Interview with Hanna Maarit Jauhiainen
HANNA MAARIT JAUHIAINEN
Contemporary artist / Expressionist
FINLAND
I am an expressionist, professional contemporary artist Hanna Maarit Jauhiainen from Finland. I paint about what is true and real, I paint about emotions and humanity, about respect for nature and about the deep layers of the soul. My art breathes light and shadow, it invites close to it and asks you to stop. I used to live to paint, now I paint to live; And I mean the deepest meaning of existence in my life.
Hanna, given your extensive journey as an artist, how have the pivotal experiences and reflections throughout your life influenced the existential themes in your artwork? In what ways do these life experiences manifest in your use of color, composition, and symbolism to convey deeper emotional and philosophical messages?
I have been able to live a very eventful life with many joys and sorrows both on my own life path and on my professional path for my clients. In addition to being an artist, I have also trained as a cognitive therapist and have worked for a long time in mental health and substance abuse work. I am no stranger to anything human, and I know that every single person has their own secrets and battles, their own struggles, their own lights and shadows. It is part of humanity and none of us can avoid it.
When painting as an artist, I use my therapeutic skills to see beneath the surface, interpret emotions and reflect on being human and working on everyone’s own shadow. All my paintings are about humanity, compassion, acceptance, forgiveness, love and caring in one way or another. Nor have I shied away from sad or violent subjects, which I have painted a lot about, for example, poverty, exclusion, deprivation and war.
I am an aging woman and in my paintings, I also work on the position of Western women from my own perspective and cultural background, even though there is so much that could be addressed for women's rights for the whole world. (I also don't want to diminish the rights of men, other genders, transgender people, or any other group of people: using the term gender is old-fashioned and has no meaning on a larger scale, I just want to explain why, as a woman, I paint and act the way I do.) Sometimes it seems that, despite feminism, a Western woman gives permission to an outside gaze to define herself bodily as well, being willing to modify her own appearance, sometimes to extremes, endangering her own health and justifying it with her own freedom and supposed self-determination.
By supposed self-determination, I mean that I think the media plays a huge role in shaping or silencing attitudes. The media can be a group patrolling the streets, fostering chaste behavior, or influencers in the social media world with new surgical operations to skyrocket the market. With my own art, I hope to be able to influence the viewer in such a way that they stop at their own life to think and value themselves and their own lives without the need to compare themselves to others and diminish themselves.
When I paint, all the above comes out in my composition and the rhythm of the work. I want to guide the viewer deep into the world of the work with empty background space, symbolism of the image, often earthy colors and simplistic expression. Very rarely do I paint in bright and so-called cheerful colors; I think it reflects my own souls cape and Finnish background. Our four seasons in Finland are strongly reflected in my color palette and our winter is long and grey. Grey, muddy shades are somehow close to my heart, and I just like different shades of grey.
I give the viewer the freedom to interpret my paintings from their own point of view, because despite their superficial lightness, they have many conceptual layers and a lot of depth. I never paint my works in series because it's too conveyor belt-like work for me. My goal is not to primarily produce and sell my art, my goal as an artist is to express my soul and its thoughts, because I know that many people identify with the subjects I experience.
The subjects of my paintings are very symbolistic. Every flower, animal, color or theme has a foundation in either Finnish mythology or universal beliefs. The theme of the forest is so valuable and irreplaceable to me that bringing it to my works also reflects the Zen spirit that is important to me. I am not a religious person; I think enough evil has been done under the guise of religions. But I believe in the goodness of man, I believe that life involves suffering, and I believe that suffering can be freed by accepting life as it is, without losing hope and without giving up in the face of difficult things. I hope that all this is conveyed in my art, because my ultimate message in my art is to maintain hope and preserve humanity, compassion, in our world.
As an artist who has worked across various mediums, including oil, acrylic, and watercolor, how do you navigate the technical and expressive challenges each medium presents? Could you delve into the specific techniques you employ to achieve the delicate balance between control and spontaneity in your watercolors, and how this reflects broader themes in your work?
I mainly use the following techniques in my artwork: ink drawing, oil pastel chalks, watercolor, acrylic painting, oil painting and mixed media combinations of these. Why I choose a technique, the reason lies in my need for expression, the wish of the person ordering the work, or my own mood. My own inner mood is connected to whether I choose something that I can paint over time and correct, whether it is an immediate need for expression and spontaneity like with watercolors, or whether I want to feel the color concretely in my fingers and work on it using the sgraffito technique, as when working with oil pastel chalks.
If I use wood panels as a base material, I choose acrylic or oil paints as a technique, as they are natural in combination. If I want to make paper works, I choose ink, chalks or watercolors. Lately, wood has particularly attracted me as the base material for the work, as it symbolizes man's connection to nature, the grain of wood makes each work completely unique, and it is a natural ecological alternative. Works painted on a wooden panel can also be hung directly on the wall and do not necessarily need frames. For me, the tree symbolizes life.
Moving from one technique to another doesn't happen to me overnight, and I always need practice and sketching to get rid of the so-called little fuss. The use of different techniques also excites me, because taming them is more of a challenge than focusing entirely on mastering just one technique. For me, the roughness and depth of expression is more important than technical virtuosity, and I often consciously strive for a very simplistic and, so to speak, raw expression. For me, emotion is more important than mastering every brushstroke. I paint expressionistically, I draw pedantically.
When drawing with ink, I like its meticulous drawing, which is very pedantic and expresses a lot in a very simple and elegant way. The world is often very black and white. However, I try to be spontaneous with my own marker line and trust its expressive power when building an image. My ink works are mainly illustrations or sketches.
With oil pastel chalks I can create different blends, work on colors with my fingers and feel their oiliness and soften the edges of colors. I get to scratch them in layers, bringing out new shades of color again, and they are easily accessible anywhere. Oil pastel chalks cannot be used for pedantic work and their use is guided by chance and produces new insights, which is exhilarating.
Acrylic dyes require quick action due to their quick drying (I don't use additives that slow down drying) and I enjoy their spontaneity. I have developed my own style of painting with acrylic dyes with a large brush, softly layering thin layers of color on top of each other, looking for the result I want. Sometimes I lose it and then I find it again, acrylic paints are very merciful. I always blend my own hues intuitively because I like thin multi-tone layers. The only downside to acrylic paints, in my opinion, is that the glow of their colors doesn't compare to oil paints, and that's why I mostly paint with oil paints when I'm making portraits, for example, or when I'm working on something larger or particularly meaningful, which is also small on a general scale.
I love the creaminess of oil paints, the nuances and expressiveness of their colors. With oil paints you can paint quickly or slowly, in layers or with the “alla prima” technique, brush, fingers, palette knife, thin or thick, scratching or caressing, on wood or canvas... Oil paints contain everything possible. My personal favorites of the above techniques are watercolor and oil paint, but watercolors have been the longest in my career as an artist:
Watercolors have been very meaningful to me on my artistic path. My first solo exhibition in Helsinki a long time ago was a watercolor exhibition. I have studied watercolor painting very much and, above all, watercolors symbolize for me the sensitivity and uniqueness of life. Watercolors need water to shine, you can try to arrange their pigments in certain places as you wish, but they always work in their own way. Watercolors require full concentration, they cannot be overpainted or repaired without losing their character or the colors becoming stuffy. I usually paint with a large brush and strive for relaxation and perfect presence. The watercolor technique reminds me of focusing on the present moment, mercy and gentleness.
On the other hand, watercolors excite me especially because they are very demanding and perfectly captivating. Their airiness, light reflectivity and color intensity (I use Schminke's watercolor colors) are delicious. I also use very high-quality watercolor papers, which unfortunately sometimes spoil a lot; I will use them later as a trial paper. When I start painting, I usually paint intuitively from the mood and feeling I carry. It reflects everything I've experienced and seen. Sometimes I have a specific theme that I want to tell a story about. When I start painting, I don't always know what will happen next. Usually I don't sketch a painting, and even if I do, at some point the work starts to take on a life of its own. Sometimes the result surprises me with the exact opposite of what I had originally been aiming for. Just like life itself.
Regardless of the technique, my biggest challenge is to be able to finish working on the work in time, as I have unfortunately spoiled numerous paintings with an overly polished style, which has caused the work to lose its original freshness and power. That's why I've learned to give time for the creation of a work, and that's why I want to distance myself from it, regardless of the technique.
The notion of time and its finitude plays a critical role in your artistic philosophy. How do you integrate this awareness into your creative process, from conceptualization to execution? Can you provide specific examples of how the urgency of limited time has shaped the narratives and emotional depth of your recent works?
When we are young, we often think we are immortal. We adventure and defy danger, there is not tomorrow, and life is breathtakingly intense. The older we get, the more changes the time of our relationship. In middle age, we often assess the balance of life lived and unlived and make radical changes again in defiance of death. With the arrival of old age, at a slightly different time for each of us, we begin to adapt and accept the finite nature of life and the inevitable approach of death. - Although anyone can die at any time because of an accident, illness or mental health problems by committing suicide. Just to name a few examples. Although I speak of death, I speak not out of fear of it, but so that we may remember to live.
Our world is very momentary. Everything should be instantly accessible and reachable. What is happening today should have been done yesterday and tomorrow will be too late. With my art, I want to rebel against the rush of our time. I want to live a life where there is time to stop, be present and be merciful to myself and those around me. This is our unique life, and this moment is all we have. This Moment. This Moment. This Moment. Are you involved in the plot; did you understand what I mean?
That's also why I paint slowly, even if the technique is fast. I want my art to have a soul and not just some beautiful picture to hang above the sofa. That's why all my works, in one way or another, are linked to being human, our values, our beliefs, who we would like to be. That's why I firmly believe that my art is meaningful and that every piece I create has a message. Dear reader, let your shoulders relax, breathe in and out deeply. Look around you. See and hear Life. Feel your Heart.
Your biography highlights a period of significant artistic pause, followed by a resurgence of creative activity post-2018. Could you elaborate on the psychological and emotional journey during this hiatus? What specific internal and external catalysts prompted your return to art, and how did this period of reflection and reevaluation influence your subsequent artistic output?
I had aggressive breast cancer in 2019. It caused a change of direction in my career, and I am grateful for that as well. Before I fell ill, I lived a busy life where you work and study new things. I had studied art at a young age, set my sights on becoming a professional artist and put everything I could into it. Over the years, I got a family of my own, became a mother, and my priorities changed when it came to making art.
Psychology has always interested me, and in my own art I have always examined the narratives, beliefs and values of the inner world of the individual. It must have come as no surprise to those around me that, due to various coincidences, I applied for mental health and substance abuse work through new studies. Of the different therapeutic directions, cognitive therapy interested me because it is so strongly related to working on beliefs and finding and adopting new ways of working that are better and empowering for the individual. I have always been interested in psychoanalysis as well. The unconscious and working with it is reflected in my art in the fact that I paint intuitively.
After recovering from cancer, it's been five years now, I decided to start doing the things I had previously put off doing "sometimes when". I decided to start painting again and return to that moment in my artistic career that I had previously left unfinished. My worldly commitments made this possible. In the same breath, I also started my own company, HannaartByHanna, which mainly sells art prints of my paintings. I know I've been lucky. But after surviving cancer, even if all the conditions in my life had been reversed, I would still have started painting again because I felt a compelling need to do so. I no longer had the choice to extinguish the huge fire inside me but surrendered to it completely. I want to respect my inner voice and trust in its power. I'm also old, brave and confident enough to do exactly what I want to do and paint exactly the way I want.
I paint every day if just possible. Above all, I paint for myself, my own truth, even if I am painting from a universal nature theme. I paint in such a way that the work speaks to me and moves me. One might say that I paint for my life. Yes, that's true too. I became aware and understood concretely that I was on the so-called later side of my life and that I could not waste another moment just dreaming of being an artist in retirement. In am 56 years old this year. I live and breathe art now. All this has brought me an immense sense of freedom, independence and happiness, even if it may sound completely irrational. Psychoanalysts have also earned their salaries...
I hope that my artistic expression will deepen further the older I get. I hope I can find just the kind of simplistic expression that makes me happy. I hope that my art makes the viewer feel valuable and important just as they are. As the wise say, we can't always choose what happens to us, but most of the time we can choose how to deal with those things.
The intimate scale of your paintings invites viewers to engage closely with your work. How do you conceptualize the relationship between viewer proximity and the emotional impact of your art? In what ways do you believe the small size of your paintings enhances the themes of intimacy and introspection that permeate your oeuvre?
As a rule, my paintings are small, in the style of 30 x40 cm, 50 x 70 cm, 100 x 120 cm. My studio is small, so processing large base canvas would require another space, therefore the sizes of the works are proportional to the space used, naturally. In addition, I started my career as a watercolorist, when my paintings have been made on paper and naturally small, because watercolors also need framing and protective glass. So, I'm used to working on a small scale.
But perhaps the most important reason for the small size of my works is my thinking that even small is valuable. I want to invite the viewer close to my work to look at it and make the viewer feel good, natural in front of the work. I don't want to shout with my art, although sometimes I've thought that a painting would look great if it was much bigger on the wall. I believe and am convinced that the message of art is more important than the size of the work, and the value of the work is not directly proportional to the size of the canvas.
I think there is something valuable about smallness, modesty and simplicity that also reflects what it means to be human. Come near me, see me as I am, look at me. Likewise, I hope that will happen with my art. The relationship between the viewer and my work becomes personal, where dialogue takes place through emotions. The well-worn saying that the little things in everyday life make you happy is repeated in my art. When I paint my artworks, I am close to them, touch them and hold them. My personality is transferred to each work, maybe that's also why it's hard to sell them. They are something bigger than my life, because each of them has a small piece of me. They are like little whispers to the viewer who wants and dares to stay and watch them, and who has enough patience to realize their message for themselves.
You describe your art as exploring universal human experiences such as happiness, lightness, and pain, irrespective of external circumstances. How do you approach the challenge of translating these abstract and often complex emotions into visual form? Can you discuss the role of symbolism and abstract elements in conveying the subtleties of human experience in your work?
In my art, humanity, emotions and compassion are at the heart of everything. As a cognitive therapist, emotional work comes naturally to me professionally, and I utilize this expertise in making art. I approach different themes intuitively and describe them from my own perspective by painting emotions based on how I perceive them.
Emotions manifest themselves in the use of colors, techniques, the composition and rhythm of the painting, the use of the brush, the ferocity or gentleness of the subject, the way something has touched me; how I feel compassion and how it resonates with me. I often find myself painting about things that cause a lot of sadness, renunciation, insecurity, or anxiety. In my work, I try to bring to the theme an atmosphere of hope and a perspective that makes people cope in their own lives.
I know that I am very sensitive to different emotions, but on the other hand, the years have also brought some determination and maybe even toughness sometimes. There is often a bear in my paintings, as it symbolizes motherly love and strength for me. The bear is the king of the forest in Finland and has a strong symbolic significance as a protector of life. For me, trees and forests symbolize finding your own way, walking your own path, growing as a person. Living in harmony with nature is very important to me and if I could, I would probably plant my garden full of different trees.
A few examples: a crane, a little bluebell, an ant, a wolf, a sun and a moon, each with its own meaning and symbolism in different cultures. Man cannot be separated from nature, and nature cannot be separated from man. If you try the latter, mental malaise increases, as we know from various studies on psychological well-being.
When there is a human being in my work, it is often a young child or an old woman. With these images, I mirror the relationship across generations and small symbolistic objects or things take on meanings such as a bow tie in hair, a string of pearls, locked cabinets, children's toys, furrowed hands, a look in the eyes or a smile on her/his lips. My goal is to transform the individual's personal experience into a universal form, which is why I often paint in a simplistic way and use a lot of empty background space. However, I don't want to explain my works completely openly, but I want to leave the interpretation to the viewer. If my painting touches, then I think it has succeeded in its task.
I remember one person commenting that my art represented a naïve style. I am sorry, but he had misunderstood and yes, in a way he was right to make his own interpretations. I often paint a bit like children's illustrations, because it again has a therapeutic dimension. Our childhood experiences have a huge impact on the formation of our sense of inner security and what kind of life story we internally build for ourselves based on our beliefs. If we have been told that we are useless and incompetent, we easily believe it as adults in our own schemas. If we have experienced love and acceptance, we will be able to show it to others as adults. (These two statements are really simplified and pointed, avoiding stereotypic.)
Take as an example my painting from 2022, which depicts two women in a wintry landscape under the glow of a streetlight. The painting is called "One potato and two jam jars". The work is painted in the cold blue tones of winter, the objects on top of an old wooden box are looked at by two hungry women, one dressed more finely, the other older and poorer-looking based on clothes. Who is selling, who is buying, for whom food is needed, whose last potato? The painting is related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and tells the story of two Ukrainian women, each struggling to survive in their own lives. The work can be found on my Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/fineart_hannamaaritjauhiainen/ If you are unfamiliar with the work, feel free to take a look and you will understand better how to express human experiences through symbols and in abstract form. The work has resonated a lot in its sadness, as well as a lot of sympathy. There are no words for the suffering of war, no war.
The environment of your studio in Raseborg, South Finland, seems to be a significant influence on your artistic practice. How does the natural and cultural landscape of Raseborg shape your creative vision? Can you provide examples of specific works that were directly inspired by your surroundings and how these elements are integrated into your artistic narrative?
My studio is in the countryside in Raseborg, close to the famous cultural village of Fiskars in Southern Finland, which is full of different artists and artisans. The nearby seaside town of Ekenäs also has the famous new art museum Chappe and local cultural activities are lively, even though we are about 90 kilometers from Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Sometimes I think that I have been able to follow in famous footsteps, because Helen Schjerfbeck, a very famous Finnish visual artist whom I admire, has lived for a long time in the same place as I did in my childhood and youth, in Hyvinkää, and she has lived in Ekenäs for the last years of her life. In other words, there are sources of inspiration if you like the art of the golden age of Finland and want to explore the magnificent museums on offer. – I represent nowadays expressionism.
The nature surrounding my home includes wild forests, grove forests, meadows, rock, lakes and the sea. There are many nature reserves and plenty of different animals such as birds, hares, raccoon dogs, foxes, deer, roe deer, moose, even lynx and wolves, and someone have seen and heard a bear walking in the forest. Your relationship with nature automatically becomes strong because you are in the middle of the forest when you step out the door.
I love the sea and the feeling of freedom it gives; it speaks to me. But even more I love the mossy old forest because I'm from inland. Since I was a child, I have wandered and hiked in nature, and as a scout I have learned to respect what nature has to offer and to survive in wilderness conditions. In my childhood family, hunting, fishing, berry picking and mushroom picking in addition to horticulture were a normal thing to do, so the appreciation of pure natural gifts has been passed down to me in my blood.
When I look out the window of my art studio, I see the trees of the forest swaying in the wind, the deer walking in the field, the birds coming to eat the apples of the apple trees and the berries of the berry bushes... It is peaceful to live and love here, it is good to breathe clean air here. And in the evening, when coming out of the sauna, it is good to sit outside for a while to look at the starry sky. I think I live in my own little paradise; old little modest house, free and wild nature around it.
Because I live and breathe nature, it is visible in many of my works. Actual abstract paintings are not my own style, because I always want to tell stories with my works, to stir the viewer's imagination. That's why the titles of my works are also a meaningful part of the painting, such as “The snow has covered the Rhododendron” and "I can't get you any further than this". The paintings depict man's relationship with nature, compassion, melancholy and longing, as well as the Finnish winter. Photos of these paintings are included in the interview.
Your involvement in both solo and group exhibitions has likely provided diverse perspectives on the reception of your work. How do these different exhibition formats influence your artistic presentation and interaction with the audience? What insights have you gained from exhibiting your work in various contexts, and how have these experiences informed your artistic evolution?
I started my artistic career young and bold with solo exhibitions in Helsinki. Building and erecting them taught me a lot about organization, schedules, performance pressure, excitement and representation. They were intoxicating and wonderful experiences that will forever remain in my heart. My loved ones were there for me, and without their encouragement, I would not have survived. I didn't sell many works because my paintings were already taking a stand at that time. I remember the spouse of an art gallery owner telling me that the exhibition would not be a success because I had painted works about mental health, women's rights and positive resources. I remember her looking at me and saying, "You should have painted flower paintings!" That exhibition left me with a certain fear of painting flower paintings voluntarily, even though that feeling, and experience has strengthened my artistic orientation over the years and caused sweet laughs. Hopefully, my art is not just interior art, but I paint my works with a serious attitude.
I have also met gallerists who should have taken sick leave due to burnout, and the opening of an art exhibition has been left to the artists as the gallerist has hidden in a back room. I have met gallerists who are active, enthusiastic and supportive, and who make money for artists for everything possible and even extra to make their own activities profitable. Regardless of art. But then, luckily, I have also met gallerists who are professional and reliable and with whom it has been a great pleasure to work. What have I learned from all this? That a young artist is careful and does what he/she wants. And the old artist is braver and does what he/she wants with the support and encouragement of the gallerist. I've sometimes secretly wondered what it would be like to own your own gallery, but it's just a daydream.
In the group exhibitions, it has been nice to get to know other artists, create networks and learn from each other. I have made many good artist acquaintances with whom I have been able to share joys and sorrows. The financial burden of group exhibitions is also lower for individual artists, corresponding to the artist's lower visibility. All the openings have been great adventures, butterflies in the belly and pride and happiness both for the work done and for the invited guests who arrived and later the spectators of the exhibitions.
Now, there will be one group exhibition in Finland and one in Italy in autumn 2024. I have started working on my next solo exhibition at a small gallery in Turku, Gallery Räyhä. I make oil paintings painted on wood there, talking about peace of mind, nature and a Zen attitude to life. The exhibition will take place in September 2025.
If I think about what I have learned from my exhibitions, above all that I want to be true to my own vision and way of working. I don't want to compromise or please the gallerist to maximize sales. I have found that the works I have done to seek approval from others have been spiritually poor and that does not satisfy me. In my art, I can't compromise, even if I paint alone in my closet for the rest of my life without anyone ever seeing or buying any of my works.
I've also learned that interacting with an audience is empowering. I appreciate every opinion, comment and criticism I receive from the viewer. Without a viewer, there is no sense that my work matters. This is a paradox. I voluntarily paint for myself about universal humanity and hope that the viewer will take the work to heart. Art is therefore a matter of feeling, not reason, except perhaps in the sense of investment.
Reflecting on your childhood and early support from your family, how did these formative experiences shape your initial artistic inclinations and career trajectory? In what ways have the values and encouragement you received as a child continued to influence your work and artistic philosophy as an adult?
The support and encouragement of my parents has played a major role in pursuing an artistic career. Both of my parents have been very artistic, although they have both used it in their crafts and construction. As a child, I remember always receiving different painting tools, a huge roll of paper (as tall as I was, bought directly from the paper mill because I painted and drew so much) and the encouragement to participate in a group of art enthusiasts at school already in elementary school. We discussed art and especially literature at home, poetry being the favorite child of both parents. My childhood town of Hyvinkää has been home to several famous artists, of whom I especially remember Tyko Sallinen, whose works I often visited the Hyvinkää Art Museum. Even then, Sallinen's expressionist and powerful paintings made a lasting impression on me.
The support and encouragement of my parents led me to spend my time with art, borrowing art books from the library, visiting art exhibitions and applying to study art. I fondly remember one Christmas a flimsy field easel my parents gave me, on which my mother had written a dedication to "To the Artist." I believe that encouragement made me braver to walk my own path, which I appreciate today. Similarly, the values of my childhood, shaped by my own as I grow up, can be seen in all my artistic work and in my values for and against. - I still have that easel.
In light of your statement about observing everyday life, resilience, and emotions, how do you approach the documentation and interpretation of these themes in your art? Could you discuss the interplay between observation, memory, and imagination in your creative process, and how this synthesis contributes to the authenticity and emotional resonance of your work?
Life is very fragile and precious. In the blink of an eye, irreversible things can happen, and life cannot be controlled. We can try to control it, but life always takes its own path due to circumstances, other people, mental and physical resources, time, culture, society, everything. We can try to do our best with the strength we have at any given moment, but life still surprises us sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.
It comforts me to think that everything has its time and place. I do not believe in fate or anything supernatural, I believe that through trial and error, an individual can find a life that looks like him/herself and learn to love and accept him/herself as he/she is or would like to be. My art has a strong therapeutic foundation, which in a way hides behind a simplified painting. When interpreting my paintings, it is important to reflect on the viewer's own emotions based on the title of the work, but even that is completely voluntary. The titles of my paintings lead to the theme of the subject in more depth, which I have thought about when painting. There is always something that maintains hope and compassion in my works. Even if the image itself is raw and brutal, the element of compassion is included in the title of the work at the latest. I don't want to abandon the viewer alone with their feelings.
I document themes in my thoughts, actively follow world events, read a lot and try to take care of my own well-being as best I can. The interpretation of the work itself and the way it is painted reflects my own emotional state. If another therapist did an analysis of my art, it would be an open window into my own soul life.
The first step when I start working on a new painting is an observation, I made about something that has moved or touched me. When I start painting, that emotion is uppermost and connects to the symbols linked to it or other material in my mind that I feel is good for achieving my goal. When I pick up the brush, intuition takes over and the outcome becomes its own story, the beginning and end of which are outside of me; I can't describe it at the beginning of the piece, but it comes out through imagination, trial and error, repetition, inspiration and strong emotion. Due to all the above, my works are completely unique, cannot be copied and I feel that I can stand behind each of my works. I stand on the side of failed paintings, but I paint a new painting over them, learning from my mistakes and developing as a master of better expression.
Thank you very much for the interview,
Sincerely,
Contemporary artist, Expressionist
Hanna Maarit Jauhiainen
Finland 2024
