Metsansuomaun Lankakkainam Valo/ ETERNAL LIGHT of the FOREST FINNS
Cover_P_06
Acrylic painting, ink drawings. 3’ x 4’
The inspiration for this work is two fold. First was my daughter’s snapshot of us at her school where I taught art (1972) We are going home in the late afternoon.
I had just learned our Swedish side was Forest Finn- named as such because they lived in the forests of the Scandinavian countries where they found work as tree harvesters or as farm help. Many of the Forest Finns were from Nyland Provence where over 1/2 of the population died during the Great Famine of 1696 -1698. from poor harvests due to colder wetter weather, a regional variant of the “Little Ice Age”
Finns (Finno-Ugic,Sami) believed that the dead wandered with the living as depicted by my “ancestors” on the porch at the top of in this art piece.
Eternal Light was revered, even by the time of my ancestors’ diaspora to North America. Life and light were ruled over by Finnish Eve, Päivätär.
Ektachrome to painting the idea it suggests- ancestral northern sun glowing on my daughter and me. I like to think the Forest Finn’s “eternal light” shines on us from 276 years ago and for a long time after that.
Acrylic painting, ink drawings. 3’ x 4’
The inspiration for this work is two fold. First was my daughter’s snapshot of us at her school where I taught art (1972) We are going home in the late afternoon.
I had just learned our Swedish side was Forest Finn- named as such because they lived in the forests of the Scandinavian countries where they found work as tree harvesters or as farm help. Many of the Forest Finns were from Nyland Provence where over 1/2 of the population died during the Great Famine of 1696 -1698. from poor harvests due to colder wetter weather, a regional variant of the “Little Ice Age”
Finns (Finno-Ugic,Sami) believed that the dead wandered with the living as depicted by my “ancestors” on the porch at the top of in this art piece.
Eternal Light was revered, even by the time of my ancestors’ diaspora to North America. Life and light were ruled over by Finnish Eve, Päivätär.
Ektachrome to painting the idea it suggests- ancestral northern sun glowing on my daughter and me. I like to think the Forest Finn’s “eternal light” shines on us from 276 years ago and for a long time after that.