Finland So Far

The fact is, Facebook kind of killed the blog. With Facebook I can haphazardly throw up a few pictures and comments and get an immediate response from my friends, whereas with the blog I have to edit and organize pictures and thoughts... too ambitious for me these days! But a few people have emailed suggesting I make a new blog post, so I will.

This is day 25 in Finland. Where I'm currently staying, in Fiskars, it's very pretty. It looks a lot like Vermont, with the addition of Aspen trees.

Nighttime view of the Fiskars Copper Smithy building.

Fallen leaves on a walk in Fiskars Village late this afternoon.

A rather Tolkienesque house encountered on the same walk.

Cool joinery at difficult angles.

I've made two trips so far into Helsinki, the first time by train (to purchase a colour printer to use here) and the second time by car, with my Danish neighbour/co-resident. The first trip cost me 48 euros ($72) in travel, even though it's only 100 km! The second trip we spent 33 euros for a day of parking. So, anyway, trips to Helsinki will need to be limited.


Two cool tin toys in a shop in Helsinki, depicting intense, serious Finnish skiing children.

Jugendstil building in Helsinki

About a week and a half ago I took the bus to Ekenäs, the town where I'm scheduled to do another residency in 2010. This is primarily a Swedish-speaking town, and not very far from Fiskars. The town is adorable, and I met the two current artists-in residence, a German sculptor and a Danish installation artist and painter, and hung out with them a bit. The residence house is huge and eccentric, a very old building on the parklike campus of a university of applied sciences. So, here are some pictures of Ekenas.

Novia University campus, location of the next residency house in Ekenas.

Awesome house in Ekenas.

Residency house of Pro Artibus, Ekenas.

Residency house.

Pro Artibus Art Center, Ekenas.

Cool row houses in Ekenas.

Another nice house in Ekenas.