Springbringer

Stamp series (2009)

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stamps_mini   A series called Sepia.

stamps_angels   Angels.

stamps_spring  Encounters in Spring.

stamps_flapsticks    stamps_sandwind    Flapsticks and Wind of the Sand.

I participated in a competition organized by Posti in 2009. I chose suitable works from my etchings, comic books and pen and pencil drawings. Some of the works were originally in black and white so I colorized them on computer. I also united the color schemes to match the pictures in a given stamp sheet.

Etching: Kantele Swan (2008-09)

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aurinkojoutsen

stamp   stamp_kantelejoutsen

An etching aquatint: Kantele Swan | Kantelejoutsen | Aurinkojoutsen (2008-09). 14×11 cm. Below is the pencil sketch.

I made this as a Finnish national-romantic theme with our national bird Whooper Swan (“laulujoutsen”) having our national instrument, kantele, as a wing. There is also a stamp with this motif I designed for a competition.

Pastel: Fire Angel in the Room of the Forest (2009)

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metsanhuoneenpalavaenkeli

Fire Angel in the Room of the Forest / Metsänhuoneen palava enkeli (2009), color pastels, 29×41 cm.

This is one of my personal favorite works. It features the Sprite of Spring – this time in a bit more human-like feminine form. I’ve tried to re-imagine this scene later but sometimes you cannot replicate an inspired moment.

Themes of this impressionistic pastel drawing are nature and rebirth. The composition was originally inspired by Edgar Degas’ Dancer in Front of a Window (circa 1874). I’ve moved the scene into a much more abstract expression and replaced the dancer with my own personal motif and symbol of life and love the Springbringer. A flower that awakes everything.

Character: Sprite of Spring (2002-11)

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sprite1        sprite2

sprite3       sprite4

sprite5

Sprite of Spring or the Springbringer or Calÿaja (in my fictional language) is one of my most important beings and characters. It represents life and rebirth in the world of Springbringer. It fell from space as a seed and landed on a pond of swans one ancient evening “3000 suns ago” and began to sprout.

I saw the Sprite in my dream on December 2002 (the comic book image where the sprite and the swan meet). I woke up and drew it so I could remember it.

Here are various manifestations of this fragile beautiful flower-like being of light:

  • an etching aquatint: A Garden of Stars (2009), 11×25 cm
  • a digital work made from a water color painting (2009), used as a poster for the Springbringer film
  • a color pencil drawing (2011), 10×15 cm
  • a clay statue (2007), 21x17x15 cm
  • comic book pages where the Sprite meets Qwaidun the swan (2002-09)

Monotype: Encounter (2007)

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monotyping

Monotyping on a canvas, 52×55 cm. Skeleton of a swan meets a flying burning swan. Perhaps the flying swan sees its own mortality and falls inevitably in the tender blue embracing of the world.