I was born in Turku Finland 16.4.1974. My father was a sailor and my mother was a student in the university when I was born she decided to be a stay home mother.
My father finished as an sailor when I was 2 years old, but he felt always like travelling, so they made agreement with my mom that they would always travel in the summer holidays to some new exiting place.
As I grow up the journeys to foreign countries became the most important happening of the year.
Our parents took us to many places and we had the privilege to visit many museums around Europe in very early age, but because of our young age we did not always appreciate the great opportunity to admire art, we where running around the museums and our parents where in trouble with us.
In Paris, in Louvre I was very exited to see the most famoust painting of the world, Mona Lisa, but the painting was disappointment. In my eyes as a child the painting was so small and the lady in the painting was not even so pretty. I was wondering what makes this painting so famous.
But in the museum was another painting which really took my attention. A big painting from Eugène Delacroix Liberty Leading the People. There was a story in that painting and I loved it. I decided that one day I want to become an artist.
When I turned 11-years old we moved from Turku to Paimio and my parents learned to know an artist named Helena Ruusulaakso. When I turned 12-years old she started to teach me techniques of oil painting.
We started from classical still life paintings and from step to step we went from portraits to nudes.
When I was 18-years I felt the “sailor blood” in me and I decided to move away from Finland. I moved to Switzerland to be and au-pair, from there began my 7 years adventure around Europe which took me all the way to Africa too. I was working as an waitress and nanny and I was studying German language and arts.
In Switzerland I was studying arts with an artist named David Parry. Soon I felt that I was ready to show some works in public and I took my works to ethnic shops, I have had the inspiration to this works from my journey to Africa so they fitted to ethnic shops.
I moved back to Finland in the end of 1999.
I started to paint about my experiences from my journeys to different places.
History and medieval architecture interested me.
Music has been a big inspiration for me always, especially classical and opera music.
In my paintings I am often hiding a story inside. As I am painting I live and breath the story what I am painting.
I wish to be able to take you along the stories, to another place, to a dream world.
Painting for me is a way to get out of this moment, to get away from everyday life, it is the food of my spirit and soul.
