Sanna Haimila: The Great Draft
Years ago when I first started to plan this exhibition, my intention was to make paintings. Big, colorful, juicy, canvas paintings. Whatever happened? On display are drawings instead. Large, grayscale drawings.
I got an artistic block. Suddenly, while painting, I lost the plot, and it all felt messy and unconnected. Painting felt laborious. Then I found carchoal! This black, crumbling, ”stick of hope” gave me the freedom to create a wonderland, a portrait, or a flower arrangement. I started to think of each drawing as just a draft, that was waiting to evolve into something greater.
This is also what painting feels like at its best. It feels liberating and each work is like a sketch before the next one. I wipe, draw, scratch and paint over. There will never be a perfect painting or a drawing no matter how hard I try.
In most of my works, the starting point has been a cell phone photo. I have been the model myself or have used some other intuitively selected image. Working is dialogue with one’s thoughts, mental images, and the artwork at hand. While working, I’ve been thinking about nostalgia, family, mother, adolescence, limitations of life, but one can also see my work as nice pictures, okay drawings, or as suitable elements for the space. As large drafts.
Thank you to the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Art Promotion Center Finland for the support I have received for this exhibition over the years!
Galleria Uusi KipinäKymintie 1, 15140 Lahti
Avoinna ti – pe 12-18 la – su 12-16 (ma suljettu)
Free entrance