our logo needs to be simple and yet detailed, complex yet spare. We prefer that the logo convey the forward-thinking nature of our company without looking too futuristic or flashy but we also don’t want anything too conservative or neutral. "Just right" is the vibe we are looking for. We believe that "e" best defines our unique approach and core company culture. We’re very drawn to the colors one finds in a rainbow but color wheels are a significant turn-off. I have attached a picture of our puppy. We don’t want the puppy incorporated into the logo but we do want you to capture her spirit and attitude and expect that to be conveyed through design elements.

This is my submission:

DESCRIBITION: The corner stone of my logo design lies in the innovation an electric spirit of Excellencico. I captured the sparkling soul of the multitalented firm with structured pixels fading from colors to white. Little lines around the captive E manifests the movement of the puppy.

Be sure to dislike it at this address.

In the Background

A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background (for example, in an audience or busy street scene).

On a film or TV set, background actors are usually referred to as "background performers", "background artists" or simply "background". (Source: wikipedia)

Background artists from the movie set Missä kuljimme kerran 2010

I am an artist. I've performed Shakespeare monologues in English and played main roles in the theatre groups I belong. But when it comes to movie or tv-productions I am an extra - a background artist. I'm the person you see(or the one that you are not meant to see but who is there to create the right kind of ambience) sitting in the corner of that cafe behind the actors. I'm blurred, unfocused and perhaps you can only see my arm. And sometimes the scene gets cut from the final version.

Tv-series Uutishuone 2009

So why do I do it then? Well as cliche as it might sound I love being in a movie set. Being part of that community based illusion making. And I rather be on that side of camera where the other dimension is created even though the film crew would surely respect me more if I´d be for example the catering girl. Everybody loves catering. Reality is that without coffee there wouldn't be any movies made in Finland.

On the set I meet people who I wouldn't normally meet. Extras can be pretty interesting characters. And I get to go to places that I wouldn't normally get to. It's also an learning experience. Like one time the assistant director and the stylist tried every trick to teach me how to walk on high heels. It was a challenge and not only because the golden stilettos I wore were one size too big for me. Luckily I got to walk with a strong man on my side to whom I just leaned when walking while filmed.

And I love it when my hair and makeup is done. That is when I feel like being a true movie star nevertheless what my title is.

Me in the 70´s (Uutishuone 2008)

But it is not my coal in life to be a background artist. Perhaps I'll get a chance to get to the front. Find my place in the limelight. And if and when I do I promise to smile and talk to the people in the background. Cause they are artists too.