These works, based on the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala, was made in 2009 during a residency at Saari Mansion AIR near Turku in Finland. (more available on my blog jeannehoffman.blogspot.com)
"What would happen if I went to stay in the Finnish countryside and take only a crochet needle, circular knitting needles, a blue marker, paper and one chisel?
....
I draw, walk, knit. I eat lingonberries and smoked salmon with hard dark rye bread that excercises the jaw muscles. Make sauna; draw; crochet. I learn to use kiitos, hyvaa and no nii in every conversation. I practice counting and naming the days of the week in Finnish. It becomes a mantra. Maanantai, Lauantai, Keskivikko... and so the weeks pass. I read the Kalevala because it is the annerversary of this epic creation myth. I use what is as hand - the language, the myths from the Kalevala, and wood from the sauna´s store room. It is birch. It smells wonderful when I cut into it. I draw every day, with the blue marker and the chisel. The drawn lines become a narrative. The drawings become a stages - they enact moments from my time here."(Extract from studio diary)
 Marjatta This piece (like most of the other experiments I did at Saari Mansion AIR) is loosely based on references to the Finnish creation epic, the Kalevala. In canto 50 Marjatta falls pregnant after eating a lingonberry.(Marja is Finnish for 'berry'). The piece is made from a log from in the wood shed of the sauna house.
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 Ilmarinen's wife In the Kalevala, Ilmarinen makes himself a wife out of silver and gold; then discards her because she is too cold.
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Black bird_1 Pine, tar, goldleaf. 2009. | Black bird_2 Pine, tar, goldleaf. 2009.
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