MIRA KANKAANRANTA: EVENTUALLY I WILL BECOME A BIRD

31.1.-19.2. 2023

I observe the surrounding landscape and the small details of nature. I strongly experience the different shades of heaven and earth, the shapes of the branches, the splendor of flowers and the movement of birds. Perceptions and sensations go through a process inside the head and in some form move to paintings. In my paintings, natural elements and vegetation are intertwined with human figures so that they can no longer be separated from each other.

My painting is influenced by external observations of the world, but especially by my own inner emotional world. When I start painting, I don't know what's going to come out of it. Through work, I'm looking for something essential that I don't yet know exists. I add paint and remove, add and cover for so long that I have found something important and arresting for myself and yet I may still not know what that something is.

I reflect on the transience of man, the ephemerality, vulnerability and incompleteness of things. I think about death, conflict, balance, and assimilation into the environment. I thought about flowers, snakes and birds.

Mira Kankaanranta (b. 1983) is a visual artist from Tornio who lives and works in Salo, Teijo village. She graduated as a visual artist from Saimaa University of Applied Sciences in 2012. He has had several solo and joint exhibitions around Finland. His works are in the collections of the State Art Commission, the City of Rovaniemi and the Aine Art Museum.