Easy Living...

How odd. I opened the local newspaper today, and the first thing I saw was my name... In the article, poet AP Kivinen is thinking about writing a poem of my print 'When a Horse Wanted To Be a Red Zebra' :) #artistlife #SaturdaySurprises #FeelingOdd

Kuva, jonka Päivi Hintsanen (@paivi.hintsanen) julkaisi 19. 09ta 2015 klo 3.10 PDT

Viime viikon loppupuoli kului varsin rattoisasti osittain Jyväskylän taiteilijaseuran teosvälityksessä taidemuseolla ja osittain kotona omissa töissä - ja kodin ja taidemuseon välistä reittiä auringonpaisteessa kulkien. Teosvälityksestä kolme työtäni löysi tiensä uuteen kotiinsa, ja päivät museolla olivat täynnä hienoja kohtaamisia, joten on huikean hyvä mieli. Kotona pakollisten työsuoritteiden lisäksi olen sekä kirjoitellut että piirrellyt, ja virkkaillut pannulappuja Sleepy Hollow -sarjaa katsellessa. Muutenkin jonkinlainen kiireettömyys on leimannut viime päiviä ja alkaa jälleen tuntua siltä, että on mukava tehdä. Ihan mitä vaan.

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The end of last week was quite pleasant - I spent my time partly at the Jyväskylä Artists Society art sale event at the art museum and partly at home doing my own work - and walking the sunny road between the art museum and home. Three of my works found a new home from the art sale, and those days spent at the museum were filled with meeting new people - I'm feeling great! At home, besides doing the have-to-do kind of jobs, I've also done some writing and drawing, and crotcheting potholders while watching Sleepy Hollow series. There has been some kind of easygoing feeling - no hurry, no terrifying deadlines - during last days, and I start to feel that it's nice to do something again. Anything.

Onneksi olkoon! - eiku ei sittenkään // Congrats! - not!

Ihmisiä saaressa - People on Island
2014, pigmenttimustevedos / pigment ink print, 28x28cm+marg. 190e (without frame)



Kotiinpaluu. Kaunis kesäsää muuttui kauniiseen syyssäähän. Sietämättömän kylmäkään ei ole vielä. Ja on valoa. Mutta silti arki hyökkäsi kimppuun, ennenkuin ehdin edes puolustusasemiin. Lupasin itselleni varata tarpeeksi aikaa kirjoittamiselle ja muulle luomiselle, ja tarkoitukseni oli olla vielä viime viikko lomalla (tai ainakin paperihommista vapaana) ja palata töihin vasta tänään, mutta niinpä vain päivät ovat valuneet käsistä kaiken muun, epäoleellisen, mutta pakollisen parissa. Pari tuntia päivässä luovuudelle ei riitä hyvään moodiin pääsemiseen ja tuollainen lyhyt aika menee lähinnä kellon vilkuiluksi - että onko sitä aikaa vielä jäljellä ja kuinka paljon. Perjantai-iltana päivitin pitkäksi venyvää to do -listaani asioista, mitkä pitää pakosti hoitaa, ennenkuin pääsen keskittymään taas kunnolla luovaan työhön, ja olin melkoisessa alavireessä, kun sähköpostiini tipahti ilahduttava viesti: Art Fair Suomi 15 -tapahtumassa lavalla pyörii ohjelmien välissä kuvaesitys: Highlights by Rui Prata ja minun teokseni oli valittu joukkoon! (Rui Prata (1955, Portugali) on Encontros da Imagem Photo Festivalin perustaja ja taiteellinen johtaja vuosina 1987–2012 sekä Image Museumin (Braga, Portugali) johtaja vuosina 1999-2014.))

Mutta hetkinen! Minähän en ole osallistumassa Art Fair Suomi 15 -tapahtumaan ollenkaan. (Mainitsinkin jo heinäkuun lopun postauksessani, että minulta oli mukaan valittu vain yksi työ, ja yhden työn roudaaminen Helsinkiin ei nyt vain ollut millään tavalla taloudellisesti järkevää, joten minun oli pakko perua osallistumiseni. Olisin oikeasti halunnut osallistua, mutta jos vien teoksia myyntitapahtumaan, toivon saavani teoksia kaupaksi enemmän kuin vain kuljetuskulujen kattamiseksi, ja vaikka kuljetuskustannuksista aiheutuva tappion mahdollisuus on aina olemassa, en sentään tieten tahtoen tappiota halua hakemaan - tai edes niin pientä plussaa, että voisin käytännössä ajatella vaihtavani kehystetyn teoksen pariin pizzaan, jotka voitolla saisin ostettua. Tavoitteenani kun on ihan oikeasti tulla toimeen taiteellani.)

Olen tässä lähinnä harmitellut omaa reagoimistani viestiin: turhan rehellisenä laitoin samantien takaisin viestiä, etten ole osallistumassa tapahtumaan, eikä teokseni ole siellä paikan päällä (mutta, että minun puolestani olisi tosi hienoa, jos teokseni silti voisi olla Highlights-reelissä mukana), ja vastaukseksihan sain luonnollisesti, että koska Highlights on kokoelma näyttelyssä olevista teoksista, teokseni poistetaan listalta. Ja nyt olen sitten pelannut jossittelu-peliä mielessäni. Jos olisin vain jättänyt vastaamatta, ehkä olisin saanut teokseni tapahtumaan esille edes projisoituna kuvana - koska kyllähän tuo poisjääminen harmittaa. (Vaikka se nyt olikin ainoa taloudellisesti järkevä ratkaisu - ajatus, jota yritän takoa päähäni.)

On kyllä aika makea olo siitä, että työni ylipäätään pääsi tuohon Highlights-valintaan mukaan. Ei siihen ihan hirveän montaa teosta ole valittu mukaan. Silti tuntuu vähän omituiselta. Joskus kymmenvuotiaana näin unta, joka on tatuoitunut mieleeni: unessa voitin kaupassa ostoskärryllisen karkkia, mutta kun olin kahminut kärryn täyteen, se vietiin kaupan ikkunaan ja sinne se jäi. Tuolloin herätessä oli vähän samanlainen olo kuin nyt.


Ps. Vien tämän Highlight-teoksen kehystettynä Jyväskylän taiteilijaseuran teosvälitystilaisuuteen. Teosvälitystilaisuus on avoinna Jyväskylän taidemuseolla keskiviikosta sunnuntaihin 16.-20.9. (ke-la 11-18, su 11-16). Itse olen paikalla ainakin keskiviikko- ja lauantai-iltapäivinä, ehkä myös muuten! FB-tapahtumaa saa jakaa ja lisää porukkaa saa kutsua!

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Returning home. From beautiful summer to beautiful autumn. It's not even too freezing yet. And not dark yet, either. But still the everyday life with all the paperwork & stuff attacked me without warning, before I could get myself into defensive position. I promised myself to have enough time for writing and other creative stuff, and I meant to have last week off (at least from all that paper stuff) and return to my desk today, but somehow all days have just vanished, doing something not inspiring but mandatory. A few hours for creative work isn't enough to get to a good mode, and that kind of short time turns easily into checking the time every five minutes - if there is still some left. On Friday evening I updated my long to do list with the stuff I just have to get over with before I can concentrate on my creative work again, and I was feeling quite low with this, just when a very uplifting email message arrived: there is a Highlights by Rui Prata slide show in Art Fair Suomi 15 event running on the stage between programme. (Rui Prata (1955, Portugal) is the founder and artistic director of Encontros da Imagem photo festival (1987- 2012) and director of Image Museum (Braga, Portugal / 1999-2014).)

But wait a minute! I'm not taking part to the Art Fair Suomi 15 at all. (I mentioned this already in my posting last July - only one work was selected from me, and shipping one work about 350 kms was just not economically sensible in any way, so I had to cancel the whole thing from my part. I really would have liked to take part to the event, but if I take some work to any sales event, of course I wish to sell artworks more than to just cut the shipping costs, and even if there is always a possibility to go to minus with shipping costs when the works are not selling, I wouldn't want to take part if the default iis, that there's not even a possibility to gain any profit. Or if the possible profit would be so small, that I could compare it for exchanging the framed print to just a few pizzas that I could buy with the profit. Ultimately, I still have an ambition to really live with my art.)

Mainly I have been regretting my own reaction to this glad message: I was throughout too fast and honest, and replied - rightaway - that the work selected is not at the event (however, I would be so happy, if my work still could be presented in Highlights reel), and a reply to this was of couse, that because Highlights is a selection of the works at the Art Fair, my work will be deleted from the list. And now I've been playing the 'what if...' game in my head. What if I just had not replied to that email - maybe my artwork would be there in the photo reel, and nobody had even found out that it's not at the event at all... Because, frankly, I'm really bummed about missing this whole thing. (Even though leaving out the event was the only economically sensible thing - a fact that I have to get in my head.)

I'm flattered and feeling sweet about the original Highlights selection, though. There weren't too many artworks with that honour. Still I feel a bit weird. When I was about ten, I saw a dream, that has been tattooed in my mind: in that dream I won a shopping cart full of candy, but after I had filled the cart, it was taken from me to the shop window, where it stayed. Then, when I woke up, I felt quite same way as I do now.

ps. I'll take this Highlight chosen artwork to the Jyväskylä Artists' Society art sale at the Jyväskylä art museum this week, from Wednesday 16 to Sunday 20 (Wed-Sat 11-18, Sun 11-16). I'm at the event on Wednesday and Saturday, after noon, but maybe also some other days! Feel free to share the FB event and invite more people to join!

Plankkon kuukauden teos // The Plankko Artwork of the Month

- Päivi Hintsanen: Arriving. 2015, pigment ink print, ~ 14x8cm +marg., not for sale (horce commerce) -

Vedokseni Arriving on Plankkon syyskuun teos. Tarinointini teoksen synnystä on julkaistu Plankkon sivuilla, josta jutun voi käydä lukemassa suomeksi.

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My print Arriving is now a Plankko artwork of the month. I've written some background of the work - how the print was born - and the story is published in Plankko website. As the site is in Finnish only, here's a rough translate of the text:

In my Random Prints project I'll make one print of edition of 90 at one time, and leave the prints in envelopes, accompanied with a letter, for random people to find. The letter contains some information of the project and a request to tell about where the print has travelled with its new owner. I've now executed this project for five times and each time it has become more important for me: I started the project as some kind of game, but now it is so much more than I never would have guessed. After the fourth time (in Germany 2014) I wrote about it in my blog, and as I said in my website some time ago, since then the same feeling has just grown.

In 2015 it was time for the fifth Random Prints. The picture is called Arriving, and its' way to the paper was a long and bumpy one. I made a first sketch already in 2012 and it was then meant to be a Random Prints image of the same year, but somehow the project just didn't find any wings. The first version was a little bit different: the cups were more like coffee or teacups with their handles and the horizon in-between the sea and the sky was more clearer and everything was much more detailed. The process slowy turned to be really heavy and as the days went by, the picture started to feel a bit strange and unfamiliar. I didn't get the picture to work as I wished and it didn't change to the picture I would have liked, and the whole theme felt too used and the picture itself too picturesque. Too big for a small picture. Too small for a small picture. I didn't know what was wrong and why the picture just wouldn't turn out what I wanted.

After some time I tried again: I edited some details, changed colours, made this, made that, but somehow it was impossible for me to see anything else on the paper, than the riginal detailed picture. I gave up. I didn't get rid of the cups then, but that year my Random Prints picture came up to be One Cup of Fresh Sea-Water, in which some sea birds flew upon a red cup of sea-water. I didn't think that I would return to this picture, that I felt was too "pretty", and I didn't give it another look during the next Random Prints project round, few years later.

This year it was just pure luck, that Arriving came to be a Random Prints image. If everything had gone the way I had planned, the picture would have been another one. This year's project planning started wonderfully: I received the papers in courtesy of Hahnemühle and this lifted my spirits up and I had so many ideas that they didn't almost fit into my head. There are still dozens of notes at my desk, filled with ideas, and as I was so pumped with energy, I started working with several of them. Then, suddenly, a couple of unlucky happenings cut my working for a while, and when I could return to my work, my printer broke down. Suddenly it was unsure if I could have anything printed. Luckily the problem was solved under one week, and I got to make my prints at the Jyväskylä Print Making Centre, at the studio of the Centre for Creative Photography.

At that point I didn't have a lot of time. I was leaving the country in just a few day and there was so little time to make the prints, that I was horrified about it. I knew that I simply didn't have time enough to make several print proofs and then adjust colours and fix the details, so I took all the seven small pictures I had made this year. There was still a space for an eight one in a paper sheet, and because I didn't want to waste any paper, the Arriving found its way to one and only proof printing. When I took the first glance at the proof paper, I noticed rightaway, that all the pictures I made this year would have needed still a bit more work, some colour adjusting at minimum. But there was one picture amongst all others, that looked good as it. All the features that I disliked earlier had somehow vanished during these couple of years, when the picture had been left in my "drawer". I still think that the picture itself is a bit naive and maybe the subject isn't very original, but still it looks like something I have made, which I didn't felt at all a few years back. Different than I usually do, but sitll. And I now see something in it, that I didn't see when I was making it.

When I signed and numbered the prints and put them into their envelopes, I felt that I had made the right choice.

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You can follow this year's Random Prints at:

• The blog
• FB page facebook.com/randomprints
• Instagram #randomprints2015