| My story
I was born on the 26th of December in 1960 in Kajaani with my twin sister Tuija. The time difference between us was 15 minutes. At six years old we started elementary school, and went through the Finnish school system so that I matriculated in 1979 from Linna Upper Secondary School in Kajaani. In a year I started my studies in Kankaanpää art school. There I studied for three years specializing in printmaking. During that time my teachers were among others Ossi Somma, Pertti Mäkinen, Lars Holmström and Liisa Saikkonen. After finishing art school I didn't feel ready as an artist, and so after a year I started to study art history at the Jyväskylä University. Kalevi and Kaarina Pöykkö and Jukka Ervamaa were some of my teachers. I lived in Jyväskylä until 1987, when I moved to Helsinki. I didn't graduate until 1992 because I had to work to earn my living. My graduate thesis was about three Finnish female printmakers. The turning point of my artistic career happened when I got the aspirant membership of the Association of Finnish Printmakers in 1991. Since that time I have been working as a printmaker. A couple of years later, in 1994, I got the ordinary membership of the Printmakers' Association and started to work in their Grafiris studio in Helsinki. I worked there until the studio was closed in 1997, and in the end took care of the place as a studio keeper. In the 1990s I spent quite a lot of time abroad. I lived several months in Florence, Italy and in Berlin, Germany. Back to Finland I came by the end of 1999. Since then I have been working at Arabia Printmakers' studio in Hämeentie Helsinki. At the same time I work as a project secretary in Artists' Association of Finland. I like both my activities and have so far managed to share my time between them. |