So here I am in Finland, in the middle of Covid winter with nothing much to do. Cross-country skiing isn't going to cut it (see the other post about ER...) Thanks to the school provided meals, the kids don't need me to make school lunches anymore. And because they can walk to school and most of their activities on their own, I'm not needed as a chauffeur either. Luckily I can stay busy being creative everywhere!
My first and easiest creation was right at the start of my "real" Finland stay (i.e. when I joined the rest of the family after packing up our house in CA) . I arrived just before Halloween. It is one my favorite holidays but it is relatively new to Finland. I was surprised that our neighbors were interested in celebrating Halloween and even decorating the common yard for it. Their iniative, not mine: we set up a fun night time treasure hunt, flashlight hide-an-seek and kind of an obstacle course/hunted house where kids had to walk through chopped up garbage bags and such in the dark. I am always a ready participant in not only decorating but dressing up myself! As part of my COVID "wardrobe" I had bought an Iron Maiden Eddie mask on a whim. I worked it into a makeshift costume with an Iron Maiden shirt from the only time I went to a show of theirs - which coincidentally was in Helsinki, Finland back in 2012. Little know fact: Finns are Iron Maiden's #1 fans in the world!
Winter brought about new fun creations. Way back when Pia and I first started dating and I took my first trip to Finland I was intrigued by the ice lanterns you see in the yards of many Finnish houses. Pia suggested we try making one. They are super easy as long as the weather outside is below freezing temperature (32F or 0C). You just put water in a bucket and let it freeze! You catch it after 8 hours or so; it will not be frozen solid and there is an air/water bubble in the middle. You then tip the frozen bucket upside down in the sink, take a hammer and gently tap out the frozen part releasing the inside bubble. Drain and you have a ice lantern! I made one and then heard you can use different dyes or decorations like flowers to create unique looks for your lantern. I tried many different ones and found beet juice to be one of the better dyes. I also tried different molds like milk cartons to make pillars and sculpture parts for my ice lanterns.
For Christmas Pia got me some pastels and charcoal so that I could get back into drawing. My first attempt was a self portrait. I hadn't done a self portrait in about 30 years (I used to do them all the time). It was really fun although I had some trouble with the eyes. I needed to try out the pastels and found a nice photo of the kids fishing from our summer quarantine cabin to try to replicate. The blending of the colors is always fun and this one was good with the sunset. The only problem is that pastels are incredibly messy! This pastel will remain framed in Finland in current boys' room to delight future renters.
Pia suggested I take advantage of a local art school, which is only 10 minutes walk away, and I found a sculpture class. I chose it because I never had the opportunity to take sculpture in college. The instructor is an amazing artist. No wonder: I found out he was trained in Florence for 12 years! He runs the studio/school with another great teacher that I am becoming friends with. Both are Finnish and most of the rest of the small class is Finnish but they try hard to repeat everything in English for me and another English speaker in the group. (You really can get pretty far in Finland speaking English...) I am doing well with sculpture although my teacher often tries to hold me back since I work a bit fast. He said that my fine art education definitely helps when doing sculpture. I plan to do one more class for charcoal and oil painting before our return to the States. I hope I'll learn much in that class as I have in sculpture!
p.s. I even got creative with my "Covid hair" by trying a mohawk.
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